The parents of the Columbine High School gunmen and one of the people who allegedly helped supply their weapons have offered $1.6 million to settle dozens of lawsuits filed by victims and their families.

Southfield lawyer Geoffrey N. Fieger, who represents the parents of one of the victims, Isaiah Shoels, confirmed Wednesday that parties in the cases could meet as early as this week in Colorado to discuss the proposal.

Two facts may encourage the plaintiffs to settle, Fieger said. Colorado law limits damages in cases of wrongful deaths to $250,000, and the parents of the gunmen and the other defendant are likely to have little to offer, monetarily, beyond the limits of their insurance policies, he said.

"While the case is clearly worth much more, we are facing those two issues," Fieger said. "I guess the value of a teen-aged life in Colorado is only a quarter of a million dollars."

The $1.6 million would be divided among 37 families of victims of the gunmen, Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold. Another defendant, Mark Manes, who allegedly supplied one of the guns, is a party to the settlement, which was proposed privately earlier this week.

Fieger said that an additional $1 million may ultimately be available for disbursing among the plaintiffs from the families of two other teen-agers accused of helping buy the weapons.

The Shoelses also are suing the Jefferson County school and sheriff departments, which are not parties to the proposed settlement. Fieger said that a determination on whether to accept the proposal could be made "within a few days."

He expressed surprised that the terms of the settlement proposal had become public. "It was faxed just two days ago," Fieger said Wednesday. Other lawyers in Colorado said that publicizing the information may make negotiating the settlements more difficult, The Denver Post reported Thursday. Harris and Klebold killed a teacher and 12 students and wounded 23 others, before killing themselves, on April 20, 1999 in Littleton, Colo.