An Alameda County, California jury today dismissed a lawsuit filed against the firearms manufacturer Beretta U.S.A. Corp. (Dix v. Beretta U.S.A. Corp.), which was sponsored in part by Handgun Control, Inc. The suit involved the 1994 shooting of fourteen year old Kenzo Dix by a fifteen year old friend in Alameda County, California. Dix was killed when his friend took a Beretta handgun, which was kept loaded and unlocked by the friend's father in an open camera bag, pointed the gun at Kenzo Dix, disengaged the safety lever and pulled the trigger, firing the weapon.

      The suit, which was also brought by the parents of the deceased youth, alleged that the firearm in question should have had a device which warned that the firing chamber was loaded. Beretta U.S.A. Corp. defended by pointing out that the firearm in question had such a device and that the accident occurred because of the failure of the shooter and his father to follow basic safety instructions included with the pistol.

      The suit further alleged that Beretta should have built a lock into the firearm in question so that only an authorized person could use the gun.

      "There is no gun made that cannot be locked," commented Jeff Reh, General Counsel for Beretta U.S.A. "The parent who owned the firearm in question knew that trigger locks and lockable gun cases exist and he chose not to use one. He purposefully left the gun loaded and available to his son. His son knew that he should never point a firearm at another person. He knew that he should not disengage the safety on the gun unless he intended to shoot it. He knew that he should never touch the trigger unless he intended to shoot the gun. He knew how to pull back on the slide of the pistol and check to make sure that the chamber was unloaded. He knew all of these things but did not do them. His carelessness and that of his father led to the death of Kenzo Dix, not the design of the pistol."

      In testimony, Beretta U.S.A. also questioned whether locks built into firearms might actually prove dangerous by encouraging parents to leave loaded guns where they are accessible to children, believing that the gun was now "childproof."

      "Beretta U.S.A is concerned about the safety of using internal locks for storage of guns around children," Reh noted. "The internal locks that we have seen are not obviously 'locked' or 'unlocked'. What if the parent loads the gun but does not realize they have not activated the lock? We believe it is safer to use external locks which are obviously on the gun. We also state in our product manual that guns be stored unloaded and inaccessible to children, with the ammunition stored in a separate location."

      Beretta U.S.A. also cited National Institute of Justice statistics which show that the firearm fatal accident rate in the U.S. is at its lowest point since 1903 and has declined 36 percent in the past 15 years. Most accidents which have occurred include hunting accidents and other shootings which could not be prevented by gun locks.

      Beretta U.S.A. also expressed concern that locking mechanisms built into a firearm might inadvertently prevent use of a firearm in a life-threatening situation. "Even the police, for whom some have attempted to develop these devices, have rejected them for fear that the mechanism will mistakenly prevent use of a firearm in an emergency," Reh said. "Any child's death is a horrendous tragedy. What we are trying to do is avoid more childhood accidents caused by ill-conceived locking mechanisms, as well as maintain the lifesaving use of a firearm by an adult in an emergency."

      Beretta was one of several firearms manufacturers who agreed last year to begin shipping security devices with their products by the end of 1998. On October 29, 1998, Beretta signed a contract with Masterlock to provide a cable lock for Beretta firearms which would require that the gun be unloaded in order for the lock to be applied.

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