But critics fear the company's continued insistence that the guns are safe will compromise the settlement, potentially leaving millions of defective guns in the public's hands.
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The company called the CNBC program "careless reporting."įive years later and nearly 70 years after the firing mechanism at the heart of the rifle was invented, Remington has announced it wants to put the matter in the past once and for all by offering to replace the triggers.
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Remington has always maintained that every accident was the result of user errors such as poor maintenance or improper gun handling, and claimed no expert from inside or outside of the company has ever been able to duplicate the problem on an unaltered gun. At least two dozen deaths and hundreds of injuries have allegedly been linked to inadvertent firings of the gun. The 2010 documentary " Remington Under Fire: A CNBC Investigation" examined allegations that for decades, Remington covered up a deadly design defect in its signature product. "The Court cannot conceive that an owner of an allegedly defective firearm would not seek the remedy being provided," Smith wrote.īut even now, the company insists the Model 700 - the most popular bolt-action rifle in the world - is safe. The judge ordered both sides to come up with a better plan to notify the public. As of mid-August, only 2,327 claims had been filed since the tentative agreement was first publicized in May. District Judge Ortrie Smith cited a "quite low" initial response to the settlement offer. A hearing had been scheduled for Monday, but within hours after this report was first published, the judge postponed it indefinitely. The documents, obtained exclusively by CNBC, come to light as the company and plaintiffs' attorneys seek final court approval of a landmark class-action settlement in which Remington has agreed to replace the triggers in as many as 7.5 million guns. The apparent fear: changing the design would be seen as an admission of guilt. Secret documents from inside the nation's oldest gun manufacturer show corporate attorneys heavily involved in multiple attempts by Remington engineers to develop a safer rifle. Many of those lawsuits blamed Remington for serious injuries, as well as multiple deaths. It would be another 17 years, thousands more complaints and about 100 more lawsuits before Remington would finally put a new fire control for the Model 700 on the market. It would need new safety features, the notes say, including a design that keeps debris from getting inside, and a way to keep customers from making dangerous, do-it-yourself adjustments. Topping the agenda, according to notes by engineer James Hutton: coming up with a new firing mechanism that would allow the company to continue defending the old one.
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So on a chilly March day at Remington's main plant in Ilion, New York, the engineers met with the lawyers. But first, they had to get it past the legal department.
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The engineers set out to design a new version, better than the original. But there were also complaints - even lawsuits - about the guns going off without the trigger being pulled. The top-selling product at the Remington Arms Co., the Model 700 rifle, was successful - practically beloved. It was the kind of challenge that engineers live for and dread all at once.