The quote of the day is presented by Guns.com.
This Friday, the Supreme Court could decide whether to hear the case of Remington Arms v. Soto. That’s the wrongful death case in which a group of parents of Newtown victims and one survivor sued Remington, maker of the Bushmaster rifle used by the spree killer at Sandy Hook Elementary.
While lower courts ruled that Remington couldn’t be sued for selling the rifle (the PLCAA protects the company when their products are used to break the law), the Connecticut Supreme Court ruled that the suit could go forward because Remington allegedly violated the state’s unfair trade practices law.
Remington then appealed the Connecticut court’s decision to the SCOTUS. The Court will consider Big Green’s cert application on Friday, when they could accept the case, deny it (letting the Connecticut case proceed to discovery) or table it for future consideration.
The Connecticut Supreme Court agreed with a lower court judge that one element of the case cannot be tried, saying that the federal shield law precluded the families’ argument that Remington had “negligently entrusted” a weapon of war to an untrained civilian population.
But in a 4-to-3 ruling, the Connecticut justices upheld another element of the families’ case, saying the lawsuit could continue to trial under the state consumer protection law. “Connecticut law does not permit advertisements that promote or encourage violent, criminal behavior,” the decision said.
The lawsuit, filed in 2014 by the families of nine victims and a teacher who was shot and survived, accuses Remington of using militaristic and hypermasculine advertising for its Bushmaster AR-15-style rifle in order to attract disturbed young men like the Sandy Hook killer. On its website, Bushmaster advertised the rifle with the “man card” slogan and the tagline, “If it’s good enough for the military, it’s good enough for you.”
– Kristin Hussey and Elizabeth Williamson in Supreme Court to Weigh Taking Bellwether Case Against Gun Industry
That “militaristic and hypermasculine” advertising was apparently too much for Nancy Lanza, who bought the Bushmaster rifle, to resist.
