Nine families of victims of the 2012 Sandy Hook Elementary School massacred have reached an agreement with the maker of the assault weapon.
The $73 million settlement seems to be the largest of its kind ever between a gun manufacturer and relatives of a mass shooting, the New York Times says.
The paper adds: “It also represents a significant setback to the firearm industry because the lawsuit, by employing a novel strategy, pierced the vast shield enshrined in federal law protecting gun companies from litigation.”
Josh Koskoff
The lead lawyer for the victims’ families — 5 children and 4 adults — is Josh Koskoff. The 1984 Staples High School graduate — and still a Westport resident — practices with Bridgeport-based Koskoff Koskoff & Bieder.
The Times explains:
The families contended that Remington, the gun maker, violated state consumer law by promoting the weapon in a way that appealed to so-called couch commandoes and troubled young men like the gunman who stormed into the elementary school on Dec. 14, 2012, killing 20 first graders and six adults in a spray of gunfire.
Koskoff said: “These 9 families have shared a single goal from the very beginning: to do whatever they could to help prevent the next Sandy Hook. It is hard to imagine an outcome that better accomplishes that goal.”
(Click here for the full New York Times article. In 2014, Koskoff appeared on “The Rachel Maddow Show” to discuss the lawsuit he’d just filed. Click here for that story.)
So fabulous!!!!! Mothers (and Grandmothers) demand actionable
I’m so glad that Josh Koskoff helped those grieving families make Remington pay for the horrors they promoted with their guns. How about our politicians in Washington do the same !
BRAVO!!! The Sandy Hook parents couldn’t even get background checks out of our dysfunctional Congress, hooray for the courts. You don’t murder 6 year olds and walk away free. Now let other victims’ parents join in the medley of other law suits forthcoming. Mississippi took down Big Tobacco, now Big Gun.
THANK YOU Attorney Koskoff! My nephew married Jennifer Soto, the cousin of Victoria Soto, a teacher who was murdered protecting her students!
Thank you Josh and your team for finally moving gun manufacturers towards accountability!! I’ve been following this and I’m so proud!
And in other news, the divorced parent of the Sandy Hook shooter who thought buying the situationally depressed kid a gun as a means of assuaging the hurt of his parents’ divorce skates off into the sunset like Tonya Harding from a kneecapping. Was that loud noise gunshots at K, K & B? No, it was the popping of champagne corks at the partners’ meeting.
I don’t recall reading anything that the father contributed to what happened at all. In fact, I remember reading reports that the father never had anything to do with any of the guns, it was 100% the mother, and Adam refused to have any relationship with his father. Please correct me if I am wrong.
Its quite possible for one parent to be a contributor/enabler and the other to be uninvolved/helpless. It sounds like the father was divorced for a reason and estranged from his ex-wife and this particular son. The mother obviously failed as a parent on many levels. I think your comments are unfair and unfounded.
Indeed, Joshua, Lanza’s father, who separated from his wife in 2002, broke all ties with his son in 2010 after Adam refused to answer any of his emails and declared he wanted to go to Norwalk Community College instead of a 4 year university. Both parents thought Lanza was extremely bright which the study from Yale, on his Asperger’s condition, disagreed. But the mother bought the various arsenal of weapons. As for the law firm, Bucky, they took a high risk case on contingency and WON! Bravo Zulu.
Yes CAS it was primarily the mother that prescribed a military style semi automatic weapon as child psychotherapy I should have been more specific. I do feel that both parents were more directly involved in shaping the tragic events than the executive handling the Remington Arms account. As to the father, I don’t agree with the idea that a non-custodial parent cedes their moral authority and responsibility for the outcome of the child. The attorneys at K, K & B are indeed shrewd businessmen and chose this case well. Being raised in Westport an intuition for following the money is highly presumptive. Hope you’re well old friend.
Me bad, Buck. I read your comment and Stein’s reply, thinking your focus was on the father. I did read the CT report on the tragedy and it would seem, Lanza (after armed) acted on his own without direct correlation to any mental illness. i.e. Aspberger’s. Seems to me that he was the product of two very “bulldozing” parents with super high expectations of which he could not meet. Following a bladder stone removal, training for the NYC Marathon with now, my lovely wife, Jammie. Safe, Buck.