The Supreme Court’s Sandy Hook ruling is a welcome victory for gun violence victims

Washington Post - Editorial Board - November 13, 2019

GUN MAKERS and sellers have never really had to account for the deadly consequences of their
products because of an unusual federal law enacted in 2005 that gives them immunity from most
lawsuits. So the Supreme Court’s decision not to block a lawsuit brought in the Sandy Hook
Elementary School shooting is a significant — and welcome — development. It may give the
families of the victims their day in court while providing a road map for victims of other mass
shootings who seek answers and some measure of justice.
The Supreme Court announced Tuesday it would not consider an appeal from the manufacturer of
the assault weapon used in the Dec. 14, 2012, massacre in Newtown, Conn., that took the lives of
20 first-graders and six educators. The decision, issued without comment from any individual
justice, lets stand a groundbreaking ruling from the Connecticut Supreme Court that found an
exception in federal law allowing the manufacturer to be sued and potentially held liable under state
law regarding unfair trade practices.
The case against Remington Arms, brought by relatives of nine victims who died and a survivor of
the shooting, focused on how the AR-15-style Bushmaster used in the attack was marketed with
militaristic and hypermasculine advertising and used product placement in videos to appeal to
younger, at-risk males. The suit alleges it was no accident that the troubled 20-year-old Sandy Hook
gunman chose this particular weapon — promoted under slogans like “Consider your man card
reissued” — to carry out a murderous rampage that took less than five minutes.
The suit was originally filed in 2014, and the families had to overcome numerous obstacles in
advancing their novel theory to get around federal protection of the industry. They still must go to
trial and convince a jury that Remington is liable for the deaths of their loved ones. But by bringing
the case to trial, they hope to get access to information long kept private by the gun industry that
will provide insights into how the industry operates. “The families are grateful that the Supreme
Court . . . denied Remington’s latest attempt to avoid accountability,” said Joshua Koskoff, a lawyer
for the families, “We are ready to resume discovery and proceed towards trial in order to shed light
on Remington’s profit-driven strategy to expand the AR-15 market and court high-risk users at the
expense of Americans’ safety.”