Page 3 - ARUBA TODAY

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UP FRONT Thursday 4 July 2019

Family of deadly Vegas shooting victim sues gun makers

Continued from Front ing the firearms “as military and then misused that car
weapons and signaling to attack a group of pe-
The lawsuit is the latest case the weapon’s ability to be destrians.”
to challenge a federal law simply modified.” It alleges The attorney for the Par-
shielding gun manufactur- there are dozens of videos sons family, Joshua Koskoff,
ers from liability. It charges online showing people how is representing relatives of
that gun makers marketed to install bump stocks. victims of the Newtown
the ability of the AR-15-style “It was only a question of school massacre in a similar
weapons to be easily mod- when - not if - a gunman lawsuit. The Connecticut
ified to mimic machine would take advantage of Supreme Court in March
guns and fire continuously, the ease of modifying AR- ruled that gun-maker Rem-
violating both a state and 15s to fire automatically in ington could be sued for
federal ban on automatic order to substantially in- the way it marketed an AR-
weapons. A firearms indus- crease the body count,” 15-style rifle used to kill 20
try group said Wednesday the lawsuit states. first graders and six educa-
the man who opened fire Courts have typically re- This Oct. 3, 2017, file photo shows the Mandalay Bay resort and tors at Sandy Hook Elemen-
on a country music concert jected lawsuits against gun casino, right, overlooking an outdoor festival grounds across tary School in 2012. Rem-
is the only one responsible manufacturers and dealers the street, left, in Las Vegas. ington plans to appeal to
for the deaths. in other high-profile shoot- Associated Press the U.S. Supreme Court.q
Parsons and his wife Ann- ing attacks, citing a 2005
Marie argue in the law- federal law that shields gun
suit that the firearms are makers from liability in most
“thinly disguised” machine cases when their products
guns that the manufactur- are used in crimes.
ers knew could be easily Neither Colt nor any of the
modified, even without the other manufacturers im-
use of a “bump stock,” an mediately responded to
attachment used by the requests for comment from
Las Vegas gunman that al- The Associated Press. But
lowed him to fire in rapid a national trade associa-
succession. tion formed on behalf of
The Trump administration the firearms industry in 1961
banned bump stocks this said in an email to AP on
year, making it illegal to Wednesday there is no le-
possess them under the gal basis for the lawsuit.
same federal laws that pro- Lawrence G. Keane, senior
hibit machine guns. vice president and general
“We understand this is an counsel for the National
uphill battle,” Ann-Marie Shooting Sports Founda-
Parsons told the AP on tion, said the responsibility
Wednesday from their for the tragedy in Las Ve-
home in suburban Seattle. gas “rests with the criminal
“But somebody has got to who committed the violent
do something because the and reprehensible acts.”
carnage continues.” “It is wrong to blame the
“Losing our daughter is the manufacturers of legal,
worst thing that ever hap- non-defective products
pened to us. It is hurtful to lawfully sold for the actions
us every time we see these of a madman,” he wrote.
things happen,” she said. “Doing so would be like at-
The lawsuit charges the tempting to hold Ford re-
manufacturers showed a sponsible for a deranged
“reckless lack of regard for criminal who affixes after-
public safety” by advertis- market parts to a Mustang