The Supreme Court announced today that it would not hear an appeal in a case seeking to pierce firearm manufacturers’ legal immunity in the aftermath of shootings, allowing relatives of victims from Sandy Hook Elementary School to sue Remington Arms Co., maker of the rifle used there, in Connecticut courts.
The family members of nine people slain and one survivor of the Sandy Hook massacre filed the lawsuit in 2014. Remington was backed in the case by a number of gun rights groups and lobbying organizations including the powerful National Rifle Association, which is closely aligned with Republicans including President Donald Trump. The NRA called the lawsuit "company-killing".
The plaintiffs have argued that Remington bears some of the blame for the Sandy Hook tragedy. They said the Bushmaster AR-15 gun that Lanza used - a semi-automatic civilian version of the U.S. military’s M-16 - had been illegally marketed by the company to civilians as a combat weapon for waging war and killing human beings.
The plaintiffs said that Connecticut’s consumer protection law forbids advertising that promotes violent, criminal behaviour and yet even though these rifles have become the “weapon of choice for mass shooters” Remington’s ads "continued to exploit the fantasy of an all-conquering lone gunman". One of them, they noted, stated, "Forces of opposition, bow down".
Docket for No. 19-168 Remington Arms Co., LLC, et al., Petitioners v. Donna L. Soto, Administratrix of the Estate of Victoria L. Soto, et al.
