In February this year, the families of the victims of the 2012 Sandy Hook massacre reached a $73 million settlement with gun manufacturer Remington and its four insurers. The parties achieved the settlement more than seven years after the families filed a wrongful-death lawsuit against Remington, the manufacturer of the Bushmaster AR-15-style rifle used in the massacre that left 20 children and six adults dead in Newtown, Connecticut.
The settlement also resulted in the families obtaining and being able to make public thousands of pages of internal Remington company documents that exemplify the company's wrongdoing and carry important lessons on preventing future mass shootings.
The case alleged that Remington should be held at least partially liable for the shooting because of its marketing strategies extolled the militaristic qualities of the rifle and reinforced the image of a combat weapon in violation of a Connecticut law that prevents deceptive marketing practices. The rifle was "designed as a military weapon" and "engineered to deliver maximum carnage" with extreme efficiency, according to legal briefs.