This week, victims of the shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School reached the historic Remington settlement with the gun-maker. Here’s all you need to know about the lawsuit and the current state of gun control in the US.
What is the Remington settlement?
The school shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary in Newtown, Connecticut took the lives of 26 people including 20 students on December 14, 2012. This week, over nine years after the shooting, the victims settled the historic lawsuit with Remington. The gun maker’s rifle was one of the three used by the gunman. The lawsuit was settled at $73 million by families of nine of the 26 victims in 2014. They were aiming to bring a positive change in the country’s gun laws. The US is one of the nations with the most relaxed gun control laws in the world. The country is also the home to the highest civilian arms ownership in the world.
This settlement is one of its kind. It is not common to see gun manufacturers taking responsibility for mass shootings. Additionally, it is also the first time that a gun manufacturer is facing the penalty of such a crime. However, the lawsuit was suing Remington for wrongful marketing of the arms to the public and not for selling guns. However, the gunmaker has been maintaining face that it did not participate in the wrongful marketing as alleged. The Business and Human Rights Centre stated that the families were claiming that the AR-15 rifle was for the US military. The rifle was not for civilian use such as hunting and home defense.
More about the lawsuit and its effect on the gun laws
The Remington settlement is surely going to become a ramification for future lawsuits and the advertising or marketing methods of guns in the US. Back in 2003, then-president George W Bush signed the Protection of Lawful Commerce in Arms Act. This gave gun manufacturers certain protections during lawsuits related to injuries from criminal use of their products. However, there is a “negligent entrustment” acting as the exception. The victims’ families used this exception for applying it to Remington since the firm was marketing a weapon made for the military to civilians.
“Remington decided to market to the general public a product intended only as a military weapon, a deception designed to boost the company’s bottom line. More specifically, it designed its advertising campaigns to target violence-prone, military-obsessed young men, the exact profile of many mass shooters,” stated Francine Wheeler. Wheeler’s child was killed in the school shooting. “If a Connecticut jury holds Remington responsible for prioritizing its profits over our safety, it lessens the risk that your first grader will die in school or a movie theater or a church or anywhere else,” she added.
Buying a gun in the US is not a difficult task. Only those with a mental illness or instability and criminal history may face difficulty in buying one. However, individual states have different requirements. Additionally, gun control has its rooting deep in the second amendment. Despite the rising number of gun misuse crimes, there is very little expert’s agreement on which hun laws and policies have tangible effects on reducing violence.
