A judge is to decide whether or not to drop the case after the maker of the gun used in the 2012 shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School asked the lawsuit, filed by some of the victims' families, to be dismissed.
In a report by Reuters, the lawsuit was filed in December of 2014, with the families seeking financial damages at an unspecified amount. An AR-15 assault weapon was used by the 20-year-old attacker Adam Lanza to kill 20 children and six educators at the school located in Newtown, Connecticut. He killed his mother at their home, before he went to school and proceeded with the rampage. He then turned his gun t himself after hearing police sirens.
The lawsuit claims that the gun should never have been sold as it has no "reasonable civilian purpose." Bridgeport Superior Court Judge Barbara Bellis has scheduled a hearing for the attempt to drop the case against the company called Bushmaster. The gunmaker, which is privately owned, expects Bellis to dismiss the litigation citing the 2005 Protection of Lawful Commerce in Arms Act, which protects gunmakers from being liable when their products are used criminally. Bellis is set to rule within the next two months, Business Day reported.
Despite the claim of the gunmaker regarding the law, one of the plaintiffs, Bill Sherlach, whose wife was a school psychologist and was killed in the attack, said that the law did not allow the unrestricted sales of weapons such as AR-15.
One of the lawyers for the victims' families, Joshua Koskoff, also released a statement saying the lawsuit filed against Bushmaster is believed to be the first to be filed under an exception listed in the federal law, News 8 reported. He pointed out that the families are just asking for accountability. Another plaintiff, Nicole Hockley, whose son died in the shooting, added that Lanza was aware of what the AR-15 could do and that is why he chose that weapon in the shooting.
After the deadly incident Connecticut's Democratic governor, Dannel Malloy, implemented stricter gun laws. He has banned more than 100 types of military-style rifles and limited ammunition magazines to 10 bullets.
