Sandy Hook victims’ families get access to gun manufacturer marketing records

Connecticut judge ruled on Thursday after family members questioned
whether the gun companies’ aggressively macho advertising of rifles
was irresponsible

Lois Beckett
Thursday 5 May 2016 22.51 BST

The family members of Sandy Hook shooting victims will get to see the internal records of how gun companies market military-style rifles, a Connecticut judge ruled on Thursday.

It is the latest in a string of victories for the Sandy Hook families in their longshot lawsuit against the manufacturer, distributor and dealer of the rifle used in the December 2012 school shooting in Newtown, Connecticut.

The Bushmaster XM15-E2S rifle used to kill 20 first-graders and six educators was a legal weapon, and it was sold legally to Nancy Lanza, who was also killed by the shooter, her son Adam Lanza.

In the wake of the shooting, some family members of victims questioned whether the gun companies’ aggressively macho advertising of military-style rifles was irresponsible, and whether gun companies were intentionally targeting their product to troubled, violent young men like Lanza.

Thursday’s ruling will give the families and their lawyers a chance to request internal documents and interviews with company officials to answer the question – even if their lawsuit arguing that gun companies were negligent to sell military-style weapons to civilians is ultimately unsuccessful.

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