A chilling new public service announcement reveals how devastatingly easy it is to overlook the warning signs of gun violence.

Sandy Hook Promise produced this powerful film about the issue of gun violence. @SandyHook pic.twitter.com/YxdTgTtnLJ

— Eric Alper (@ThatEricAlper) December 4, 2016

The eye-opening two and a half minute video was produced by Sandy Hook Promise, a nonprofit group founded by the families of Sandy Hook victims, as part of its “Know the Signs” campaign.

In the wake of the Sandy Hook Elementary School massacre in Newtown, Connecticut, the group formed with the intent to “honor all victims of gun violence by turning our tragedy into a moment of transformation by providing programs and practices that protect children and prevent the senseless, tragic loss of life.”

Nicole Hockley, co-founder and managing director of Sandy Hook Promise, lost her son Dylan, a first-grader, in the Sandy Hook massacre four years ago this month. Hockley told Ad Week:

When you don’t know what to look for, or can’t recognize what you are seeing, it can be easy to miss warning signs or dismiss them as unimportant. That can lead to tragic consequences.

The powerful ad concludes with the message, “Gun violence is preventable when you know the signs.” People Magazine summarized six potential warning signs listed in Sandy Hook Promise’s “Know the Signs Guide”:

1. School shooters typically exhibit a strong fascination or obsession with firearms.

2. School shooters often overreact or act out aggressively for seemingly minor reasons.

3. Perpetrators of self-harm or violence towards others may be victims of prolonged bullying and may also have real of perceived feelings of being picked on or persecuted by others.

4. These students also usually study firearm techniques and training, and are equally fascinated by mass shootings.

5. School shooters almost always have unsupervised, illegal or easy access to firearms, and often brag about such access.

6. One should also look for gestures of violence and low commitment or aspirations towards school, or a sudden change in academic performance.

Sandy Hook Promise states that 80 percent of school shooters and 70 percent of individuals who committed suicide told someone of their violent plans prior to taking action—yet nobody intervened.

“It is important for us to show youth and adults that they are not helpless in protecting their community from gun violence—these acts are preventable when you know the signs. Everyone has the power to intervene and get help. These actions can save lives, ” added Hockley.

Bryan White

Bryan is an editorial intern at Law Street Media from Stratford, NJ. He is a sophomore at American University, pursuing a Bachelor’s degree in Broadcast Journalism. When he is not reading up on the news, you can find him curled up with an iced chai and a good book. Contact Bryan at BWhite@LawStreetMedia.com.

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It’s been a little over two years since the horrifying shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School, in Newtown, Connecticut, but legal battles over the tragedy are still ongoing. Most recently, the families of eight of the Newtown victims have filed a lawsuit against the estate of shooter Adam Lanza’s mother, alleging that she was negligent because she left her guns accessible to her son.

Nancy Lanza owned a Bushmaster AR-15 rifle, often classified as an assault weapon. On December 14, 2012, Adam Lanza accessed that rifle from his mother’s house and used it to kill 26 people at Sandy Hook Elementary. He also killed his mother at their home before going to the school.

Since Nancy Lanza is deceased, the lawsuit is being filed against her estate, and more particularly, its insurance policy. Samuel Starks is named as the defendant, as he’s the administrator of that estate, and he has said that he estimates its worth at $64,000; however, it is estimated that homeowner insurance polices that Lanza had are worth up to $1 million. That’s a normal avenue in cases like this, as according to the Connecticut Post:

Bridgeport lawyer Josh Koskoff, representing eight of the families suing, said homeowner’s insurance applies when a person is injured as a result of an unsecured firearm in a home being accessed by a third party.

Technically, there are two separate lawsuits filed against Lanza. One involves three of the children killed and four of the educators killed. Two of the teachers who were injured have also signed onto that lawsuit. A separate suit, on behalf of one of the deceased children, has also been filed.

The lawsuits both point out that Adam Lanza has access to the gun “despite the fact that she knew, or should have known, that his mental and emotional condition made him a danger to others.”

This isn’t the first lawsuit brought by some of the families of the victims of the Sandy Hook tragedy. In December 2014 on the two-year anniversary of the shooting, nine of the families filed a lawsuit against Bushmaster, the manufacturer of the Bushmaster AR-15 rifle. Camfour, the distributor the gun, and Riverview Sales, the shop that sold it to Nancy Lanza, were also all named in the suit.

