From the New York Daily News:
The grieving Newtown families have fired back at Bushmaster.
The parents of five of the kids killed at Sandy Hook Elementary School — along with the loved ones of four staffers who died trying to save them and a teacher who survived the slaughter — are suing the maker of the Bushmaster AR-15 rifle that was used in the massacre two years ago.
“The AR-15 was specifically engineered for the U.S. military to meet the needs of changing warfare,” attorney Josh Koskoff of Bridgeport, Conn. said Monday.
“The weapon was not designed for home defense or hunting. This weapon was designed to efficiently kill other human beings in combat.”
Detective Barbara J. Mattson of the Connecticut State Police holds up a Bushmaster AR-15 rifle, the same make and model of gun used by Adam Lanza in the Sandy Hook shooting, during a hearing of a legislative subcommittee reviewing gun laws in Hartford last year.
Bushmaster knows that, but “in order to continue profiting from the sale of AR-15s, defendants chose to disregard the unreasonable risks the rifle posed,” Koskoff wrote in the 40-page complaint filed in Bridgeport Superior Court.
In addition to Bushmaster, the families are suing firearms distributor Camfour and Riverview Gun Sales, the now-closed gun shop in East Windsor, Conn. where the mother of mass-murderer Adam Lanza bought the Bushmaster.
“These companies assume no responsibility for marketing and selling a product to the general population who are not trained to use it nor even understand the power of it,” Bill Sherlach, whose school psychologist wife Mary was among the 26 victims, said in a statement.
Sherlach added that he supports the Second Amendment.
“But I also believe that the gun industry should be brought to bear the same business risk that every other business assumes when it comes to producing, marketing and selling a product,” he said.
There was no immediate response from Bushmaster. But the Protection of Lawful Commerce in Arms Act shields most gun makers and dealers from civil action “resulting from the criminal or unlawful misuse” of a firearm or ammunition. There are, however, some exceptions.
Lanza used a .223-caliber Bushmaster Model XM15 rifle — bought by his mother Nancy — to kill 20 first-graders and six staffers at the Sandy Hook school, according to the Connecticut State Police.
The disturbed 20-year-old used a Glock-20 pistol to finish himself off as cops were closing in, they said.
Lanza was also armed with a SIG Sauer 9-mm. semiautomatic pistol, although there is no evidence he fired that weapon. He used a .22-caliber rifle to kill his mother.
It was the second-deadliest mass school shooting in U.S. history. Despite that, the National Rifle Association and their Republican allies in Congress were able to thwart the federal government’s attempts to tighten gun control. And since Newtown, there have been 94 more school shootings.
http://www.nydailynews.com/news/nationa ... -1.2045616
Under USA court procedures, plaintiffs must provide legally verifiable proof of harm before any court will even consider awarding damages for a claim of negligence. In a wrongful death case this principle necessitates the disclosing of such subject-to-challenge "authentic" documents as crime-scene photos, autopsy reports, medical records, forensic-lab data, birth certificates, death certificates, school records, business records, financial records, eyewitness and survivor depositions etc.
So far it's hard to believe that all the above-named defendants were in on the scam/drill from the beginning, but in the intervening two years, of course, various and "highly persuasive" back-room deals could have been worked out. And if the defendants' lawyers all agree eventually to "settle out of court" and no trial ensues, or if the judge dithers and dithers (to generate maximum publicity) and then simply dismisses the case, the prime theatricality of the whole affair will only become more obvious than it already is.
