By Elizabeth Chuck—
NBC News
The families of nine victims of the 2012 Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting have reached a historic settlement with Remington, the maker of the rifle used in the massacre, according to court documents.
It is the first time a weapons manufacturer has been held responsible for a mass shooting in the United States.
The families will get
$73 million
, according to The Associated Press news agency, after a protracted legal battle over how the gunmaker marketed their firearm.
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In the December 2012 massacre of 20 first graders and six educators in Newtown, Connecticut, the shooter used a Bushmaster-style AR-15 rifle;
he had previously killed his mother.
After perpetrating the murders, he committed suicide.
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In their lawsuit against Remington, which has since filed for bankruptcy, the families of the victims argued that the manufacturer irresponsibly marketed its gun to young people who posed a risk to public safety, such as the Sandy Hook killer, through
video games .
violent.
Remington, based in Madison, North Carolina, has denied the allegations in the lawsuit.
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At a press conference Tuesday morning, the families' lawyer, Joshua Koskoff, began by showing photos of the victims and described details of the last days of their lives: the Christmas music that teacher Victoria Soto listened to while driving to the job;
the favorite cafeteria breakfast she liked to eat first grader Jesse Lewis;
the Hanukkah candles that 6-year-old Noah Pozner proudly lit for the first time.
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Last July, Remington attorneys offered nearly $33 million to the families to settle the lawsuit.
At the time, Joshua Koskoff praised the insurers for it.
"They deserve credit for now realizing that promoting the use of AR-15s as weapons of war for civilians is indefensible. Ensuring this type of conduct is an unprofitable and unsustainable business model," he said in a statement, as reported by The Associated Press.
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The path to a settlement has been rocky: The lawsuit made its way to the state Supreme Court after Remington argued it should be protected under a federal law designed to prevent gunmakers from being held responsible for crimes in those who used their weapons.
In 2019, the Supreme Court said it would allow the lawsuit to proceed.
In September, a couple of months after submitting its settlement offer, Remington subpoenaed school records for the children and educators killed in the massacre.
The families' lawyers immediately requested that the records be sealed.
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“We have no explanation as to why Remington subpoenaed the Newtown Public School District to obtain kindergarten and first grade academic, attendance and disciplinary records for these five schoolchildren,” Koskoff said, according to the Connecticut Post.
“The records cannot excuse Remington's egregious marketing conduct, nor be of any help in estimating the catastrophic damages in this case.
The only relevant part of their attendance records is that they were at their desks on December 14, 2012,” he added.
