Family of Uvalde school shooting victim sues Meta, Microsoft, gun manufacturer

Families of victims of elementary school 2022 School shooting in UvaldeTexas, filed two lawsuits on Friday against Instagram’s parent company Meta, Activate Blizzard and its parents Microsoft and gunman Defend Danielclaimed that they cooperated to market dangerous weapons to impressionable teenagers like the Uvalde shooter.

Together, the wrongful death claims allege that Daniel Defense – a Georgia-based gun manufacturer – used Instagram and Activision’s Call of Duty video game to market assault-style rifles to teenage boys, while Meta and Microsoft facilitate this strategy with lax oversight and no oversight. care about the consequences.

Meta, Microsoft and Daniel Defense did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

In one of the deadliest school shootings in history, 19 children and two teachersS was killed on May 24, 2022, when an 18-year-old gunman armed with a Daniel Defense rifle entered Robb Elementary School and barricaded himself inside adjacent classrooms with dozens of students.

The complaints were filed on the second anniversary of the massacre by Koskoff Koskoff & Bieder, the same law firm that reached a $73 million settlement with rifle maker Remington in 2022 on behalf of families of children killed in the mass shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School. school in 2012.

The first lawsuit, filed in Los Angeles Superior Court, accuses Meta’s Instagram of providing gun manufacturers “an unmonitored channel to speak directly to minors, in their homes.” them, at school, even in the middle of the night”, with only credit card surveillance.

The complaint also alleges that Activision’s popular war game Call of Duty “creates a realistic and addictive theater of violence in which teenage boys learn to kill with remarkable skill.” scary and easy”, using real-life weapons as models for the game’s guns.

The Uvalde shooter played Call of Duty — among other weapons an assault-style rifle made by Daniel Defense, according to the lawsuit — and obsessively visited Instagram, where Daniel Defense often advertises.

As a result, the suit alleges, he determined to purchase the same weapon and use it to commit the murders, even though he had never before fired a gun in real life.

The second lawsuit, filed in Uvalde District Court, accuses Daniel Defense of intentionally targeting its advertising at teenage boys in an effort to attract lifelong customers.

“There is a direct connection between the conduct of these companies and the Uvalde shooting,” Josh Koskoff, one of the family’s attorneys, said in a statement. “This three-headed monster intentionally exposed him to the weapon, conditioned him to see it as a tool to solve problems, and trained him to use it.”

Daniel Defense is currently facing additional lawsuits filed by the families of some of the victims. In a 2022 statement, CEO Marty Daniel called such litigation “frivolous” and “politically motivated.”

Earlier this week, families of the victims announced a separate lawsuit against nearly 100 state police officers who participated in what the U.S. Department of Justice concluded was a botched emergency response. The families also reached a $2 million settlement with the city of Uvalde.

Several other lawsuits against various public agencies are still pending.