Lawsuit filed by Sandy Hook families against gunmaker set for 2021
A Connecticut judge said Wednesday that a lawsuit by families of Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting victims against Remington Arms will go to trial in September 2021. A survivor and relatives of nine victims of the 2012 massacre filed the wrongful death lawsuit against Remington in 2015, saying the company should have never sold such a dangerous weapon to the public and alleging it targeted younger, at-risk males in marketing and product placement in violent video games.
Remington, based in Madison, North Carolina, made the Bushmaster AR-15-style rifle used to kill 20 first graders and six educators at the Newtown, Connecticut, school December 14, 2012.
The Hartford Courant reported that Superior Court Judge Barbara Bellis in Waterbury set the court date after nearly two hours of discussions with attorneys for Remington and the families.
Nicole Hockley, whose 5-year-old son Dylan was killed in the shooting, told "CBS This Morning" in 2017 that she believed the gunmaker should be held accountable.
"This is a weapon that's been designed to inflict mass casualties and, 'you're not a man if you don't have it.' That's morally reprehensible and, from a marketing perspective, that's just wrong and needs to stop," Hockley said at the time.
The Connecticut Supreme Court ruled 4-3 in March that Remington could be sued under state law over how it marketed the rifle. The decision overturned a ruling by a state trial court judge who dismissed the lawsuit based on a federal law that shields gun-makers from liability, in most cases, when their products are used in crimes.
Remington appealed that ruling to the U.S. Supreme Court, which declined to hear the case.