A court in the state of Connecticut, United States, has ruled that families of the victims of the shootings at the Sandy Hook school can go ahead with their lawsuit against the company who made the gun used in the attack.
In December 2012, 26 people were gunned down at Sandy Hook Elementary School with a Bushmaster AR-15 riffle, by Adam Lanza. The incident happened in Newtown, Connecticut. Targets of the shooting were students and staff of the school, leaving 20 children and six adults killed.
Two years after the incident, in 2014, nine of the victims’ families filed a lawsuit against the rifle manufacturer Bushmaster Firearms International, and others. The lawsuit initially went to a federal court, before it was shifted back to a state court.
The families alleged in the lawsuit that the rifle used by Lanza, should not have been made publicly available because of its military use design.
The families also said they want damages and an injunction against selling the AR-15 rifle to civilians, as continuous selling of the weapon could lead to more deaths in the future.
Other defendants in the lawsuit included firearm distributor Camfour, and gun store Riverview Gun Sales, where it is said the rifle was purchased. Lanza’s mother, Nancy Lanza is said to have bought the gun. Lanza first killed his mother in the house, before driving in her car to the Sandy Hook Elementary school to kill his victims. He also killed himself.
After the suit was filed in 2014, lawyers for the gun companies had sought to dismiss the lawsuit. The lawyers argued that there is a federal law preventing certain lawsuits against gun makers when those guns are used in a crime.
But lawyer Joshua Koskoff, who is representing the families’, said an exception to the law applies to the case, adding that litigation is permitted if the company knows, or should know, their products are likely to be used in a way that risks injury to people.
However, on Wednesday 13 April, 2016, a judge ruled that the lawsuit against the manufacturer and seller of the weapon can proceed before a court of law.
The superior Court Judge named Barbara Bellis said that the law the defendants lawyers used in their argument, does not prevent lawyers for the families of the victims from arguing their case that the AR-15 semi-automatic rifle is a military weapon, and should not have been sold to civilians.
Observers say this ruling by the court is a small victory for the families, and will increase the momentum of the lawsuit against the defendants. The families said they look forward to continuing their fight in court against the defendants in their quest, hoping to prevent such incident from happening again in the future.
The legal battle is still continuing with the dismissal of the defendants’ application, which sought to stop the lawsuit. We are following the argument in court, and will report on the latest.
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Soooo….where did the boy get the gun?
At least their kids are already dead so they don’t have the opportunity to be as retarded as their parents. Multi generational involuntary Darwin award winners anyone?
and how does preventing Good gun owners for obtaining guns to defend themselves stop criminals who use underground/ blackmarket deals to illegal get guns? the logic behind this is retarded. just because one boy kills a bunch of people doesn’t mean everyone who owns a gun is a crazy mass shooter.
Whatever happened to the Sandy Hook hoaxers? Claiming no one died in the attack? They had some disturbing evidence, in interviews with the parents and bystanders. The interviews were incontrovertibly bizarre and paradoxical with regard to the strange lack of empathy from the parents of their recently deceased children. But could it be that the Sandy Hook conspiracy crowd uncovered something even more evil, in terms of masses of people affected? Could it be that in these strange interviews and addresses by grieving parents who, moments before, like Robby Parker, actually laughed, could it be that what they really discovered was that you have to be a semi-zombie, half-human, just to live and work in American suburbs like Sandy Hook?
I was watching the whole shooting coverage on CNN that day. I was intrigued that the authorities did not mention the kind of gun used in the mass shooting till 3 days after. For what reason did the police keep the name of the gun used, a secret.?? ???