Bee investigation prompts nail-gun maker to halt production

A small North Carolina company says it will stop making nail guns equipped with automatic firing systems this fall to avoid worker injuries and prevent accidental deaths.

Jim Brown of Amigo Tools & Fasteners Inc. of Durham said he had no idea that thousands of U.S. workers and do-it-yourselfers are being hurt – some even killed – by the tools until he learned about it from The Sacramento Bee.

"I am shocked by the information The Bee has and I believe in doing what's right," Brown said. "I will change my tools knowing that they can kill people. The last thing I want is to have some kid left without a father."

"I've got a 2 1/2-year-old," he added. "I don't want anybody's suffering on my hands."

Earlier this month, The Bee reported that a nail had claimed the life of Manuel Murillo, 30, a father of three who accidentally shot himself in the heart while working in a Sierra cabin in 2006.

Roseville-born Damon Huhtala, 26, died in 2007 after he tripped and suffered a nail gun blast to his brain while working in Idaho.

Both deaths are part of a growing number of injuries across California and the nation, and both involved the use of automatic or "contact trip" nail guns, The Bee reported.

Amigo Tools makes a large, air-fired nail gun called the Amigo 8320 strip nailer. It looks and operates like the Hitachi NR83A2 framing nail gun, a leading brand and model with similar power and speed.

The Bee investigation found that the Hitachi NR83A models were implicated in more serious workplace injuries reported in California than any other brand or model.

During the past 36 months, Brown said he has sold 11,000 Amigos in 37 states, mostly to construction professionals, without a single injury claim or lawsuit. But he wants to keep it that way.

Until now, Brown had assumed his customers were trained and knowledgeable professionals who operated the tools safely and instructed their workers accordingly.

Following a conversation with a Bee reporter, though, Brown said he visited several work sites and was disturbed by what he saw: unskilled, untrained workers using big nail guns with little understanding of the tools' hazards.

In contact mode, once the trigger is depressed, the nail gun will fire whenever its muzzle makes contact with a surface. Research and The Bee's investigation have found that most nail gun injuries involve tools equipped with this system.

Workers often carry the nail gun by its trigger – where its center of gravity is located – leaving the tool perpetually ready to fire into anything, or anyone.

A safer sequential firing system requires the user to first press the nail gun's nose against a target, then pull the trigger – in that sequence.

Amigo Tools is trying to secure the rights to a rival company's sequential nail gun patent, Brown said. He'll design his own if need be, he said, adding, "Our goal is to have it ready by November, but it could be sooner."

Brown dismissed the common perception that sequential nail guns are slower than the automatic guns, making them less appealing to house framers and piece workers. "The difference in speed," he said, "is almost not measurable."

About the writer:

• Call The Bee's Andrew McIntosh, (916) 321-1215.