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The main issue with airbags originally was injuries and deaths resulting from the single large explosive charge that set them off, regardless of driver/passenger size or distance from the wheel, as with children or small females (and dwarves, I imagine, but they always seem to be excluded from statistics). New airbags have multiple stages and sensors to adjust the force of the airbag deployment to reduce (and they have) injuries resulting from them. I'm pretty sure they were always classified as a supplemental restraint as, originally mandated by the government, the manufacturers were forced to instal either automatic seatbelts or airbags as an interim before airbags were required for every vehicle. My early Subaru Legacy has the "mechanical mice" belts instead of the airbags that replaced them a couple years later.
If you knowingly remove a safety device from a car and sell it without disclosure (and maybe even with, depending on the lawyer, I suppose), you can be liable for injuries incurred to the next owner in the event of an accident. At least up here, but since the safety equipment is federally mandated, I'd make a guess that would apply nationwide. I also know someone who couldn't pass inspection on a newer car with an airbag wheel swapped out for a non-airbag wheel.
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