Supreme Court Clears Path For Newtown Shooting Victims' Families to Sue Gunmaker
The United States Supreme Court has denied a bid from gun manufacturer Remington Arms Co. to quash a civil lawsuit filed by the families of those killed in the Sandy Hook Elementary School shootings, PEOPLE confirms.
The Supreme Court offered no explanation for why it wouldn’t entertain the gunmaker’s appeal. The decision was announced on Tuesday.
Remington had filed an appeal with the Supreme Court after Connecticut’s Supreme Court ruled in March the Sandy Hook lawsuit — which was first filed in 2014, a little more than three years after the 2012 mass shooting that killed 26 people, including 20 first-graders — could move forward.
That ruling overturned a Connecticut superior court’s decision that would have ended the lawsuit.
Tuesday’s decision means the civil case will now proceed in Connecticut, but it is unclear when court proceedings will formally begin in that state.
RELATED: Tragedy in Newtown: Remember Forever
In December of 2012, Adam Lanza went on a shooting spree at Sandy Hook Elementary School, killing 20 students and six educators before turning the gun on himself. Lanza also shot and killed his mother in their home earlier that morning.
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The civil suit alleges that Remington has negligently sold military-grade firearms to civilians. But the gun manufacturer maintains a 2005 federal law shields them from such litigation.
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“The families are grateful that the Supreme Court upheld precedent and denied Remington’s latest attempt to avoid accountability,” Josh Koskoff, the attorney representing the families, said in a statement obtained by NBC News in Connecticut.
It concludes: “We are ready to resume discovery and proceed toward trial in order to shed light on Remington’s profit-driven strategy to expand the AR-15 market and court high-risk users at the expense of Americans’ safety.”
A spokesperson for the gunmaker was unavailable at press time.
