What they showed us was out of context footage of one rifle exhibiting bad behavior. What do I mean by out of context? We don't know the history of that rifle. While you equate the rifle, being military issue, with cleanliness and newness, I, having served in the military, equate it with oldness, abuse and lots of disassembly/reassembly by grunts and armorers with questionable gunsmithing skills.
True statement, we don't know the history of that gun. However, there DO appear to be documented cases of rifles firing when the safety lever is flipped. A similar thread in Rifle Country has a number of personal experiences related.
What they didn't show us were the millions of rifles which could not reproduce the bad behavior.
Are you saying there have been millions of rifles that were checked for this occurrence? More correctly, there have been some 5 million made and most of them haven't been reported to have this condition reported. BIG difference.
What they should have showed us was a mechanical drawing of the trigger group or the trigger group in action with a detailed explanation of what causes the behavior. Why didn't they do this? Because all they care about is stirring up frenzy against gun companies.
A drawing might have shown something that a few folks would have been able to either explain or understand. I don't see any frenzy being stirred, at least not that Remington hasn't brought upon itself by making a trigger assembly that is either a) inherently unsafe, or b) requires far too specific and special maintenance for the majority of non-gunsmith firearm owners.
Based on this and other hearsay anecdotal evidence some are choosing to believe the side with the least amount of evidence. Every design has flaws. You could make this same video for every manufacturer of firearms. You watch. If this obvious attempt to take down Remington is successful, they will go after whatever your favorite manufacturer is, next.
Neither one of us knows which side has the most evidence. I don't think that the reports of personal first person not hearsay reports on THR are unsupported, and cannot be heresay. Supposing that your broad statement that "every design has flaws" is correct, it is Remington's responsibility to correct the flaws as they come to find them. Continuous improvement. Actually lowers costs, and shows an initiative on the part of the company to improve the performance and safety of their product - a good lawsuit innoculation, too. Remington has chosen to stand pat.
What I see is a sad trend in America where the masses have lost critical thinking skills.
Could be true, but the broad statements you've presented are of the same vein.
Frankly, I don't give a hoot that Remington is a gun company, that this is ammo for second amendment opponents, helps the other side, whatever. If Remington has designed an unsafe product (and I know guns are inherently dangerous), and they continue to make and sell them knowingly, then I don't give a hoot if they get sued off the face of the planet - they made their own bed on this one. As far as those who refuse to "believe" - and will support Remington just because they are a gun maker, or because its never happened to you, I hope you're equally religious about following every tenet of gun safety 100% of 100% of the time.
