Las Vegas Shooting Victim’s Family Sues Gunmakers, Distributors
There have been at least a dozen lawsuits filed since the Oct. 2017 shooting in Las Vegas that left 58 people dead, but the first against a gunmaker was filed on Tuesday (July 2).
The family of Carrie Parsons, a 31-year-old from Seattle, filed a lawsuit against Colt and seven other gunmakers, as well as gun shops in Utah and Nevada. The Associated Press reported the story on Wednesday morning (July 3). The lawsuit claims gunmakers marketed the ability of AR-15-style weapons to be modified, thus giving them the ability to fire continuously. There is a federal ban on automatic weapons.
During the shooting at the Route 91 Harvest Festival, a 64-year-old gunman modified his AR-15-style weapons with a bump stock to do just that. Bump stocks have since been banned. Parsons' family argues that the weapons are "thinly disguised" machine guns that manufacturers knew could be modified with or without a bump stock.
“It was only a question of when — not if — a gunman would take advantage of the ease of modifying AR-15s to fire automatically in order to substantially increase the body count during a mass shooting,” the lawsuit reads, according to the AP.
The lawyer representing Parsons' family is also representing families in a similar lawsuit born out of the 2012 shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn. Thus far rulings in these cases have favored gunmakers and manufacturers. Courts have rejected the cases based on a 2005 federal law that shields gunmakers.
The 58 victims were watching Jason Aldean headline the final day of the Route 91 Harvest Festival. Hundreds more were injured before the gunman took his own life.
Never Forget the 58 Victims of the Route 91 Shooting: