Sandy Hook families reach $73m settlement with gun manufacturer

A gunmaker has been held liable for a mass shooting in the United States for the first time after Remington Arms agreed to pay $73m to the families of five adults and four children killed in the Sandy Hook elementary school massacre.

Twenty students and six adults were killed on 14 December 2012 in Newtown, Connecticut, by Adam Lanza, who used a Remington Bushmaster AR-15 rifle to shoot his way into the school after killing his mother at home.

Remington Arms will pay $73m to the families and release all the discovery and deposition material to the public, attorneys for the families said on Tuesday. The settlement will be paid through insurance policies.

The nine families sued in 2014 and spent years in the courts trying to hold Remington liable, despite a US law that protects firearm manufacturers and dealers from most civil litigation.

In 2019 the supreme court decided against taking up an appeal by Remington, allowing the lawsuit to move forward.

Despite the settlement, the parents of six-year-old Noah Pozner, who was killed in the shooting, said they do not completely feel that justice has been served.