Remington Arms to pay $73 Million to Hook Massacre Families

The lawsuit claimed Remington’s ads for its Bushmaster rifle targeted younger, at-risk males. In one ad, Remington said the gun was for real menappears to call out the shooter, Adam Lanza, 20, for being ‘unmanly’ because of his veganism

Remington Arms will pay $73 million to the families of five children and four adults killed in the Sandy Hook Elementary School massacre. This is the first time a gunmaker has agreed to a major settlement over a mass shooting in the United States.

Twenty students and six adults were killed on Dec. 14, 2012, Connecticut, by gunman Adam Lanza, who used a Remington Bushmaster AR-15 rifle to shoot his way into the Sandy Hook Elementary School after killing his mother at home.

Reuters reported Remington Arms will pay $73 million to the families and release all the discovery and disposition material to the public. The settlement will be paid through insurance policies, lawyers for the families said in a statement.

“Today marks an inflection point when our duty of care to our children as a society finally supersedes the bottom line of an industry that made such an atrocity like Sandy Hook possible,” said Veronique De La Rosa, whose son Noah was killed in the shooting, during a news conference.

Remington had argued there was no evidence to establish that its marketing had anything to do with the shooting.

This industry will likely face more of these lawsuits. As victims of mass shootings are tested, the legal strategy will be refined. Potentially helping their case is Remington’s obligation in the settlement to release thousands of pages of internal company documents that, the Sandy Hook families contend, could reveal intent to aggressively market firearms to troubled young men like the one responsible for the 2012 shooting. Legal experts warn that Remington will not disclose any information that could expose them to additional legal liability.

Biden encouraged state and local lawmakers, as well as victims of gun violence, to pursue similar actions.

“Together, we can deliver a clear message to gun manufacturers and dealers: they must either change their business models to be part of the solution for the gun violence epidemic, or they will bear the financial cost of their complicity,” the president said.