You know how, when a drunk driver guzzles half a fifth, jump behind the wheel of his Honda Civic and winds up T-boning a soccer mom in her Grand Caravan, the mom then turns around and sues Jack Daniels?
Or how, when an abusive ex-boyfriend takes a kitchen cleaver to his former lover, her family starts chucking lawsuits at Cuisinart?
Yeah, me either.
But apparently, that’s what the Connecticut Supreme Court now thinks is totally understandable, given that they just cleared the way for families of Sandy Hook victims to sue Remington Arms, the gun manufacturer who made the AR-15 used by 20-year-old lunatic Adam Lanza to heinously shoot up a first-grade classroom back in 2012.
Despite a 2005 federal law preventing people from suing gun companies when their firearms are used to commit a crime, the state Supreme Court has said the case can proceed. The lawsuit alleges Remington should never have sold its Bushmaster AR-15 to the general public, with one the suit’s plaintiffs citing “reckless advertising and marketing” of the firearm that demands “accountability and responsibility.”
“I support the Second Amendment and the right to own firearms and guns, but on the other hand there’s reckless advertising and marketing,” said Neil Heslin, whose son, Jesse Lewis, was killed in the massacre nearly 7 years ago. “There should be accountability and responsibility for that.”
The AP notes the lawsuit "also alleges Remington targeted younger, at-risk males in marketing and product placement in violent video games."
The rifle Lanza used to massacre 26 people, many of them children, had been legally owned by his mother, whom Lanza shot and killed before heading to Sandy Hook Elementary School and going on his rampage.
Connecticut’s Democratic lawmakers, including Sens. Richard Blumenthal and Chris Murphy and Rep. Jahana Hayes, said in a statement that the 2005 federal law blocking most similar lawsuits against gun manufacturers needs to be repealed.
“For years, gun manufacturers have been allowed to operate with near-blanket immunity — producing weapons of war and marketing them to the masses with zero accountability,” they said. “This critical victory reinforces the need for Congress to pass legislation repealing the gun industry’s sweetheart immunity deal and unlocking the doors to justice for all victims of gun violence.”
So the next time an MS-13 gangbanger chops up a teenager’s body and dumps it in the woods, remember: it’s not him, our gang violence problem, or our utterly broken immigration system that’s to blame.
It’s all the machete’s fault.