Gunmaker Remington offers Sandy Hook victims' families $33 million in lawsuit settlement
- Gunmaker Remington offered a settlement of close to $33 million to the nine families suing the company.
- The suit was filed in 2014, claiming the company should be liable for marketing a military-grade weapon to the public.
- The Sandy Hook shooter used a Remington semi-automatic rifle to gun down 20 students and 6 adults at the elementary school in 2012.
- Visit Insider's homepage for more stories.
Gunmaker Remington Arms Co. offered on Tuesday to pay nearly $33 million to relatives of those who died in the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting in 2012, reported Reuters.
In 2012, Adam Lanza used a Remington Bushmaster AR-15, a semiautomatic weapon, to gun down 26 people, including 20 children, before killing himself. Two years later, nine families of the victims filed a lawsuit against Remington, saying the company should be culpable for marketing a military-grade weapon to the public.
Remington Arms Co. filed for bankruptcy last year for the second time in two years, which the families called an attempt to delay the lawsuit, per the AP. Earlier this month, Remington submitted tens of thousands of random cartoons, pictures, and gifs as part of proceedings, which the the families' lawyers alleged was to delay proceedings.
The company's proposed settlement offers each family of the victims $3.66 million. But the proposed amount is far less than the $225 million the families' lawyers estimated for wrongful deaths, reported Reuters, with total punitive damages exceeding $1 billion.
One of the families' lawyers, Josh Koskoff, told Reuters that his clients will consider Remington's offer.
"Since this case was filed in 2014, the families' focus has been on preventing the next Sandy Hook," Koskoff said, adding that "an important part of that goal has been showing banks and insurers that companies that sell assault weapons to civilians are fraught with financial risk."
Remington Arms Co. did not immediately reply to Insider's request for comment for this story.