A Rare Win For Gun Control
Sandy Hook families found a way to make a gunmaker pay
Thanks to a group of grieving family members, we now know one way to make gun manufacturers reassess the sale of military-style weapons to the public.
Relatives of five children and four adults who were among the 26 killed in the 2012 Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting agreed this week to a $73 million settlement with Remington Arms and its four insurers.
Remington, based in North Carolina, made the Bushmaster AR15-style rifle used in the Newtown, Conn. tragedy. Now bankrupt, the company has not admitted responsibility. But this is a significant surrender in the so-far bullet-proof industry. It will give manufactures and their insurers second thoughts about how to sell such products.
A 2005 federal law protects the firearms industry from most liability when guns are misused. However, this lawsuit, filed in 2014, argued that Remington violated the Connecticut Unfair Trade Practices Act when it “knowingly marketed and promoted the Bushmaster XM15-E2S rifle for use in assaults against human beings.”
The settlement also includes plans by the families to make public the marketing records they recovered from Remington as the two sides prepared for trial, said the families’ attorney Joshua Koskoff.
