Families of Newtown victims sue rifle manufacturer

[Janelle2002 3,865]

Families of Newtown victims sue rifle manufacturer

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HARTFORD, Conn. (AP) — The families of nine of the 26 people killed and a teacher wounded two years ago at the Sandy Hook Elementary School filed a lawsuit against the manufacturer, distributor and seller of the rifle used in the shooting.

The negligence and wrongful death lawsuit, filed in Bridgeport Superior Court and released on Monday, asserts that the Bushmaster AR-15 rifle should not have been sold publicly because it was designed for military use and is unsuited for hunting or home defense.

"In order to continue profiting from the sale of AR-15s, defendants chose to disregard the unreasonable risks the rifle posed outside of specialized, highly regulated institutions like the armed forces and law enforcement," the plaintiffs wrote in the complaint.

In addition to Bushmaster, the defendants are Camfour, a firearm distributor, and Riverview Gun Sales, the now-closed East Windsor store where the gunman's mother purchased the Bushmaster rifle in 2010.

Messages seeking comment from the defendants were not immediately returned.

The so-called AR-15 rifle was first build by Armalite for military use, but the design was later acquired by Colt, which produced the M-16 automatic weapon for the U.S. military. In the early 1960s, Colt began marketing the semi-automatic AR-15 rifle as the civilian version of the fully automatic M-16. Many other companies have since begun manufacturing and selling AR-15-type rifles, including the Bushmaster X-15.

The rifles are extremely popular in shooting competitions due to the light weight of the gun and ammunition and the weapon's accuracy.

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FILE - In this Dec. 20, 2012 file photo, law enforcement officials stand outside Riverview Gun Sales …

Bill Sherlach, whose wife, Mary, was killed in the shooting, said he believes in the Second Amendment but also that the gun industry needs to be held to "standard business practices" when it comes to assuming the risk for producing, making and selling a product.

"These companies assume no responsibility for marketing and selling a product to the general population who are not trained to use it nor even understand the power of it," he said.

The plaintiffs include Sherlach and the families of Vicki Soto, Dylan Hockley, Noah Pozner, Lauren Rousseau, Benjamin Wheeler, Jesse Lewis, Daniel Barden, Rachel D'Avino and teacher Natalie Hammond, who was injured in the shooting.

The lawsuit seeks unspecified monetary damages.

Nicole Hockley, the mother of 6-year-old victim Dylan, and Mark Barden, the father of 7-year-old victim Daniel, appeared at a news conference Monday morning with U.S. Sens. Richard Blumenthal and Chris Murphy. They declined to comment on the lawsuit and instead pushed for new laws and programs to restrict access to weapons and improve mental health treatment.

"My little Daniel's death was preventable," Barden said. "Dylan Hockley's death was preventable."

The Newtown gunman, Adam Lanza, shot and killed his mother, Nancy Lanza, on the morning of Dec. 14, 2012, before driving to the school and gunning down 20 children and six educators with the semi-automatic rifle. He committed suicide as police arrived.

In 2005, Congress and President George W. Bush approved a federal law that shielded gun makers from lawsuits over criminal use of their products, with some exemptions.

In a lawsuit over the .223-caliber Bushmaster rifle used in the Washington, D.C.-area sniper shootings that killed 10 people in 2002, Bushmaster and a gun dealer agreed to pay $2.5 million to two survivors and six families in a 2004 settlement. It was the first time a gun manufacturer had agreed to pay damages to settle claims of negligent distribution of weapons, according to the Brady Center to Prevent Gun Violence.

In that settlement, Bushmaster paid $550,000 and the Washington state gun dealer, where the sniper's rifle came from, paid $2 million.

In 2002, a federal judge in California ruled that Bushmaster and other gun manufacturers were not responsible for a 1999 shooting spree that killed a postal worker and injured five people at a Jewish community center in Los Angeles. The judge said a lawsuit by the victims' families did not show a link between the manufacturers and the shooting rampage.

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Associated Press writer Dave Collins in Hartford contributed to this report.

http://news.yahoo.com/families-newtown-victims-sue-gunmaker-seller-141435892.html

I'm sure the NRA will step in with some top notch lawyers and try to smash this to the ground. I feel sorry for these families, I don't think they will win.

[JohnR! 5,495]

I feel sorry that they have lost their kids and loved ones.

However, bringing this to court is the only way to keep the dialogue going about the role of guns and other weapons in our society.

[TBoneTX 45,291]

Yes. Can we say, uh, "long-shot"?

[lostinblue 1,989]

Welcome it ... Everything that has been suppressed in this shooting will need to come out.

[Janelle2002 3,865]

Dude, no way he shot that many people with a handgun.

[Sousuke 1,214]

Dude, no way he shot that many people with a handgun.

Of course he could of.

[decocker 7,198]

please everyone knows newtown is a false flag. listen to lib, he knows what time it is.

[JohnR! 5,495]

It's all part of The Conspiracy...

please everyone knows newtown is a false flag. listen to lib, he knows what time it is.

[Transborderwife 4,666]

Let's all take a deep breath and repeat the addage "money heals all wounds".

But seriously why do people use lawsuits to try and heal their pain?

Edited December 15, 2014 by Transborderwife

[Sousuke 1,214]

FYI there were issues in the Washington DC case that I suspect don't exist here.

In the DC case, the dealer was found to be in violation of quite a number of regulations. Bushmaster was only tied to it in that there was the argument they should have not been selling to the dealer. Bushmaster paid very little (nothing when insurance is factored).

[decocker 7,198]

Let's all take a deep breath and repeat the addage "money heals all wounds".

But seriously why do people use lawsuits to try and heal their pain?

these kid's parents don't need money.

Edited December 15, 2014 by val erie

[Transborderwife 4,666]

I'm sure that they don't. But probably doesn't hurt

Edited December 15, 2014 by Transborderwife

[decocker 7,198]

I'm sure that they don't. But probably doesn't hurt

call me crazy but i think they might have motives other than a pay day.

[JohnR! 5,495]

I don't think money is the issue here.

Let's all take a deep breath and repeat the addage "money heals all wounds".

But seriously why do people use lawsuits to try and heal their pain?

[Janelle2002 3,865]

Let's all take a deep breath and repeat the addage "money heals all wounds".

But seriously why do people use lawsuits to try and heal their pain?

Maybe they are getting money back on funeral costs, trips to the hospital, insurance costs, hospital bills.

I had a girl who was accidentally killed, her hospital bill for the couple of hours they tried to save her was $150,000