Newtown families to argue gun makers are liable when firearms end up with mass shooters

John Moore/Getty Images
The Dec. 14, 2012, shooting left 20 children and six school staffers dead.
Rex Features Via Ap
Lauren Rousseau, 30, was one of the six teachers at Sandy Hook Elementary School shot by Lanza in one of the deadliest shootings in U.S. history. As investigators try to piece together the massacre, Newtown is hailing these teachers as heroes.
Reuters
Avielle Richman, 6, was another young victim who died at Sandy Hook Elementary School on Dec. 14, 2012.
Eliza Hallabeck/The Newtown Bee Via Ap
School principal Dawn Hochsprung was among those slain at Sandy Hook Elementary on Dec. 14, 2012. Hochsprung, the school's psychologist and vice principal were meeting with a parent when they stepped out into a hallway upon hearing a noise, a parent told CNN. The principal and psychologist were killed, and the vice principal was wounded. Hochsprung, 47, was a mother of two daughters and three stepdaughters and a longtime teacher in the Danbury school district.
Rex Features Via Ap
Victoria Soto used her body to shield her students from gunman Adam Lanza who staged a massacre at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn. on Dec. 14, 2012. "The family received information she was found shielding her students in a closet," Soto's cousin, Jim Wiltsie, told the Daily News. "She put herself between the gunman and her students."
Cnn
Jack Pinto, 6, was also among shooter Adam Lanza's victims. Pinto was a huge New York Giants fan. To pay tribute to the little boy and the rest of the Sandy Hook Elementary School victims, the Giants' receiver Victor Cruz wore the name "Jack Pinto" on his cleats and gloves during the Giants' game against the Atlanta Falcons.
Rex Features Via Ap
Mary Sherlach, 56, school psychologist at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn., was shot dead trying to save her students from gunman Adam Lanza. "She was always helpful, always upbeat," said Sherlach's son-in-law Eric Schwartz. "She was truly a nice woman, as kind as can be." Sherlach worked at the school for two decades.
Ap Photo/Family Photo Via Benjamin Wyatt
Allison Wyatt, another victim, is remembered as a funny little girl who always seemed underfoot. "At some point over the past six years, Allie Wyatt got in your way and you are better for it," said the Rev. Walter L. Pitman about the six-year-old.
Ap Photo/The Wheeler Family
Benjamin Wheeler, 6, was another one of the young victims of the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting. He is remembered as an "irrepressibly bright and spirited boy" who loved his first grade teacher at Sandy Hook Elementary School and his growing group of friends.
Jessica Hill/AP
Nine Sandy Hook Elementary families and one survivor have filed suit against Remington Arms, alleging the company was negligent in the sale and marketing of the Bushmaster AR-15 assault-style rifle.
Ap Photo/Family Photo
A photo provided by the family of Noah Pozner shows the smiling 6-year-old one month before he was tragically killed at Sandy Hook Elementary School. "The sky is crying and the flags are half-mast. It is a sad, sad day. But it's also your day, Noah, my little man," his mother Veronique said during his eulogy on Dec. 17, 2012. "I'm going to miss your forceful and purposeful little steps stomping through our house. I will miss your perpetual smile, the twinkle in your dark little eyes, framed by eyelashes that would be the envy of any woman in this room. Most of all, I will miss your visions of your future. You wanted to be a doctor, a soldier and a taco factory manager."

PUBLISHED: November 13, 2017 at 8:54 p.m. | UPDATED: April 5, 2018 at 1:06 a.m.

The families of Newtown victims will take their high-stakes case to Connecticut’s highest court Tuesday, arguing that gun manufacturers are liable when military-grade firearms end up in the hands of mentally ill mass shooters.

The case, brought by nine Sandy Hook Elementary families and one survivor against Remington Arms, alleges the company was negligent in the sale and marketing of the Bushmaster AR-15 assault-style rifle. The ads for the gun, they say, recklessly appealed to mentally unstable young people — like Adam Lanza — through video games and militaristic slogans.

MAP: Mass shootings since Sandy Hook

“Any seller of firearms, particularly one of military-style assault rilfes, has to take into account the marketplace and the reality of how those weapons may foreseeably be used,” said Jon Lowy, vice president for litigation at the Brady Center to Prevent Gun Violence.

“If you’re selling cars you have to prepare for the fact people will use them illegally, crash, them, drive intoxicated — your job is to make and sell a product to prevent that from happening.”

The Brady Center filed a brief in support of the Newtown families and has argued similar cases around the country.

The lawsuit stemming from the Dec. 14, 2012, shooting that left 20 children and six school staffers dead faces daunting odds.

The Dec. 14, 2012, shooting left 20 children and six school staffers dead.

A 2005 federal law, the Protection of Lawful Commerce in Arms Act, says that gun companies cannot be sued for harm caused by others as long as “the product functioned as designed and intended.”

A lower court dismissed the case in October 2016, ruling that gunmakers enjoy “broad immunity.”

If the Newtown families prevail before the Supreme Court in Hartford, the case will return to the lower court, where they will seek to examine Remington’s internal marketing documents.

Remington notes that the gun was legally sold to Adam Lanza’s mother, Nancy, in 2010. Remington has said the company had no knowledge of Lanza’s “dangerous propensities” prior to the attack.