Source: AFP
Several families whose children were killed or injured in a mass shooting at their school in Texas two years ago are suing the gun maker as well as Instagram and video game company Activision for marketing the weapon, their attorney said Friday.
Nineteen young children and two teachers were killed in Uvalde on May 24, 2022, when a teenage gunman went on a rampage with an AR-15 assault rifle at Robb Elementary School, in America’s deadliest school shooting in a decade.
The families are accusing the companies of wrongful death and gross negligence, saying gun maker Daniel Defense, as well as Meta-owned Instagram and Microsoft’s Activision, whose video game “Call of Duty” features the gun, released it to “insecure, teenage boys,” according to a statement from attorney Josh Koskoff.
Koskoff insisted there was a direct line between the companies’ conduct and the Uvalde shooting because the gunman bought the gun just after he turned 18, the legal age in Texas to buy long guns such as rifles.
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“Long before he was old enough to buy it, he was targeted and cultivated online by Instagram, Activision and Daniel Defense,” Koskoff said in his statement.
“This three-headed monster knowingly exposed him to the weapon, degraded him to see it as a tool to solve his problems, and trained him to use it.”
Activision released a statement saying the Uvalde shooting was “horrific and heartbreaking in every way” and offered its condolences to the families.
He added: “Millions of people around the world enjoy video games without resorting to horrible acts.”
Meta and Daniel Defense did not immediately respond to AFP’s request for comment.
Earlier this week, the Uvalde families reached a $2 million settlement with the Texas city over what the Justice Department called “critical failures” by police in their response to the shooting.
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Officers eventually shot and killed the gunman, but waited more than an hour before storming the classroom where he was hiding.
School shootings have become a regular occurrence in a country where about a third of adults own a firearm and regulations on the purchase of even powerful military-style rifles are lax.
Source: AFP