The families went after the gun manufacture and could pave the way for gun companies being held liable for mass shooting violence and deaths…..
The deaths at the Newton , Conn school shooting included 20 children and six adults….
Families of people killed in the 2012 massacre at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn., said on Tuesday that they had reached a $73 million settlement in their lawsuit against the maker of the AR-15-style weapon the gunman used in the attack.
The agreement, reached with the families of five children and four adults who were killed, appears to be the largest such settlement involving a gun maker and relatives of mass shooting victims.
It also represents a significant setback to the firearm industry because the lawsuit, by employing a novel strategy, pierced the vast shield enshrined in federal law protecting gun companies from litigation.
The families contended that Remington, the gun maker, violated state consumer law by promoting the weapon in a way that appealed to so-called couch commandoes and troubled young men like the gunman who stormed into the elementary school on Dec. 14, 2012, killing 20 first graders and six adults in a spray of gunfire….
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Most litigation brought by victims and their families has been blocked by the Protection of Lawful Commerce in Arms Act, passed in 2005, which grants industrywide immunity. When he signed the legislation, President George W. Bush praised the legislation as a necessary safeguard to “stem frivolous lawsuits.”…