An injured teacher and the families of nine others who were killed in Newtown in 2012 are planning to file suit against the gun industry.
The lawsuitsays the companies that made, distributed, and sold the rifle used to kill 26 people at the Sandy Hook Elementary School should be held accountable.
The rifle in question is the Bushmaster AR-15. The plaintiffs said the companies that made and sold the guns knew they would end up in the hands of people who shouldn't own them -- people like Adam Lanza.
Josh Koskoff is their attorney. "Once it became clear that civilians used these weapons of war and have used them disproportionately to murder innocent people, Bushmaster, at least by then, should have done something to stop selling them and exposing the greater public to the risk of these weapons being used for mass murder," he said.
Timothy Lytton, who teaches at the Albany Law School, said federal law allows suits against someone who sells a gun directly to a person unfit to posses it, provided that person then misuses the weapon. The question is whether that same logic can be used against gun makers, too.
"Judges, like everybody else, have varying views about what the responsibilities of industry are in health and safety, and, in particular, what the responsibilities of gun manufacturers are in gun violence," Lytton said.
The company did not return calls for comment.
