UVALDE – Families of victims and survivors of the Robb Elementary School shooting in Uvalde, have filed three new lawsuits related to the worst school shooting in Texas history.
A press release from National Trial Law states that first the families filed suit in federal court against the state and local law enforcement who stood idly by while children and teachers were slaughtered by an active shooter. A lawsuit against federal officers is forthcoming.
Since Columbine, law enforcement has been trained to follow a simple rule in active shooter situations: “Stop the killing, then stop the dying.”
The press release states that On May 24, 2022 at Robb Elementary School, 376 officers at the scene broke this critical rule. As TXDPS Director McCraw testified before the Texas Senate, “The law enforcement response to the attack at Robb Elementary was an abject failure and antithetical to everything we’ve learned over the last two decades since the Columbine massacre.”
Second, the families have sued various firearms and accessories makers and sellers: Daniel Defense, Firequest, EOTech, and Oasis Outback. The petition, filed in the District Court in Uvalde County, Texas, describes the long history of these companies’ illegal, predatory marketing and grooming of underage children—including the shooter in Uvalde—into purchasing AR-15s, the press release stares.
Third, the families have sued the social media and video game companies responsible for aiding these gun makers and sellers’ efforts to prey on children including Meta, Instagram, Activision, and Microsoft. Using sophisticated tracking algorithms, cross promotional deals, hyper realistic simulated violence, and allowing direct messaging to minor children, these companies have created businesses that cause—and profit from—foreseeable school shootings. The complaint was filed in Los Angeles County Superior Court.
“On the anniversary of the worst school shooting in Texas history, the Uvalde families are holding all of those accountable for this unspeakable tragedy,” said attorney Jamal Alsaffar of National Trial Law.
“The shooting was the inevitable and predictable consequence of a gun manufacturer’s predatory and deliberate marketing scheme to adolescent boys; the social media and video game companies partnership and complicity; and the last gatekeepers of protection–over 370 well-armed and well-equipped law enforcement officers cowering in fear while one armed boy killed 19 children and 2 teachers,”
Alsaffar previously obtained the highest mass shooting judgment and settlement in Texas history against the U.S.