You’ve heard about the Sandy Hook Elementary school shooting a few years ago. You’ve heard about the horror of it because the news media and anti-gunner politicians use the awful things that happened that day to push people for a knee-jerk emotional reaction to get them to support gun control.
What you may not know is that there are people trying to sue firearm manufacturers for the evil actions of the Sandy Hook shooter. Dave Collins gives us the details:
The maker of the rifle used in the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting asked the U.S. Supreme Court to hear its appeal Thursday of a state ruling against the company.
Remington Arms, based in Madison, North Carolina, cited a much-debated 2005 federal law that shields firearms manufacturers from liability in most cases when their products are used in crimes.
Gunman Adam Lanza opened fire at the Newtown, Connecticut, school with a Bushmaster AR-15-style rifle on Dec. 14, 2012, killing 20 first graders and six educators. The 20-year-old gunman earlier shot his mother to death at their Newtown home, and killed himself as police arrived at the school. The rifle was legally owned by his mother.
A survivor and relatives of nine victims filed a wrongful death lawsuit against Remington in 2015, saying the company should have never sold such a dangerous weapon to the public and alleging it targeted younger, at-risk males in marketing and product placement in violent video games.
Here’s what is crazy about this lawsuit: Nobody would consider filing a lawsuit against Freitliner or any other tractor trailer manufacturer because a truck driver lost control of their rig and hit another vehicle. Nobody would sue Nike or any other shoe manufacturer because a criminal wore that brand of running shoes when they assaulted someone else.
But these people want to say that gun manufacturers are guilty of the actions of their customers or, in the case of the Sandy Hook shooting, of people who killed other people and stole the guns so that they could use the guns in a mass shooting.
In other words, these people suing Remington want us to believe that Remington is responsible for the Sandy Hook shooter stealing a gun and doing terrible things.
Remington shouldn’t have to deal with this court challenge, but, sadly, in this day and age, they do. Hopefully, the Supreme Court will have their collective heads screwed on straight and give Remington the victory when this case comes before them.