Nine families of victims and one survivor of the Sandy Hook shooting are suing the manufacturers and distributors of the gun wielded by the shooter, the Wall Street Journal reports.
They are suing for wrongful death under “negligent entrustment,” arguing that the gun was not suitable for civilian use.
Adam Lanza, the killer, used a Bushmaster AR-15 rifle, model XM15-E2S—a popular gun, even in the wake of shooting. The text of the lawsuit describes the AR-15 as “designed as a military weapon” which has “always excelled on the battlefield.”
Reason’s Jacob Sullum has already noted that the AR-15 was not designated an “assault weapon” at the time of the shooting. Gun rights advocates have long argued that the “assault weapon” designation is an arbitrary cosmetic concept that has little practical meaning.
Gun manufacturer Bushmaster Firearms International (owned by Remington Outdoor Co.,) distributor Camfour, and the gun shop that sold the rifle to Lanza’s mother, Riverview Gun Sales, are all named in the suit.
The victims blame all three for allowing Lanza to have his “weapon of choice.”
“Defendants know that, as a result of selling AR-15s to the civilian market, individuals unfit to operate these weapons gain access to them… Despite that knowledge, defendants continue to sell the XM15-E52 rifle to the civilian market,” the suit alleges.
“There is so much ample evidence of the inability of the civilian world to control these weapons, that it is no longer reasonable to entrust them to for that purpose,” attorney Joshua Koskoff told the Journal.
According to the Journal’s report, a win for the families would require a broad interpretation of a negligent entrustment lawsuit:
“The issue in this case will be whether courts are willing to construe the doctrine of negligent entrustment so broadly as to encompass a theory of liability that is based on the sale of a particular gun to the general public instead of to a potentially particular dangerous individual,” Mr. Henigan said.
