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In 2014, the families of five children and four adults who were killed in the 2012 Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting sued the now-bankrupt manufacturer of the gun a monster used to cut down 20 six and seven-year-old children along with six adults. On Tuesday (Feb. 15), those families’ attorneys announced a huge win for the victims of that senseless and heartbreaking tragedy.
According to CNN, the families were awarded a $73 million settlement in their wrongful death lawsuit against bankrupt gun manufacturer Remington and four of its insurers. Along with the multi-million dollar payout, the plaintiffs have “obtained and can make public thousands of pages of internal company documents that prove Remington’s wrongdoing and carry important lessons for helping to prevent future mass shootings,” the attorneys said in a news release.
From CNN:
The families sued Remington in 2014, alleging it should be held partially responsible for the shooting because of its marketing strategy. A 2005 federal law protects many gun manufacturers from wrongful death lawsuits brought by family members — but the marketing argument was a new approach.
Lawyers for the plaintiffs contended that the company marketed rifles by extolling the militaristic qualities of the rifle and reinforcing the image of a combat weapon — in violation of a Connecticut law that prevents deceptive marketing practices.
In other words, gun manufacturers can advertise their products, they just can’t be running full GI Joe productions that have their customers out here thinking Call of Duty: Outside Forreal would be a great game to play.
But the plaintiffs didn’t just sue Remington for a little bit of its money—they essentially grabbed the company by its ankles, turned it upside down and shook out every last bit of its pocket change. The attorneys said $73 million is all of the available coverage that Remington’s insurance carriers could pay, which is probably why the company offered just under $33 million in settlement money initially. The families declined that offer “because they wanted to ensure they had obtained enough documents and taken enough depositions to prove Remington’s misconduct” and to “to ensure the case’s message to the insurance industry was clear,” the news release stated.
“This landmark, historic victory sends a forceful and compelling message to manufacturers and to the insurance and banking industries that support them: This is a high-risk market, it is not profitable, and you will be held accountable,” Nicole Hockley, the mother of 6-year-old son Dylan, who was killed in the shooting. “Nothing will bring Dylan back. The closest I get to him now is by kissing his urn every night, telling him I love him and I miss him. But I made him a promise, and I’ll keep working to deliver that promise for the rest of my life.
“My hope for this lawsuit is that by facing and finally being penalized for the impact of their work, gun companies along with the insurance and banking industries that enable them will be forced to make their practices safer than they’ve ever been, which will save lives and stop more shootings,” she continued.
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