A group of families whose children were killed or wounded in a mass shooting at Uvalde Elementary School in Texas two years ago have filed two lawsuits against Meta Platform Inc., Activision Blizzard, Microsoft, gun manufacturer Daniel Defense, and state police officers. The families allege that the companies engaged in wrongful death and gross negligence by marketing the weapon used in the shooting. They claim that Daniel Defense used Instagram and Activision's Call of Duty video game to target and cultivate the teenage gunman, conditioning him to see the assault-style rifle as a solution to his problems. The families argue that Meta and Microsoft facilitated this strategy. The lawsuits were filed on the anniversary of the tragic shooting.
The first lawsuit accuses Meta's Instagram of providing unsupervised channels for gun manufacturers to directly communicate with minors. The families claim that the platform allowed gun manufacturers to market dangerous weapons to easily influenced teenagers. The second lawsuit accuses Daniel Defense of deliberately directing ads to teenage boys, further contributing to the tragedy. The families have also announced a separate lawsuit against state police officers for their delayed and inadequate response to the shooting. The release of audio and video recordings, including 911 calls, surveillance footage, and body camera footage, has reignited anger among the families of the victims. Multiple federal and state investigations have revealed systemic failures in law enforcement training, communication, leadership, and technology. Two responding officers now face criminal charges, while some families have filed lawsuits against law enforcement, social media, online gaming companies, and the gun manufacturer. [98da310e] [b2e596ed] [6355ecb0]