The gun industry suffered a stinging setback as Connecticut’s top court said families of victims of the 2012 Sandy Hook Elementary School massacre could move ahead with their lawsuit against Remington Arms Co. over its marketing of military-style Bushmaster weapons.
In a first-of-its-kind decision, the state Supreme Court said the families could sue for "wrongful" marketing under a state unfair-trade practice law. The court, reinstating a suit dismissed by a trial judge in 2016, adopted the families' novel way around a federal law that protects the gun industry from liability.
Just by getting the suit to trial, the families hope to gain access to gunmakers' internal communications, which may aid others seeking to pursue similar suits growing out of gun violence.