Remington To Repair Rifles

Rich Barber has not stopped trying to get Remington to fix its rifles since Oct. 23, 2000. On that day, his 9-year-old son Gus was shot to death in a hunting accident as his mother was unloading her Remington.

"The gun went off. My finger was nowhere near the trigger," said Barbara Barber.

They raced toward the hospital.

"He asked to have his boots removed. He told his mother he was having a hard time breathing and was getting pale and I knew it was getting bad at that point," said Rich.

Gus died at the hospital and the Barbers began an effort to get the Remington Arms Company to do something it had not done in the 50 years it had been producing this rifle: fix them.

They started asking neighbors in Montana and soon learned the same thing had happened to dozens of others.

"Took off the safety and the gun discharged," said Sheriff T. Larsen.

"I hit on the safety and it went off," said Harvey Perez.

The Barbers came to CBS Evening News with their story, reported by Jim Stewart last year.

In an unprecedented action, Remington announced Wednesday it will modify the bolt lock of all bolt action rifles made before 1982 - some 2.5 million rifles.

And Remington says it has taken this action in part as a response to Gus Barber's death. The company said, "The Barber family knows it has our deepest sympathy."

Rich Barber said Wednesday that this was his goal all along, to make a difference for others, in Gus' memory.