Highland Park mass shooting victims can sue gunmaker Smith & Wesson, judge rules
A judge granted a victory to Highland Park parade shooting victims, allowing their lawsuits to proceed against Smith & Wesson on claims the gun manufacturer marketed the gun used in the massacre to teenagers.
Lake County Judge Jorge L. Ortiz on Tuesday partially denied a motion to dismiss the case by Smith & Wesson and let more than two dozen wrongful-death lawsuits to proceed.
The judge also denied motions to dismiss by Red Dot Arms and Bud's Gun Shop, the gun dealers where Robert Crimo III bought the M&P 15 rifle he later used to kill seven people and wound dozens more at a July 4, 2022, parade in downtown Highland Park. Crimo III pleaded guilty last month to murder and attempted murder.
"Today’s historic decision sends a clear message that the gun industry does not have carte blanche to engage in irresponsible marketing of assault rifles, without any concern for the obvious dangers of such marketing," lawyers said in a statement from firms Romanucci & Blandin, Everytown Law and Wallace Miller.
The lawsuits were filed in September 2022 against Smith & Wesson, the gun dealers, Robert Crimo III and his father, Robert Crimo Jr., who pleaded guilty in 2023 to reckless conduct for signing his son's gun ownership card application.
The lawsuits allege Smith & Wesson continued to market its M&P 15 toward teenagers despite the weapon being used in four mass shootings over the last decade, including in Aurora, Colorado; San Bernardino, California; Parkland, Florida; and Poway, California.
The judge on Tuesday allowed the lawsuits to proceed against Smith & Wesson on their claims of unfair business practices and negligence claims, but he denied the claims of deceptive business practices. The cases against the gun shops were allowed to proceed in their entirety.
Lawyers for Smith & Wesson, Red Dot Arms and Bud's Gun Shop did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
The law firms Koskoff, Koskoff & Bieder and Rapoport Weisberg & Sims said the case was allowed to proceed on the same grounds they won against Remington on behalf families of victims of the 2012 Sandy Hook mass shooting in Connecticut. Those two firms represent the family of Highland Park shooting victim Eduardo Uvaldo.
Uvaldo "lost his life in a mass shooting that resulted from one of the most extraordinary abuses in American corporate history — Smith & Wesson’s choice to leverage the M&P 15’s branding as a weapon of war to feed its bottom line no matter the consequences," said Alinor Sterling, a partner at Koskoff, Koskoff & Bieder, in a statement.
Twenty-five cases on behalf of 79 survivors have been filed in Lake County against Smith & Wesson and the gun sellers.
A trial date has not been set. The next hearing in the case is May 1.