Gun accessory maker to pay $1.75M to Buffalo mass shooting victims’ families

A Georgia-based gun accessory company will pay $1.75 million in restitution to victims’ families, injured individuals and traumatized survivors of the 2022 mass shooting at a Buffalo supermarket and permanently stop selling a controversial magazine lock in New York under a settlement announced Wednesday.

Mean LLC, commonly known as Mean Arms, agreed to the payment and injunctive relief to resolve a lawsuit brought by New York Attorney General Letitia James and related civil claims filed by victims’ families.

"The racist mass shooting at Tops in Buffalo was an unbearable tragedy," James said in a statement. 

"We lost 10 beautiful lives in a horrific act of violence and hate, and no amount of money can ever return those individuals to their families or erase the devastation the community was forced to endure," she added. "Today, justice looks like accountability, and we have ensured that this device will never be sold in our state again."

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The May 14, 2022, attack, carried out by Payton Gendron, killed 10 Black people and injured three others at a Tops Friendly Market in western New York.

Federal prosecutors said the then-18-year-old livestreamed the massacre online and targeted victims in what authorities described as a racially motivated hate crime carried out after substantial planning and premeditation.

Gendron was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole in 2023.

James’ office alleged that Mean Arms marketed its "MA Lock" device as rendering rifles compliant with New York law, even though it could be easily removed, allowing the shooter to convert his weapon to accept high-capacity magazines.

"In January 2022, the Buffalo shooter purchased a semiautomatic rifle in New York with an MA Lock installed and a 10-round magazine. After following Mean Arms’ removal instructions, on May 14, 2022, the shooter inserted multiple 30-round detachable magazines onto his weapon," her office said. "With a pistol grip and the high-capacity magazines, he did not have to stop to reload his weapon, and when he did reload, he could do so quickly."

Under the settlement, the company must cease all sales of the MA Lock in New York, "remove any statements that claim the MA Lock is legal in New York, state on all packaging that the MA Lock cannot be sold or resold in New York, and notify all businesses currently selling the MA Lock that the product is not to be sold or resold to individuals and/or businesses in New York."

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In a press release from James’ office, Andrew Debbins, an attorney who represents several of the victims’ families, said: "No amount of money can compensate the victims of May 14 for the unspeakable horrors of that day, but this settlement is a victory in our continuing fight against hate and all who enable it."