Gun manufacturer Remington, along with its four insurers, has agreed to pay $73 million after reaching a settlement in the lawsuit filed against them by the families of five children and four adults killed in the 2012 Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting.
As noted by CNN, “Remington was the manufacturer of the Bushmaster AR-15-style rifle used in the 2012 massacre that left 20 children and six adults dead in Newtown, Connecticut. The families of nine slain victims filed a wrongful-death lawsuit against Remington in 2014.”
In 2005, Republicans passed a federal law that protects many gun manufacturers from wrongful death lawsuits brought by family members.
But attorneys for the families pushed a different approach: trying to hold Remington partly responsible because of its marketing strategy, arguing 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.
After a long delay, the US Supreme Court in 2019 decided not to take up an appeal by Remington, effectively allowing the suit to move forward.
