Around New England

Left-Leaning Connecticut Supreme Court Allows Sandy Hook Shooting Parents To Sue Gun Manufacturer

March 14, 2019

The Connecticut Supreme Court has decided 4-3 to allow the families of victims of a mass-shooting at an elementary school to sue the manufacturer of the gun the killer used in the attack.

Adam Lanza shot to death 26 people at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut in December 2012, including 20 children, using an AR-15 manufactured by Remington.

A superior court judge in Connecticut dismissed the lawsuit in 2016, noting that the federal Protection of Lawful Commerce in Arms Act provides immunity to gun manufacturers from being sued over how someone else uses the company’s guns, according to the Hartford Courant.

But a narrow majority of the Connecticut Supreme Court on Thursday, March 14 ruled that the state’s Unfair Trade Practices Act could apply to the case because of the way the gun manufacturer marketed the weapon.

The court also used legislative debates in Congress to find that the federal Protection of Lawful Commerce in Arms Act doesn’t prohibit all lawsuits against gun manufacturers in cases where a user of the gun has committed a crime with it, at one point quoting floor speeches from several U.S. senators and representatives over the course of two pages.