Sandy Hook families settle with Remington
$73M lawsuit attacked gunmaker’s marketing
Christine Fernando
USA TODAY
Families of nine victims of the Sandy Hook Elementary School massacre agreed Tuesday to a $73 million settlement against the maker of the gun used in the deadly 2012 shooting.
The settlement follows several years of litigation with Remington Arms, the maker of the Bushmaster AR-15-style rifle that was used to kill 20 first graders and six teachers at the elementary school in Newtown, Connecticut.
“Today is not about honoring our son Benjamin. Today is about how and why Ben died,” said Francine Wheeler, whose 6-year-old son was killed in the shooting. “It is about what is right and what is wrong. Our legal system has given us some justice today, but David and I will never have true justice. True justice would be our 15-year-old healthy and here with us.”
Four insurers for Reming ton, which has filed for bankruptcy twice in two years, have agreed to pay the $73 million.
As part of the settlement, Remington also agreed to allow the families to release documents they obtained during the lawsuit, including ones that show how the gunmaker marketed the weapon, said Joshua Koskoff, the lead attorney representing the families.
Hockley said the families “can’t wait” to release the thousands of internal documents they obtained, which she said “paint a picture of a company that lost its way choosing more aggressive marketing campaigns for profit, with no thought to the impact.” “From the beginning, it was not about money,” Koskoff said of the families’ intentions. “It was about getting answers, learning about these decisions.”
He added: “The linchpin of this settlement is that it allows these families the right to share the information as to what they learned.
Remington previously offered the victims’ families $33 million in a possible settlement last year. Koskoff told USA TODAY in August that the offer was “grossly inadequate.”
The lawsuit tested the scope of a federal law that grants gun manufacturers broad immunity from suits stemming from crimes committed with their products.
The civil cour t case in Connecticut hinged on how Remington marketed the rifle, accusing the gunmaker of target- ing young, at-risk men through product placement in violent video games and ads, including one that used the phrase “Consider Your Man Card Reissued.”
The victims’ families argued Remington violated Connecticut’s unfair trade practices law when it “knowingly marketed and promoted the Bushmaster XM15-E2S rifle for use in assaults against human beings,” according to the lawsuit.
“The marketing essentially
glorifies violence and the military use of the weapon to young men,” Koskoff previously told USA TODAY.
Remington’s lawyers denied the allegations in court and argued that there was no evidence to show Remington’s marketing had anything to do with the shooting.
JESSICA HILL/AP FILE
