Wichita ? The family of a brain-damaged former Wichita boy shot in the face seven years ago has reached a settlement with gun maker Smith & Wesson.

Both sides confirmed the deal, announced Wednesday, but would not disclose the terms.

Royce Ryan was 8 when a friend, Jared McMunn, shot Ryan below the left eye. Lawyers for the victim’s family say McMunn took a semiautomatic pistol from his parents’ dresser.

The attorneys for the victim’s family claimed the shooting was an accident that could have been avoided had the firearm been designed differently. Smith & Wesson said the shooting was the gun owner’s fault.

“There was no deficiency with this firearm,” the company said in a statement.

Lawyers for Ryan said 15-year-old Jared McMunn thought the gun was unloaded when he picked it up on April 15, 1998.

The shooting left Ryan with permanent disabilities and brain damage, said one of his lawyers, Robert Pottroff.

The suit against Smith & Wesson claimed the company’s Model 915 gun lacked a simple device to show whether it was loaded; that a safety device didn’t keep it from firing with the magazine removed; and that the gun was not childproofed despite numerous inexpensive technologies that were available.

“We can’t prevent Royce’s injuries,” said the victim’s mother, Lori Ryan, “but hope this settlement will help make gun companies childproof guns and prevent other children from being injured. We are thankful that Royce’s huge medical needs will now be met.”

Ann Makkiya, corporate counsel for the Springfield, Mass.-based gun maker, said the settlement “was dictated by economic and business realities” and that the company’s insurance carrier paid the settlement.

“It is the responsibility and legal obligation of every handgun owner to safely store and secure a firearm,” she said in the statement. “This handgun was sold with a lock that would have prevented this shooting, if used.”

Meanwhile, McMunn, 15, was convicted of aggravated battery and possession of a firearm in July 1998 and placed in Juvenile Justice Authority custody, according to juvenile court records.

Pottroff said of McMunn: “The other real tragedy in this case is, that kid’s life has been ruined from that day, too.”