Nearly ten years following the Sandy Hook school shooting, the manufacturer of the weapon, Remington, has reached an agreement with the families of the victims, to whom it will pay 73 million dollars.
“Sandy Hook Families Announce Agreement with Remington Arms, First Gunmaker to Be Held Responsible for Mass Shooting in the United States,” announces the site of Washington Post, Tuesday, January 15.
This amicable settlement marks the end of a long legal battle, recalls the daily of the capital. The families had filed a complaint once morest the company that owns Bushmaster, the manufacturer of the semi-automatic assault rifle of the type WITH-15 with which the young Adam Lanza had killed 26 people, including 20 young children, in 2012, in this Connecticut school.
A lawyer for the families says Remington has agreed to pay $73 million in damages. The manufacturer, which filed for bankruptcy, offered just under $33 million last July.
A victory hard to imitate
“This deal is a blow to the firearms industry because plaintiffs have used a new strategy to break through the broad shield that shields gunmakers from litigation in federal law,” relief The New York Times. Who tempers however:
Nonetheless, this settlement is unlikely to pave the way for further settlements and court victories, as the Sandy Hook families relied on a very narrow exception in the law.”
A federal law passed in 2005, precise The Wall Street Journal, prevents a gunsmith from being prosecuted for an act of violence perpetrated with one of his guns. However, an exception makes it possible to hold manufacturers liable “for damages resulting from violations of state law in the promotion of their products”. Thus, the plaintiffs successfully argued that Bushmaster’s rifle promotional materials encouraged violence.
