Weather | Sports | Forums | Comics | Classifieds | Calendar | Movies
November 23, 2002
WEST PALM BEACH -- The weapon was so small and light that Pam Grunow doubts her husband knew he was staring into the barrel of a loaded pistol.
Nathaniel Brazill had hidden the gun in his jeans shorts pocket before he knocked at the classroom door of Barry Grunow, his favorite teacher. The 13-year-old raised the silver pistol and fired when Grunow wouldn't allow him to speak to two girls in his class. It was the final day of school in May 2000.
"It looks like a toy, and I can't help but wonder if Barry knew that was a real gun that was pointed at his face that day," Pam Grunow said Friday. "Because he died with a smile on his face. And I know he would have been brave if he knew, but I don't think he would have been smiling."
The .25-caliber handgun was the centerpiece of a six-week trial that ended last week with a landmark $1.2-million judgment against gun distributor Valor Corp.
After remaining silent through the trial and through much of the 21/2 years since her husband's death, Pam Grunow spoke Friday about her reasons for going after the Raven handgun, the type of weapon known on the streets as a "Saturday night special."
The 38-year-old mother of two didn't want the attention that would follow a second trial. She sat out much of Brazill's criminal trial last year, trying to sidestep the torrent of media attention.
She said she agreed to the civil lawsuit because her husband's parents wanted it. Later, they changed their minds, but she said she had learned too much about the gun to drop her claim for $75-million -- an amount she believes was necessary to make gun companies take notice.
"That's how you make change in our society. There's no other way to do it," Grunow said. "I'd like to see us seriously consider the value of this particular weapon in circulation."
Grunow pointed to national statistics from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms that show the gun is overwhelmingly used by juveniles and criminals. She said it's cheaply made, the ID number is easily removed, it's easy to conceal and so small it doesn't look real.
"It's sold by the millions. Our streets are saturated with it," she said.
Her attorneys argued throughout the trial that the gun has no valid purpose because it is too unreliable for collectors, sport shooters, law enforcement officers, the military or to be used for self-defense.
Valor attorneys said the gun is legitimately used by those who want to protect themselves. They said the blame for Barry Grunow's death belongs with Brazill, Lake Worth Middle School and Elmore McCray, the family friend who stored the gun next to bullets in an unlocked dresser drawer where Brazill found it.
A jury of six women said Pam Grunow deserved $24-million but largely sided with the defense, assigning half the blame to McCray and 45 percent to the Palm Beach County School Board for allowing Brazill onto campus.
But they decided Valor should take 5 percent of the blame and pay Grunow $1.2-million -- providing the first such judgment in the nation against a gun company.
Because the School Board and McCray were not defendants, they won't pay their share of the judgment.
Grunow's attorneys are asking the judge to make Valor pay the entire $24-million judgment. Valor attorneys also are appealing.
Grunow said she hopes the large judgment makes insurance companies reconsider providing insurance to gun companies who sell Saturday night specials so they are taken off the market.
She thinks Brazill, who was found guilty of second-degree murder and sentenced to 28 years in prison, needed to be held responsible, just as she teaches her children to take responsibility for their actions.
She met her husband when both were 19 and students at a community college. They married eight years later and wanted to live and teach in the same community, so they could set an example for their students outside of school.
Grunow now stays home to care for their children, Samuel, 8, and Lee-Anne, 3.
She had a jeweler meld the couple's wedding rings into one, and she wears the hand-carved gold ring on her left hand. She said that although she feels burdened and sad with all the legal proceedings, she's had little time to grieve.
"This is something we never could have imagined," she said. "We had very simple plans, but they were sweet."