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Remington Asks US Supreme Court To Hear Sandy Hook Liability Case

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The maker of the gun used in the Sandy Hook, Connecticut, school shooting asked the U.S. Supreme Court Thursday to hear an appeal of a state ruling that revived a wrongful death suit against the company.

Remington Arms asked the nation’s highest court to hear an appeal of a March Connecticut Supreme Court ruling that reinstated a lawsuit against it over marketing messaging for the AR-15 rifle gunman Adam Lanza used in the 2012 shooting that killed 26, Reuters reported.

Remington has argued it is protected by the 2005 Protection of Lawful Commerce in Arms Act (PLCAA), which prohibits civil actions against ammunition and firearm dealers, builders or trade groups when a firearm is used to commit a crime. 

House Democrats have introduced legislation several times to repeal the PLCAA, arguing that gun makers should be held responsible for gun crimes. Gun rights advocates have responded by comparing the gun industry to automakers.

“It’s like blaming Ford or General Motors for the negligent use of their cars,” Lawrence Keane, senior vice president of government affairs for the National Shooting Sports Foundation, told the Daily Caller News Foundation in June. “It is wrong to hold the gun or any other industry liable for the criminal misuse of non-defective products sold lawfully.”

Remington attorneys say the Connecticut court’s ruling could open up gun makers to endless lawsuits.

“This case is an archetypical example of the kind of lawsuit Congress sought to preempt,” Remington’s lawyers wrote in court documents Reuters obtained.