Warning: That rifle may be loaded
Sunday, April 6th 2008, 4:00 AM
A Brooklyn rifle manufacturer has asked arms dealers nationwide to make extra safety inspections after discovering it accidentally shipped four guns loaded with live ammunition.
Henry Repeating Arms, a maker of lever-action rifles like ones used in the 1860s and 1870s, said inventory checks revealed no other loaded weapons.
“We would never want anybody to get hurt,” Anthony Imperato, the Park Slope company’s president, said.
As a rule, firearms are distributed unloaded to prevent potentially deadly accidents.
Every gun made by Henry Arms is test-fired before it is sold, a common practice in the industry. The rifles are then supposed to be checked to make sure no rounds remain, but Imperato said an error allowed a few guns to be distributed still loaded for the test-firing procedure.