US Supreme Court takes up gunmaker liability case

HARTFO RD: With both gun rights supporters and gun control advocates nationwide looking on, lawyers for Newtown families and gun maker Remington Arms are set to face off before the Connecticut Supreme Court to argue whether the company should be held liable for the Sandy Hook Elementary School massacre.

Gunman Adam Lanza killed 20 first-graders and six educators on Dec 14, 2012, with a Bushmaster AR-15-style rifle, the same type of firearm used in other mass shootings including at a church in Sutherland Springs, Texas, earlier this month.

Lanza also fatally shot his mother at their Newtown home and killed himself as police arrived at the school.

Lawyers for a survivor and relatives of nine people killed in Newtown sued Bushmaster maker Remington, saying such a dangerous weapon initially designed for the military should have never been marketed and sold to the public.

The Madison, North Carolinabased company counters that the rifles are legal and the lawsuit is not allowed under federal law.

A lower Connecticut court judge agreed with Remington and dismissed the lawsuit in October 2016, citing the 2005 federal Protection of Lawful Commerce in Arms Act that shields gun makers in most cases from liability over criminal use of their products.

The ruling led to yesterday’s state Supreme Court appeal. — AP