Good or bad?
http://www.cnn.com/2016/02/22/health/sandy-hook-families-gun-lawsuit/index.html
(CNN)To hear Jackie Barden and David Wheeler describe their lives today is a master class in hope.
On December 14, 2012, Barden's youngest son, Daniel, and Wheeler's son, Ben, were among those killed at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut.
"(My husband) Mark and I still have a great life, and we really have to remember that," Barden said, adding that their two children bring the family an enormous amount of love and strength. "We are fortunate with what we have with the two of them."
"I am a completely different person," she said, referring to the life she leads since her son was killed.
Wheeler said his life has changed in every way.
"It's not as though there aren't moments of hope and beauty in every second of every day, because there are," he said. "The trick is finding them ... when you don't feel like you can."
What gets him out of bed, he said, is the challenge of making sure no more parents or families have to endure what they did: 20 children and six educators killed when a young man unloaded 154 rounds from an AR-15 semiautomatic rifle.
That rifle is based on an automatic, lightweight weapon originally commissioned by the U.S. military. The only limit to the speed the AR-15 fires is how fast a shooter can pull the trigger for each round.
"Each of the kids had three to eight bullets in them," Barden said. "There is just something wrong if that can happen."
Wheeler and Barden are part of a potentially precedent-setting lawsuit seeking accountability fromgun-maker Remington.
"Our families deserve that day in court," said Joshua Koskoff, an attorney representing nine victims' families and a teacher who survived. "We believe they should be accountable to their fair share that result from criminal misuse of their product -- in this case the AR-15 rifle.
"It's always been a big uphill battle for plaintiffs to sue the gun industry," said Georgia State University law professor Timothy Lytton. "It was even before the immunity (legislation), and it's an even bigger one now."
One exception to the immunity legislation is what's called "negligent entrustment."
"Say a gun retailer handed a gun to a visibly intoxicated person, then they're not subject to the immunity," said Lytton, who studies gun industry litigation.
You might ask: Since Remington did not come into direct contact with the shooter -- that happened at a gun retailer -- how would that apply? The lawsuit argues that the way in which the company sells and markets a military-style weapon to the civilian market is a form of negligent entrustment.
"Remington took a weapon that was made to the specs of the U.S. military for the purpose of killing enemy soldiers in combat -- and that weapon in the military is cared for with tremendous amount of diligence, in terms of training, storage, who gets the weapon, and who can use it," Koskoff, the attorney for the families, said. "They took that same weapon and started peddling it to the civilian market for the purposes of making a lot of money."
http://www.cnn.com/2016/02/22/health/sandy-hook-families-gun-lawsuit/index.html
(CNN)To hear Jackie Barden and David Wheeler describe their lives today is a master class in hope.
On December 14, 2012, Barden's youngest son, Daniel, and Wheeler's son, Ben, were among those killed at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut.
"(My husband) Mark and I still have a great life, and we really have to remember that," Barden said, adding that their two children bring the family an enormous amount of love and strength. "We are fortunate with what we have with the two of them."
"I am a completely different person," she said, referring to the life she leads since her son was killed.
Wheeler said his life has changed in every way.
"It's not as though there aren't moments of hope and beauty in every second of every day, because there are," he said. "The trick is finding them ... when you don't feel like you can."
What gets him out of bed, he said, is the challenge of making sure no more parents or families have to endure what they did: 20 children and six educators killed when a young man unloaded 154 rounds from an AR-15 semiautomatic rifle.
That rifle is based on an automatic, lightweight weapon originally commissioned by the U.S. military. The only limit to the speed the AR-15 fires is how fast a shooter can pull the trigger for each round.
"Each of the kids had three to eight bullets in them," Barden said. "There is just something wrong if that can happen."
Wheeler and Barden are part of a potentially precedent-setting lawsuit seeking accountability fromgun-maker Remington.
"Our families deserve that day in court," said Joshua Koskoff, an attorney representing nine victims' families and a teacher who survived. "We believe they should be accountable to their fair share that result from criminal misuse of their product -- in this case the AR-15 rifle.
"It's always been a big uphill battle for plaintiffs to sue the gun industry," said Georgia State University law professor Timothy Lytton. "It was even before the immunity (legislation), and it's an even bigger one now."
One exception to the immunity legislation is what's called "negligent entrustment."
"Say a gun retailer handed a gun to a visibly intoxicated person, then they're not subject to the immunity," said Lytton, who studies gun industry litigation.
You might ask: Since Remington did not come into direct contact with the shooter -- that happened at a gun retailer -- how would that apply? The lawsuit argues that the way in which the company sells and markets a military-style weapon to the civilian market is a form of negligent entrustment.
"Remington took a weapon that was made to the specs of the U.S. military for the purpose of killing enemy soldiers in combat -- and that weapon in the military is cared for with tremendous amount of diligence, in terms of training, storage, who gets the weapon, and who can use it," Koskoff, the attorney for the families, said. "They took that same weapon and started peddling it to the civilian market for the purposes of making a lot of money."
