The families of the Sandy Hook shooting victims scored a key victory against the manufacturer, distributor and dealer of the rifle used in the shooting. A Connecticut judge ruled on Thursday that the families will now have access to internal records of how gun companies market military-style rifles. They will also have a chance to interview company officials.
Access to internal records will enable the families and their lawyers to scrutinise whether the manufacturer of the Bushmaster XM15-E2S rifle that was used in the shooting was irresponsible in its advertising strategies. There were concerns after the shooting in 2012 that gun companies use macho advertising that intentionally target troubled, violent young men like the shooter, Adam Lanza.
Second Amendment experts have hailed the significance of the ruling. Adam Winkler, an expert at the University of Los Angeles School of Law, said that the families:
“…would like to show that the gun companies knew about the dangers of their product and yet continued to market them.”
Mr. Winkler compared the Sandy Hook case to litigations against tobacco companies, noting that in the tobacco litigations:
“…things really changed when they got documents that showed the tobacco companies knew about the dangers of their products and hid those dangers from the public.”
The families of the victims also welcomed the ruling. They have long expressed concern over the military imagery in advertisements of Bushmaster rifles, and slogans like “Consider your man card reissued.” Bill Sherlach, who lost his wife in the shooting, said:
“Is there the stoking of a fire? Are you adding fuel to the fire of some of these predominantly angry white young men? Are you hitting their hot buttons to possibly go ahead and prove their manhood?”
On the other hand, however, representatives of the firearms industry deny any suggestions of wrongdoing. Larry Keane, the senior vice-president for the National Shooting Sports Foundation, termed the allegation that gun companies target their marketing at disturbed young men “an absurd proposition and utterly false.” He added that:
“What they will find is absolutely nothing – that the industry sells its guns in a lawful, legal manner. The plaintiffs may not like the firearms, they may not like that they are sold, but they are a legal product in Connecticut.”
What Mr. Keane doesn’t say, however, is that defendants in the Sandy Hook case, the gun manufacturers Remington Arms and Bushmaster, have all along opposed efforts to have them disclose their documents. Josh Koskoff, one of the lawyers of the families, said:
“The defendants tried every tactic to avoid having to disclose a single document or answer a single question under oath. Now that wait is officially over.”
For coverage of the lawsuit by the families of the Sandy Hook victims, see video below:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a0-Z8UbdkEw
Featured image is a screen grab from CNN video
