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Court Finds Ruger Not Liable for "Straw Purchase" Sale of Pistol by Retailer

Sturm, Ruger & Company, Inc. (NYSE: RGR), the nation's largest firearms manufacturer, announced that on September 30, 2004, Judge Irene Berger granted summary judgment to Sturm, Ruger & Co., Inc. in a case which sought to hold it liable for the resale of a pistol by a retail firearms dealer to a purchaser who delivered the pistol to an unauthorized user (David Lemongello, et al. v. Will's Company, Inc., et al., Civil Action No. 02-C-2952, Circuit Court Kanawha County, West Virginia).

The firearm involved in this case was originally sold by Sturm, Ruger to a federally licensed independent wholesale distributor, as is the Company's normal business practice. It was then resold by the distributor to a federally licensed retail firearms dealer, who sold it lawfully to an authorized West Virginia resident. After a series of subsequent transactions involving the pistol, it was used by a criminal in New Jersey to injure the plaintiffs.

The court found that Sturm, Ruger had breached no legal duty to any of the plaintiffs, and further held that nothing Ruger did or failed to do in its sales policy was either a direct or an indirect cause of plaintiff's injuries.