Remington to fix 2.5 million rifles following death of Montana boy

Associated Press

MADISON, N.C. — The Remington Arms Co. is offering to modify a bolt lock on some 2.5 million rifles following the accidental shooting death of a 9-year-old Montana boy, the company said Wednesday.

The modification program is being offered to the owners of all the Remington bolt-action rifles manufactured before 1982.

Remington says the program was initiated in part as a response to the death of Gus Barber, who was accidentally shot by his mother in October 2000 as she was unloading her Remington 700 bolt-action rifle.

The Barber family, of Manhattan, Mont., said the presence of a bolt-lock mechanism required Barbara Barber to release the safety in order to open the bolt to eject the chambered round. Immediately upon releasing the safety, the rifle suddenly and unexpectedly discharged.

The trigger was not pulled or even touched, but instead the rifle fired on safety release, the family said.

"The gun went off. My finger was nowhere near the trigger," Barbara Barber said in an interview last year.

The Barbers began talking to neighbors and learned the same thing had happened to dozens of other rifle owners.

Since his son’s death, Richard Barber has worked to educate the public about the Remington 700’s history and tendency to discharge accidentally.

"I did this as a memorial to my son," Barber said Wednesday. "I could not sit back and let this happen to anybody else. … Ultimately, I did this for people I don’t know."

Remington is offering to remove the bolts and clean and inspect the rifles for $20 each. The rifles will be returned with a $20 coupon toward the purchase of Remington products, the company said on its Web site.

A similar program has been in effect in Montana since last fall, and Remington ran advertisements on local radio stations. On Wednesday the company announced the expansion of the program nationwide.