You know, I've seen this addressed on different forums.  First off I feel sorry for the man over the loss of his thumb.  In days of old when a kingdom fell, oftimes the king was kept as a trophy slave, to bring out and show him off to other visiting notoriety.  The custom then was to execute the heirs (the king's sons) in front of his face and then cut off  "the great toes (big toes) and thumbs" of those kings.  Without a thumb, the hand becomes useless for anything but scratching or maybe a little nose picking.  Without a big toe the deposed king could not run, but only stumble, standing was even a problem because of the value of the big toe for simple balance while standing.  By removing these four basic appendages the king was nothing but a laughing stock and an example to others to "stay in line."

    This being said, while it is sad to see him lose a thumb………HE IS AN IDIOT!  What kind of unorthodox grip was he using to even get his thumb up to the area of where the cylinder meets the barrel.  I have held this behemoth of a pistol, but never fired one.  This gun is between $1500 and $2000 depending on what kind of bells and whistles you want on this monster.  To be quite honest, there are but a only a very few game animals that this gun is even necessary for and most of those are not native to the United States of America.  His lawsuit I find utterly repulsive due to the fact that it was his own stupidity that brought this tragedy upon him. 

The biggest handgun I've ever owned that might be necessary in North America was a 7-1/2inch Freedom Arms Model 83 Premier Grade in a .454 Casull.  I remember shooting a nice white tail buck with one of my friends watching from a nearby blind.  His remark was, "that's the first time I've seen a deer picked up, body slammed, and field dressed all at the same time." 

I am not trying to control this man's right to own this or any other handgun.  One of the funniest remarks I have heard came from an individual while I was visiting Bud's Gun Shop (budsgunshop.com).  "It's  a shame that the gun didn't go off between his legs, if that type of stupidity can be passed along genetically we'd have been a whole lot farther ahead!"  While harsh, I think the real tragedy here is that Smith & Wesson might make this guy an offer to settle before court simply to keep it out of the court system where attorney fees and court cost don't come cheap.  In a perfect world, I'd like to see them fight him and dog stomp him back to the stone age, but given our twisted judicial system they could lose.

What do you think?