Boy's parents fight BB gun deal with U.S.

Pennsylvania - New Jersey - New York - Nationwide

Joseph A. Slobodzian
Inquirer Staff Writer
APRIL 29, 2004

The parents of a Bucks County teenager who died after he was shot with a BB gun asked a federal judge yesterday to set aside a settlement between the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission and Daisy Manufacturing Co. that does not require the recall of 7.5 million high-powered BB guns.

The lawsuit filed in federal court in Philadelphia by Jerome 3. and Rebecca G. Mahoney calls the settlement "toothless" and questions the propriety of how it was reached.
The settlement was approved in November over the objections of the administrative law judge handling the complaint against Daisy. Before the settlement was reached, officials of Daisy, based in Rogers, Ark., privately briefed two commission officials about their company's "precarious financial condition."

Instead of recalling 7.5 million BB guns of the type involved in the shooting of 16-year-old Tucker Mahoney - requested in the original complaint from commission lawyers - the settlement requires Daisy to conduct a $1.5 million education campaign similar to one the company already has.

Neither the commission nor Daisy commented on the suit.

Commission lawyers initiated the complaint, demanding the recall of Daisy models 880 and 856 Powerline Airguns in 2001 after the Mahoneys settled their suit against the company for $18 million.

The law firm that represented the Mahoneys turned over to the federal agency documents obtained in pretrial discovery supporting the suit's claim that BBs can lodge in the magazine of a gun that appears empty. The BBs can shake loose and discharge unexpectedly, even after a series of "dry firings."

The commission complaint cited 15 deaths and 171 serious injuries caused by the alleged defect in the air guns, about 80 percent of which involved children.