Brandon Maxfield Who Took Down the "Ring of Fire" Gun Companies

 Brandon Maxfield with his mother, Sue Stansberry, in January. He was badly injured when shot with a gun made by Bryco Arms. (Robin Abcarian /Los Angeles Times / January 18, 2013)

LA Times

We've heard a lot in this post-Newtown moment about how California leads the nation in gun laws. But you probably haven't heard the unlikely story of Brandon Maxfield, a quadriplegic 26-year-old who helped drive a notorious segment of California's gun industry toward extinction.

"It wouldn't have happened without him," said Garen Wintemute, a UC Davis professor of emergency medicine whose anti-gun advocacy has made him a firearms industry nemesis.

In 1994, at the age of 7, Brandon was accidentally shot through the neck with a .380-caliber semiautomatic pistol. The pistol belonged to Brandon's parents, who kept it in an unlocked drawer.

A 12-year-old relative had found it, and a 20-year-old family friend, who was watching the kids for Brandon's mother, tried to unload it. The gun discharged, grievously wounding Brandon, who was not expected to live.

Of course you should be able to sue the gun manufacturers, which the gun-rights fanatics seem to question, but in cases of gun negligence and failure to store the gun secureley, the person or persons responsible should not go unpunished. That's what one strike you're out means.

In this case the whole family seems to have become gun control advocates, but that's not usually the case.  People who prove themselves incapable of handling guns safely and are permitted to continue owning them are a danger to themselves and others.

What's your opinion?  Please leave a comment.