PINELLAS COUNTY, Fla. — The Pinellas County Sheriff’s Office is suing a local gun manufacturer, claiming hundreds of AR-15 rifles purchased for deputies aren’t reliable enough to do the job.
The sheriff initially asked for a refund, but that didn’t happen, so now he’s taking this firearm feud to court.
“I don’t relish having to go through the lawsuit process, but if we have to, we will,” Gualtieri said last month.
The sheriff promised he would sue Odessa-based Adams Arms if the gun manufacturer didn’t give them a refund for more than 300 AR-15s, which the department had purchased since 2014.
This week the sheriff made good on that threat.
“I’m not going to have deputy sheriffs out there. They’re supposed to have guns to protect themselves...(but some of the guns) don’t shoot and are incapable of being fixed in the field,” the sheriff said.
Gualtieri says he originally liked the idea of purchasing the Adams Arms AR-15‘s because the company is local, it uses a piston rather than gas technology for a firing mechanism and the price was right.
But, the sheriff says problems started to surface almost immediately: Trigger troubles; weapons switching from semi-automatic to fully automatic on their own.
And most recently, he said an incident on the gun range saw a weapon failing to fire at all.
“The thing was in essence, useless. It was like a stick or a club,” Gualtieri said. “There’s nothing you could do. It wasn’t gonna fire a bullet and that’s a problem."
Adams Arms CEO Jason East tells 10News the incidents cited by the sheriff’s office were isolated and not necessarily their fault.
East says some of the trigger issues were traced back to deputies who had purchased after-market ammunition clips made for another manufacturer’s AR-15s.
As for the weapon that didn’t fire, East says the part that caused that problem wasn’t manufactured by them.
Still, he says, they took the weapon apart, made an adjustment by essentially tightening a screw and then the weapon worked correctly.
“Requesting a refund on rifles that have served the department dutifully is not something we would entertain at this time," East said when asked about the sheriff’s demands.
The sheriff’s office has since replaced the 300 AR-15’s by using one of the department’s other suppliers. Although the lawsuit only specifies an amount greater than $15,000, Gualtieri has already said the rifles are worth about $300,000.
The sheriff is demanding attorney’s fees plus the cost of ammunition and re-fitting the new weapons. He says taxpayers wouldn't have been left with expenses had the Adams Arms weapons worked to their satisfaction.
“Pull the trigger and it didn’t go 'bang.' And that’s a big problem,” Gualtieri said. “That’s an officer safety issue. It’s a public safety issue.”
According to the lawsuit, Adams Arms said it says it’s working on a rigorous process to inspect, test and verify all of the firearms they provided the sheriff’s office over the last few years.
East didn’t comment further about the allegations but said the company is disappointed by the sheriff’s decision to file suit.
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