Reply #4: It will depend on the rules of civil procedure

[pipoman]

in AZ. In my state the injured party (the parents) could sue. They would name everyone even remotely involved as respondents in the case. The courts or jury would first determine if there was negligence. Then they would determine the percent of negligence each party is responsible for. It happens often that the petitioners are determined to share in the responsibility too, a percentage is also determined for their responsibility. The petitioner's responsibility would be subtracted from the final award amount.

A waiver cannot be made to absolve negligence. It may have an impact if everything worked as it was supposed to but an accident still occurred, in this case it appears there was actual negligence. Also, those 'holding themselves out as experts' are generally held to a higher standard than non-experts. Experts are expected to use educated judgment. The fact that the experts warned that the Uzi was unsuitable for a child yet let the father talk them into allowing the child to shoot the gun is really worse for the organizers than the father IMHO. It would be like a roller coaster operator allowing a child who was too short onto the ride because the mother complained, then the child was injured. You could, in most cases complain until you are blue, if the child isn't tall enough he isn't getting on the roller coaster.

I believe the family does have a case. It certainly would be no fun. No civil case is fun unless you are an outsider looking in. Court proceedings, depositions, interrogatories, missed work, etc...been there, done that, I won, but it felt like I lost by the time it was over...