Remington Arms is settling a lawsuit brought by the families of those who were killed in the Sandy Hook shooting back in 2012:
TIME – Remington Arms will pay nine families who lost loved ones in the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting $73 million to settle a wrongful death lawsuit, attorneys announced Tuesday, the first time a U.S. gun manufacturer has been held liable in a mass shooting and a legal outcome that could open the door to future lawsuits against gun makers.
The settlement ends a landmark lawsuit over how Remington marketed the rifle used in the massacre in Newtown, Conn. on Dec. 14, 2012, and it saves the gun maker from having to reveal any potentially incriminating evidence about its marketing practices at trial. Twenty children and six educators were killed when a gunman opened fire in the school.
Josh Koskoff, the attorney representing the families, hailed the outcome as historic. It’s nearly impossible for gun makers to be held responsible for the use of their products in mass shootings due to a federal law that largely shields them from liability.
“These nine families have shared a single goal from the very beginning: to do whatever they could to help prevent the next Sandy Hook,” Koskoff said. “It is hard to imagine an outcome that better accomplishes that goal.”
Remington had offered to settle in July for $33 million, he said, but families rejected the offer because they wanted to first prove wrongdoing by the company. Koskoff says they obtained thousands of internal company documents and conducted multiple depositions of Remington’s leadership and marketing team to do that.
Koskoff added that the settlement should be a “wake-up call” to the gun industry largely immune to lawsuits under the 2005 law, which has widely deterred families from targeting gun makers in court. There are a few exceptions, such as if a defective weapon causes death or injury, or if a seller or manufacturer is found to have violated a law in the marketing or sale of the product.
Remington had argued it was protected under the law, but the families’ suit, filed in 2014, said the federal law did not apply because they were accusing Remington of violating state laws in the marketing of the weapon. In March 2019, the Connecticut Supreme Court agreed. Remington appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court, which declined to hear the case.
Remington Arms had NOTHING to do with Adam Lanza taking his gun and massacring innocent children. But because the Supreme Court refused to hear the case and the lower courts got it wrong, Remington is stuck being held liable for the shooting. It’s ridiculous on its face and justice was absolutely not served in this case.
But what’s worse is the precedent that this creates will cause more gun manufacturers to come under fire from activists and victims alike who would love nothing more than to do serious damage to the gun industry.
I can’t tell you how much I hate this.