Josh Koskoff: State Fight Against Gun Violence Has National Impact

Josh Koskoff did not plan to be a gun rights advocate.

He certainly did not set out to achieve a $73 million settlement for 9 Sandy Hook families — the only such victory against a gun manufacturer for a mass shooting in US history.

But social justice law is in his DNA. Koskoff — a 1984 Staples High School graduate — is the third generation at the Bridgeport firm of Koskoff Koskoff &  Bieder.

Like his father and grandfather, he believes strongly that a lawyer’s role is to improve his clients’ lives through the legal system.

On May 6 (6:30 p.m., Fairfield Theatre Company), Koskoff will tell that story — and others, like his role in a nearly $1.5 billion victory over conspiracy theorist Alex Jones, who claimed the Sandy Hook shooting was staged, and the families were actors.

Josh Koskoff

In the decade since he got involved with Sandy Hook cases, Koskoff has become one of the strongest voices in America against the carnage that guns — specifically, assault weapons — wreak.

Koskoff has particular respect for Connecticut Against Gun Violence. The non-profit advocacy and education organization is, he says, “leaner, meaner and more effective than any anti-gun violence group, of any size. They punch way above their weight.”

CAGV is the sponsor of the May 6 event. They’ve had high profile speakers before — like Fred Guttenberg, whose daughter was killed in the Parkland massacre.

But Koskoff will be special. His legal work has given him unique insights into gun manufacturers’ marketing methods — and their effects.

Plus, he’s a hometown boy.

Growing up, Koskoff says, “I always thought all lawyers stuck their necks out for the little guy,” like his father and grandfather’s firm did.

He later realized that was not the case. Still, in the months after Sandy Hook — though the proximity to that violence disturbed him — he was not a gun issue activist.

“I thought that battle had been fought, and lost,” Koskoff says.

A chance encounter with his driver on the way to the airport changed his professional life.

And American history.

The driver asked what Koskoff did for work. He said he was a lawyer (“I never know the reaction to that,” he notes wryly).

Josh Koskoff, in court.

The driver said he worked a second job with the father of Victoria Soto. The 1st grade teacher was one of 26 victims at Sandy Hook. The driver asked if he could give his colleague Koskoff’s name.

Of course, the attorney replied. He figured there were questions about probate, or the distribution of donated funds.

But as he learned more — and saw victims’ families speaking out for stricter laws in Hartford (with some success) and Washington (much less) — he realized there was much more to do.

“It was the privilege of being a lawyer,” Koskoff says.

The Remington Arms case — alleging that the manufacturer aggressively marketed the Bushmaster AR-15-style rifle used in the attack, targeting young, at-risk individuals, and violating Connecticut’s Unfair Trade Practices Act — took 7 years to work its way through courts.

Josh Koskoff, in his office. (Photo/Monica Jorge for the New York Times)

Along the way, Koskoff and his associates unearthed — and made public — thousands of internal documents, showing in raw detail Remington’s marketing strategy.

One of the keys through the long process, Koskoff says, was “staying optimistic in the face of daunting odds.” Rather than feeling constrained by legal precedents, the more information he amassed, the more he understood the importance of the case.

Not knowing much about gun laws was, he said, an opportunity rather than a hindrance. It allowed him to be open-minded and creative in his approach.

Josh Koskoff and Rachel Koskoff discuss his legal approach.

When the state of Connecticut released crime scene photos — including those of 2 rounds of 30 bullets each, taped together to allow continuous shooting with virtually no down time — Koskoff had an “aha” moment.

He realized the image came directly from Call of Duty. Koskoff had played the shoot-’em-up video game series as a way to spend time with his sons.

The hair on his forearm literally stood up, as Koskoff recognized the direct through line from the media franchise to the assault rifle used by the Sandy Hook shooter.

“This was content and branding meant to reach kids,” the attorney says.

That was reinforced when documents showed that the private equity firm behind Remington boasted of the effect of marketing on young demographics — and the bright future ahead.

“Get me to a jury, and let me read this!” Koskoff thought. “Even I couldn’t lose that case.”

In 2023, Josh Koskoff showed the Bushmaster AR-15, at a talk to the Westport Rotary Club.

However, he needed a way to prove the relationship between marketing actions, and the actual outcome in the elementary school.

That came through contract documents indicating a quid pro quo between the owner of the manufacturer and Activision — the maker of Call of Duty — showing links between the video game and Bushmaster, the AR-15 rifle used in Newtown.

The $73 million settlement — paid for out of insurance — “shattered the myth that gun manufacturers are immune from lawsuits,” Koskoff says. “That was huge.”

Koskoff’s victory has not stopped mass shootings. Nor has his firm’s win in the Alex Jones case stopped conspiracy theorists.

But they’re enormous steps forward. They set precedents, and send warnings.

And — at a time when the legal system seems to be tottering — they show that lawyers can still stick their necks out for the little guy.

(For more information about the May 6 Connecticut Against Gun Violence spring benefit, click here.)

Josh Koskoff discussed the Alex Jones Infowars case, at the Westport Library. (Photo/Ted Horowitz)