Gun-maker pays Sandy Hook kin $73 million in shooting

Families of nine victims of the Sandy Hook Elementary School massacre agreed Tuesday to a $73 million settlement against Remington Arms, the maker of the rifle used in the 2012 shooting.

The settlement was announced after a decade of litigation and will be paid by four insurers only to the families who signed onto the lawsuit.

It isn't the first settlement between victims and a gun manufacturer, but it is believed to be the largest involving a gun-maker and relatives of mass shooting victims.

The Bushmaster AR-15-style rifle was used by Adam Lanza, 20, on Dec 14 a decade ago to kill 20 first graders and six teachers at the school in Newtown, Connecticut, after he killed his mother at their Newtown home. When police arrived at the school, he killed himself.

When the lawsuit was filed in 2014 in Connecticut, it was thought to have little chance of success because of the Protection of Lawful Commerce in Arms Act, passed in 2005 and signed by President George W. Bush, which blocks most lawsuits against the gun industry brought by victims and their families.

Bush praised the legislation as a necessary safeguard to "stem frivolous lawsuits". Remington had said the lawsuit should have been dismissed because of the law.

The Connecticut Supreme Court ruled that Remington could be sued under state law over how it marketed the rifle, under an exception to the federal law. The gun-maker appealed to the US Supreme Court, which declined to hear the case. Remington had proposed settling with the families for $33 million last year as a trial date loomed.

However, the lawyers eventually cracked the door by focusing on marketing practices that violate state and federal law.

Documents uncovered during the legal battle indicated that the industry knew about the dangers but hid facts from consumers. The plaintiffs accused Remington of knowingly marketing their products in a way to encourage illegal behavior. They alleged that Remington promoted the rifle with young and at-risk males like the Sandy Hook shooter in mind. One Remington ad featured the rifle with a phrase: "Consider Your Man Card Reissued".

Remington, founded in 1816, was one of the nation's oldest gun-makers. It filed for bankruptcy a second time in 2020 as it faced lawsuits and retail sales restrictions after the Sandy Hook shooting. Its assets were later sold off to several companies.

As part of the agreement, Remington has agreed to release internal company documents. The families have said that their primary goal was to pry open the industry and expose it to more scrutiny through the lawsuit.

Matthew Soto, brother of Victoria Soto, said her sister was murdered as she was getting ready to make gingerbread houses with her first grade students.

"We launched this lawsuit for accountability. We want to know just how pervasive the advertising from those gun manufactures went, and what we found (was) horrific," Soto said at the news conference Tuesday.

"The gun manufacturers knew they were advertising a dangerous product and they exploited these dangers. Simply put, they prioritized their profit over the safety of Americans," Soto said.

When mass shootings were giving the AR-15 a bad name, the industry rebranded it and named it Modern Sporting Rifle, "a slap to the face of all the victims who had been previously killed with the same exact weapon", Soto said.