NEWTOWN — The families of nine Sandy Hook victims and one of the survivors asked the Connecticut Supreme Court Tuesday to hear their appeal after the case was struck down last month by a Superior Court judge in Bridgeport.
The suit alleges that the AR-15 assault weapon used in the shooting was negligently entrusted to the public, and that the defendants violated the Connecticut Unfair Trade Practices Act (CUTPA) in aggressively and unethically marketing the AR-15 to the public.
Describing the Newtown shooting as a “singular event in Connecticut history,” the families’ appeal argues that the state’s highest court should decide whether the sellers of the weapon used in the shooting can be held accountable under Connecticut law.
“The loss of twenty first-graders and six educators would shake any community to its core,” the appeal papers state. “Ours had to grapple with the manner in which those lives were lost. Children and teachers were gunned down in classrooms and hallways with a weapon that was designed for our armed forces and engineered to deliver maximum carnage. The assault was so rapid that no police force on earth could have been expected to stop it. Fifty-pound bodies were riddled with five, eleven, even thirteen bullets. This is not sensationalism. It is the reality the defendants created when they chose to sell a weapon of war and aggressively market its assaultive capabilities. Ten families who paid the price for those choices seek accountability through Connecticut common and statutory law. It is only appropriate that Connecticut’s highest court decide whether these families have the right to proceed.”
“Nothing will ever bring back my son, Dylan, or the other lives stolen from us on that awful day,” said Nicole Hockley, whose son, Dylan, was killed in the Sandy Hook shooting. “Our only goal in bringing this appeal is to help prevent the next Sandy Hook from happening and we have faith that Connecticut’s Supreme Court will take up what is literally a matter of life and death.”
“As a father who lost a bright and shining child, all we ask is for our day in court to address the negligence of these companies,” said David Wheeler, whose son, Benjamin, was also killed in the Sandy Hook shooting.
According to the lawsuit, the AR-15 is designed as a military weapon to inflict mass carnage. But, they allege, the weapons’ sellers, including Remington, aggressively market and sell the AR-15 to the public.
