The families of schoolchildren shot at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Tex., in 2022 filed two lawsuits on Friday accusing Instagram, publisher of the “Call of Duty” video game and a manufacturer of semiautomatic rifles of helping to train and equip the teenage gunman. The lawsuits were filed on the second anniversary of the shooting, in which 19 fourth-graders and two teachers were killed in their classrooms by an 18-year-old gunman who had purchased his weapon — an AR-15-style rifle — a few days before, the New York Times reports. While much attention has focused on the flawed police response, the two suits — one in California, the other in Texas — focus on the gunman and the companies that he interacted with leading up to the shooting. The suits contend that each company took part in “grooming” the teen to become a mass shooter.
The suits are among the most far-reaching actions filed in response to the escalating total of mass shootings. The California suit, which names the publisher Activision, was one of the first to go after a video game maker for helping to promote weapons used in mass shootings. The suits argue that gun maker Daniel Defense would not have been able to connect with the socially isolated gunman in rural Texas, without the help of the technology and video game companies. A spokeswoman for Activision said “millions of people around the world enjoy video games without turning to horrific acts.” lTe Uvalde families' lawyer is Josh Koskoff, who in 2022 reached a $73 million settlement with Remington, the maker of another AR-15-style rifle used in the Sandy Hook elementary school shooting that left 26 people dead in 2012. “Daniel Defense is a predator but can’t get to the prey without the help of these other third parties,” said Koskoff, who is representing Uvalde families in a suit filed last week over the police response. The families announced a $2 million settlement with the City of Uvalde last this week.