Yet another lawsuit has been filed by the parents of two of the deceased students against the town, stating that it didn’t properly protect the school. The crux of that lawsuit was that one of the substitute teachers who was killed in the school that day, Lauren Rousseau, wasn’t given a key to lock her classroom door. As a result, Lanza was able to enter and kill 14 out of the 15 people in that room.

In a lot of ways these lawsuits are mainly symbolic. There’s not going to be much money that comes out of them, most likely, but they send a message to a number of people that what happened that fateful day was wrong. Guns should not be accessible to someone who has exhibited mental or emotional issues. Distributors should not sell guns that have the potential to be used to kill many people. Schools need to take all steps to make sure that even substitute teachers have the ability to secure their classrooms. These are the kinds of messages that the plaintiffs are hoping to send with these lawsuits–whether or not they’ll be successful will be up to the courts.

Anneliese Mahoney

Anneliese Mahoney is Managing Editor at Law Street and a Connecticut transplant to Washington D.C. She has a Bachelor’s degree in International Affairs from the George Washington University, and a passion for law, politics, and social issues. Contact Anneliese at amahoney@LawStreetMedia.com.

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On Monday, two years and one day after a shooter took the lives of 20 elementary school students and six staff members at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut, families of nine of the victims filed a lawsuit against the manufacturer of the weapon that killed their loved ones.

The complaint asserts liability for wrongful deaths, arguing that Bushmaster Firearms Inc., the manufacturer, shouldn’t have been selling civilians the AR-15 semi-automatic rifle used in the massacre. Shooter Adam Lanza’s mother had purchased the rifle legally. Lanza shot and killed his mother with another gun before taking her Bushmaster AR-15 and heading for Sandy Hook.

The suit goes at lengths to argue that the AR-15 has no reason to be sold for civilian use. Although the rifle is useful to the military, it says, it is predictable that selling it to civilians could result in mass shootings:

The AR-15, however, has little utility for legitimate civilian purposes. The rifle’s size and overwhelming firepower, so well adapted to battlefield are in fact liabilities in home defense. … But there is one tragically predictable civilian activity in which the AR-15 reigns supreme: mass shootings.

The families filed the suit in Connecticut Superior Court and listed as additional defendants weapons distributor Camfour and Riverview Sales, the shop that sold the gun used in the attack, as well as its owner, David Laguercia.

The families have a formidable legal hurdle ahead of them called the 2005 Protection of Lawful Commerce in Arms Act, which protects gun manufacturers and dealers from liability when their products are used in crimes. The families are seeking to use an exception of the law for cases when the companies should be able to know that their guns could be used in a way that could injure others, the Associated Press reports.

Bushmaster faced a similar suit a decade ago, when families and victims of the Washington, D.C. area sniper shootings that left 10 dead settled with the manufacturer and a gun shop for $2.5 million. Laguercia also had recent legal trouble when he pleaded guilty last year to federal misdemeanor charges regarding his failure to keep proper records and selling weapons without completing background checks. However, those charges were not related to the Sandy Hook attack.

The suit says that the plaintiffs seek “nothing more and nothing less than accountability for the consequences” of the defendant’s choice to “disregard the unreasonable risks the rifle posed outside of specialized, highly regulated institutions like the armed forces and law enforcement.” Officially, they are seeking unspecified monetary damages.

Historically, government discussion on gun control has lived in legislatures, and not courts. The Sandy Hook case is very particular to the specific incident two years ago, so it may be better-suited in a court. However, it doesn’t come without major obstacles.

The families will have to link Bushmaster, Camfour, Riverview, and Laguercia to Lanza. This could prove especially difficult given that the gun was sold to his mother and not him. That is just the beginning of their problem. Whether or not they can make that connection, they have to successfully prove that any of the defendants could have foreseen the attack at Sandy Hook happen as a result of the sale of the rifle. Practically, this would rule out Bushmaster and Camfour, as they are far up the chain. However, it could be possible for the plaintiffs to hit Riverview and owner Laguercia, and paint him as negligent. Considering what is at stake, though, successfully suing a single gun shop and owner doesn’t seem like a really big win for gun control–although this could be a symbolic victory.

Zaid Shoorbajee

Zaid Shoorbajee is a an undergraduate student at The George Washington University majoring in journalism and economics. He is from the Washington, D.C. area and likes reading and writing about international affairs, politics, business and technology (especially when they intersect). Contact Zaid at staff@LawStreetMedia.com.

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