Ah well there in lies one of the
Myths of the American Consumer...,
Folks seem to think that American barrel makers are afraid of being sued out of business, and thus carry insurance, when a lot if not all, are not afraid of a lawsuit and don't carry insurance, because...,
They are situated in states with civil laws that do not allow the plaintiff to go after the "officers of the corporation" if the corporation does not have the assets to meet the dollar amount in a civil judgement. The companies are incorporated, and they "lease" the buildings, land, and machinery from a person, so they only actually own as a corporation, several dozen ( perhaps maybe a hundred or so) barrels in various stages of completion. Sue them, win, and you get a pile of barrels most of which are not yet finished..., the company folds, reincorporates under a new name (same company officers), and returns to business. Gone on Friday, back again on Monday. So the Nicholas J. Newbie Rifle Barrel Company dies, and the Nicholas John Newbie rifle barrel company is born. If it happens again, the procedure is repeated, but the new company is the N. J. Newbie Rifle Barrel Company, and so on and so on...,
So with the venders of the India origin guns, they are the importers, and have very little assets just as the above rifle makers do. So in my case I'd have to sue in Canada, in a Canadian court, since all of my India origin muskets are out of Canada. MVTC or Veteran Arms in America would probably fold, if they didn't convince the court the at fault party was in India in Udaipur or Sikligar, etc. and you'd have to file suit in India, or in Italy if it was a Pedersoli arm that burst.
CVA ordered barrels and rifles for guns to
their specs, so that was a different matter, altogether, as they owned the designs as well as importing the parts.
CVA had a voluntary recall, nothing that was decided in court, remember. That was to protect the brand name.
In the case of the fictional barrel company above, the only real repercussion would be if folks spread the word that anything with the "Newbie" name was junk..., but what would stop them from re-incorporation under the name of say.., Mr. Newbie's daughter under her married name, and if Mr. Newbie was no longer one of the corporate officers, how would anybody know the connection?
It's funny too that you read folks who may right something akin to,
"I'd never even be on the range when one o' them Indian guns is being used"..., when if they took a few minutes and looked up barrel failures and cylinder failures on YouTube, they'd fine NONE that are India origin muskets, and at least 13 non-Indian BP guns that exploded from operator error (mostly smokeless powder in a BP gun)
You more than double the gun failures if you throw in modern American made guns, that explode from barrel obstructions or FUBAR handloads...
But they are fine running the risk of some yahoo next to them on the range with that potential accident,...…
LD