Jimenez 9 mm - question

Question
My husband bought this gun only a few months ago from a pawn shop. We found out that it is a very UNSAFE weapon, and right now the gun is jammed so it wont fire. My husband wants to fix it, but I want to know if there is any legal recourse we can take against the pawn shop for buying a gun that wasnt supposed to have been made after 2005, and that has been proven to cause injuries. He fired the weapon only a handfull of times before it locked up. Thank you

Answer
Brittney,

I would recommend that you get rid of the gun through sale or some other means.  As you have discovered, those guns are not particularly safe, not particularly accurate or reliable.  If your husband wants a gun for protection, he would be best to stick with a reputable manufacturer, and spend between $300-600.  If he is unwilling to do that, pepper spray or a knife would be a more reliable self-defense tool than that gun.

I am not a lawyer, but I think it would be a waste of your time and money to try to sue the pawn shop.  The pawn shop must have had an FFL to sell the gun, but pawn shops are not gun shops, and would ordinarily have no knowledge of items they sell (as a parallel, you might think of a pawn shop selling a used child safety seat - it would be up to you, the buyer, to determine if it met current standards).

To have I case, I believe you would have the burden of proving that: 1) the gun not only is no longer manufactured, but all models have been recalled (I do not believe they have been), 2)the pawn shop knew, or should have known that the gun was not safe.

You would actually probably have more success going after Jimenez, if there are any assets left to the company.  But even then, you would have to show specific damages.  That the gun jammed does has not caused you damage.  If your husband was attacked, and because the gun jammed, he was severely injured, the limit of liability would likely be to the cost of the malfunctioning gun.

I believe that trying to bring legal action would cost you more in resources and grief then you have already spent.  I would get rid of the gun, and chalk the cost up to the price of learning three things:  1) If you are going to own a gun, own one by a reputable maker, 2) you get what you pay for, and 3) don't buy guns at a pawn shop.  Go to a gun shop.