A Virginia man is filing a lawsuit against Kel-Tec and ProMag Ind. after the failure of a ProMag vertical foregrip led to an accident that resulted in the loss of most of his hand:

It appears that their client was shooting a Kel-Tec KSG equipped with a ProMag “Archangel” polymer forward grip when tragedy occurred.

Keep in mind the KSG is a bullpup 12 gauge, with a total length of only 26 inches.

“The properly installed forward grip slid off the gun rail while the user was pumping the gun, resulting in the user shooting off part of his hand,” the attorney wrote on a lawyers-only site.

The attorney was seeking advice and technical experts for the lawsuit. A friend saw the post and sent it to me.

A contact wound with a 12 gauge is devastating. There’s no coming back from something like that.

The attorney cites the compact nature of the KSG, and the fact there is nothing on the rail to “prevent the grip from sliding off.”

They also noted alleged problems with the forward grip: “Nothing but a polymer nipple secures this grip to the rail — this nipple partially sheared off during first use.”

The image in the article (and the header image for this article) shows a KSG equipped with a Magpul VFG, unlike that of the Archangel in that it is retained by two Allen screws. The Archangel, shown below, has only a polymer nipple for retention. The circumstances of the accident are unclear, but the primary cause may well have been equipment failure.

Image source: OpticsPlanet.com

Short-barreled weapons are often been designed or retrofitted with stops to prevent this sort of accident. Stay safe, everyone.

Thanks to Nick for the tip.

Note from Phil: Just to verify that this particular attorney was indeed seeking individuals to testify on their behalf. I actually recieved an email from a para-legal outlining what the attorney was looking for from a potential “expert”. Knowing these lawsuits can run on for years I didn’t respond to the inquiry. I don’t consider myself an expert on the KSG anyway!