Firearms Insurance Agent Blog

What You Should Know About Product Liability and Firearms

If your business owns, sells, and/or manufactures firearms, then you automatically run the risk of being sued for product liability or negligence. No matter how careful you are, there is always the chance of something going wrong, causing a consumer to take legal action against you as a result. This is why you should always be informed concerning the laws surrounding product liability and firearms.

Defective product

If a consumer is injured as a result of a defective product, then they can sue under state and/or federal product liability law. There are three ways that a firearm can be deemed defective, namely if it has:

Inadequate instructions or warnings

If there is a potential risk involved with a product, then manufacturers must have adequate instructions or warnings in order to inform the consumer of that risk. If a product lacks those instructions or warnings, then you are open to liability.

A manufacturing defect

This does not involve the design or marketing of the product, but rather how it is manufactured. In other words, a gun can be found defective if a mistake occurred during production.

A design defect

Finally, if a product is designed in a way that could cause injury or harm, then the firearm is found defective. This is especially the case if there was an another way to design a firearm that would reduce the risk of injury.

Negligence

A negligence claim is filed if an injury or death occurred as a result of a person or business failed in their duty to protect an individual from harm as a result of their own negligence. This could include loading a weapon without the safety on, selling a weapon without doing a background check, or improperly storing your guns.

What can I do?

The best way to protect yourself from a lawsuit is through product liability insurance. Product liability insurance can protect your business if one of your products ever causes injury or property damage to an individual. This is often more effective than general liability insurance, as general liability only covers the most basic insurance claims.

If you don’t have product liability insurance already, you should consider looking into it right away. Firearms Insurance Agent can provide you with additional information on product liability insurance if you’d like to find out more about it. Call us at 816-229-4450 to speak with someone about how it works.