In a bold legal move, families of the victims from the tragic 2022 Uvalde school shooting have launched lawsuits against tech giants Meta and Microsoft, alongside gunmaker Daniel Defense. These lawsuits claim the companies collaborated to market dangerous weapons to impressionable teens, including the shooter involved in the Uvalde massacre.
The wrongful death complaints allege that Georgia-based Daniel Defense used Instagram and the popular video game Call of Duty, developed by Activision Blizzard and its parent company Microsoft, to promote its assault-style rifles to teenage boys. The suits argue that Meta and Microsoft facilitated this marketing strategy through lax oversight.
When reached for comment, Meta, Microsoft, and Daniel Defense did not provide immediate responses. The Entertainment Software Association, representing the video game industry, issued a statement expressing sorrow over the violence while discouraging what they termed as “baseless accusations” linking such tragedies to video games.
The horrific event at Robb Elementary School on May 24, 2022, saw an 18-year-old gunman, armed with a Daniel Defense rifle, take the lives of 19 children and two teachers. The lawsuits were filed on the two-year anniversary of the massacre by Koskoff Koskoff & Bieder, the same law firm that secured a $73 million settlement from Remington for families affected by the Sandy Hook shooting.
One lawsuit, filed in Los Angeles Superior Court, accuses Instagram of providing an unsupervised channel for gun manufacturers to reach minors. It also claims that Call of Duty creates a highly realistic and addictive environment of violence, teaching teenage boys to kill with ease using real-life weapons.
The Uvalde shooter reportedly played Call of Duty extensively and was obsessed with Instagram, where Daniel Defense advertised its products. The complaint alleges this fixation led him to acquire the weapon used in the massacre, despite never having fired a gun before.
Another lawsuit, filed in Uvalde County District Court, accuses Daniel Defense of targeting adolescent boys with its advertisements to cultivate lifelong customers. Lawyer Josh Koskoff, representing the families, stated, “This three-headed monster knowingly exposed him to the weapon, conditioned him to see it as a tool to solve his problems and trained him to use it.”
Daniel Defense is already facing other lawsuits from victims’ families, with CEO Marty Daniel previously dismissing such litigation as “frivolous” and “politically motivated.”
In related news, the victims’ families have also sued nearly 100 state police officers for what the U.S. Justice Department has deemed a botched emergency response. Additionally, they reached a $2 million settlement with the city of Uvalde, while several other suits against public agencies are still pending.
