US Judge Rules Sandy Hook Victims Can Sue "Military-Style" Gun-Maker

zero hedge ^ | 4/14/15 | tyler durden

[Nachum]

In a somewhat stunning decision, SkyNews reports that a US judge has ruled that the families of victims in the 2012 massacre at Sandy Hook Elementary School can sue the maker of the weapon used in the attack, arguing the Bushmaster rifle is a military weapon that should not have been sold to civilians.

As SkyNews reports,

Gun companies had sought to reject the negligence and wrongful death lawsuit filed two years after the attack by nine victims' relatives and a survivor.

 

But Connecticut Superior Court Judge Barbara Bellis said a 2005 federal law protecting gun-makers from lawsuits does not shield the companies from legal action in this case.

 

She ruled that lawyers for the victims' families can still argue the semi-automatic rifle is a military weapon and should not have been sold to civilians.

 

The legal action names Remington Arms, maker of the Bushmaster AR-15 rifle, model XM15-E2S, as well as the distributor and seller.

 

A lawyer for the families, Josh Koskoff, welcomed Thursday's news that the lawsuit can proceed.

 

"We are thrilled that the gun companies' motion to dismiss was denied," he said.

 

"The families look forward to continuing their fight in court."

[mylife]

Good to hear.

[marktwain]

Thank you for your thoughtful and informative reply about the judge.

Perhaps she made a mistake; it is a very politically and emotionally convenient mistake in this case.

I hope that she is every bit as competent and unbiased as you suggest.

If so, she is abysmally ignorant of firearms and firearms law.

[huldah1776]

They have switches? Do they have safeties? You can tell I’m a former Marine mom and not a Marine, right? LOL don’t tell him I don’t know how to take ‘em apart ‘n put ‘em back together in the dark either.

[huldah1776]

oh, don’t worry, they will.

[BlackElk]

She is a fine lady and wife and mother and qite professionally accomplished. She is at least privately pro-life and pro-family and very religious. I doubt that she has even a nodding acquaintance with firearms. They are probably just not a part of her life or experience. To the Barbara Bellis I know that lack of experience should not have affected her judgment. She listens to the facts and applies the law. I'd like to see her memorandum of decision, if any, explaining her decision because it may well reveal a strictly procedural decision having nothing to do with substance.

She may be allowing the anti-gun nuts to make their argument so that they can be slapped down on the substance at leisure.

Also, in fairness, our Second Amendment successes are fairly recent. The courts were rather uniformly anti-gun rights until Congress passed McClure/Volkmer in the 1980s and SCOTUS handed down Heller vs. DC (a true 2nd Amendment Magna Carta if it survives,see particularly Clarence Thomas's concurring opinion based largely on the work of a black Socialist college professor friend of mine (Robert Cottrell) as to the RTKBA of freed slaves being one of the primary reasons for the 14th Amendment.

[bayouranger]

Yep.

Caravan To Midnight - The Wolf of Sandy Hook Comes Aboard
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZD3kCcHVwZw

[smokingfrog]

In the beltway sniper case, there was a lcivil awsuit as well.

In 2003, Malvo and Muhammad were named in a major civil lawsuit by the Legal Action Project of the Brady Center to Prevent Gun Violence on behalf of two of their victims who were seriously wounded and the families of some of those murdered. Although Malvo and Muhammad were each believed to be indigent, codefendants Bull’s Eye Shooter Supply and Bushmaster Firearms, Inc. contributed to a landmark $2.5 million out-of-court settlement in late 2004. [wiki]