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The free market at work:

A California teenager hoping to buy and melt more than 75,000 unassembled guns from the maker of a .38-caliber pistol that paralyzed him a decade ago is now one step closer to his goal.

The federal judge in Jacksonville agreed Thursday to hold an auction for Bryco Arms' assets. Bids will start at $175,000, the same amount Brandon James Maxfield, a 17-year-old paralyzed since he was 7, offered in his attempt to buy the now-bankrupt company's assets.

Brandon was paralyzed from the neck down after being struck by a bullet accidentally fired by a baby sitter trying to unload the weapon.

The company's owner, Bruce Jennings, lives in the Spruce Creek Fly-In community in Volusia County and filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection after a California jury ordered Jennings and his company to pay Brandon $24 million for his injuries.

Reached at his Northern California home Friday, Brandon said he was excited about the judge's decision but would not call it a victory.

"You can call it a victory," Brandon said. "It's an extension. They extended our time to bid and raise a little bit more money."

Brandon and a nonprofit group established in his name, Brandon's Arms, recently raised $175,000 through Internet donations and offered to buy Bryco's 75,600 unassembled handguns and the equipment used to make them.

Brandon Maxfield's website can be found here.