{"id":15722,"date":"2019-03-15T03:07:27","date_gmt":"2019-03-15T03:07:27","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/?p=15722"},"modified":"2019-03-16T06:43:24","modified_gmt":"2019-03-16T06:43:24","slug":"sandy-hook-lawsuit-court-victory-opens-crack-in-gun-maker-immunity-shield","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/sandy-hook-lawsuit-court-victory-opens-crack-in-gun-maker-immunity-shield\/","title":{"rendered":"Sandy Hook lawsuit court victory opens crack in gun maker immunity shield"},"content":{"rendered":"

Timothy D. Lytton<\/a>, Georgia State University<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

The Connecticut Supreme Court ruled on March 14 that families of the Sandy Hook Elementary mass shooting<\/a> victims could proceed with a lawsuit<\/a> against the companies that manufactured and sold the semiautomatic rifle<\/a> used in the attack.<\/p>\n

The ruling<\/a>, which reversed a lower court\u2019s decision, has the potential to unleash a flood of claims by gun violence victims<\/a> against gun manufacturers \u2013 if it\u2019s upheld by the U.S. Supreme Court, that is.<\/p>\n

My research<\/a> on the history of lawsuits against the gun industry has documented the failure of gun violence victims to hold gun manufacturers liable for legal marketing practices that many people consider irresponsible. The latest Sandy Hook decision could pave the way for gunmakers to finally be held responsible for them.<\/p>\n

Interpreting \u2018applicable\u2019<\/h2>\n

A 2006 law called the Protection of Lawful Commerce in Arms Act<\/a> grants gun manufacturers immunity from lawsuits that arise out of the criminal misuse of a weapon.<\/p>\n

The Sandy Hook families argued that their lawsuit fell under an exception<\/a> to this federal immunity. The exception allows gun violence victims to sue a manufacturer who \u201cknowingly violated a state or federal statute applicable to the sale or marketing\u201d of a firearm.<\/p>\n

The families claimed<\/a> that Remington Arms<\/a> \u201cmarketed, advertised and promoted the Bushmaster XM15-E2S<\/a> for civilians to use to carry out offensive, military style combat missions against their perceived enemies.\u201d They said that this marketing constituted an unfair trade practice under Connecticut law<\/a>, which they argued is a state statute \u201capplicable\u201d to the marketing of a firearm.<\/p>\n

The Connecticut high court agreed<\/a> and, importantly, interpreted<\/a> the term \u201capplicable\u201d broadly. That is, the court said that a relevant statute only had to be \u201ccapable of being applied\u201d to gun sales, not that the law needed be specifically about firearms, as other courts<\/a> had held.<\/p>\n

\"\"
The shoes represent the 7,000 kids killed because of gun violence between the Sandy Hook shooting in December 2012 and March 2018.<\/span>
\nAP Images\/Paul Morigi<\/a><\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

What\u2019s next<\/h2>\n

It is this interpretation that could potentially unleash a flood of lawsuits across the country.<\/p>\n

Since many states<\/a> have unfair trade practices laws like Connecticut\u2019s, it seems likely that gun violence victims will bring similar claims elsewhere. Victims are thus likely to allege that a gun manufacturer\u2019s aggressive marketing of combat-style weapons violates a state statute \u2013 like an unfair trade practice law \u2013 that is applicable to the sale or marketing of a firearm.<\/p>\n

The fate of the Sandy Hook lawsuit and any others that follow will depend on the outcome of an all-but-certain appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court. If the court rejects the Connecticut Supreme Court\u2019s broad interpretation of the word \u201capplicable\u201d in the federal statue, that will restore the immunity from suit that gun makers have enjoyed for more than a decade.<\/p>\n

However, if the top U.S. court adopts Connecticut\u2019s broad interpretation, then the gun industry can expect to be the target of a great deal more litigation in the years to come.\"The<\/p>\n

Timothy D. Lytton<\/a>, Distinguished University Professor & Professor of Law, Georgia State University<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

This article is republished from The Conversation<\/a> under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Timothy D. Lytton, Georgia State University The Connecticut Supreme Court ruled on March 14 that families of the Sandy Hook Elementary mass shooting victims could proceed with a lawsuit against the companies that manufactured and sold the semiautomatic rifle used in the attack. The ruling, which reversed a lower court\u2019s decision, has the potential to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":44,"featured_media":15719,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[5],"tags":[4982,2174,3252,840,13,2197,5412,4424,708,1666],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15722"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/44"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15722"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15722\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":15725,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15722\/revisions\/15725"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/15719"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15722"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15722"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15722"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}