Victim’s Allies Raise Bid for Gun Maker

Lawyers representing a teenager left quadriplegic by an accidental shooting with a Saturday night special said Thursday that enough money had been raised to make a bid for the Orange County-based maker of the gun that maimed him.

A bid of $175,000 is expected to be submitted today in a Florida bankruptcy court on behalf of Brandon Maxfield, now 17, who wants to permanently shut down Bryco Arms in Costa Mesa.

Brandon, a Mendocino County resident, was 7 when he was shot in 1994 by a baby-sitter who was trying to unload the .380-caliber weapon. Because of the gun’s design, its safety mechanism had to be released to unload the round in the semiautomatic’s chamber.

The company filed for bankruptcy protection after a jury last year awarded Brandon $51 million in compensatory damages as a result of the shooting. Bryco, company founder Bruce Jennings and his Nevada-based distribution company were ordered to pay $24 million of that judgment, the largest award in a product liability case involving a gun manufacturer.

Brandon’s offer trumps an offer of $150,000 submitted by Bryco’s former plant manager, who said he planned to continue to manufacture guns.

Bryco is one of the last in a group of Southern California companies that once produced millions of inexpensive guns known as Saturday night specials.

Bryco stopped making guns this year, according to court documents, and most of its staff has been laid off, including Paul Jimenez, the plant manager.

Brandon’s bid could spell the end of the company, said Richard Ruggieri, an attorney who represented Brandon in the civil suit.

“The judge could just accept our bid or he could set a hearing and offer the opportunity for other people to bid against it,” Ruggieri said.

Brandon’s offer was submitted on behalf of Brandon’s Arms, a nonprofit group set up by the teen and his attorneys expressly to buy the company and put it out of business.

It comes several days before the expiration of a deadline that would have placed the company in the hands of the former plant manager.

Jimenez’s offer was accepted by U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Jerry A. Funk last month. But because he later ruled that prior notice of the sale was inadequate, he gave creditors and other interested parties 20 days to submit objections to the sale.

The delay gave Brandon’s Arms more time to raise the $175,000, the minimum required to counter Jimenez’s offer.

Jimenez, who had said he was using his savings to buy Bryco, could counter the Brandon’s Arms offer with a higher one.

Brandon’s Arms, which had solicited donations through an Internet campaign, recently received three large anonymous donations, which brought the nonprofit to the target amount.

“People from all over the world have donated” to Brandon’s Arms, Ruggieri said.

Although Brandon so far has received $8.75 million, much of it is earmarked for lawyers’ fees and other expenses. The balance, Ruggieri said, is in a trust earmarked for Brandon’s medical and school expenses.