by Harold Hutchinson
Family members of the victims of a mass shooting in an elementary school in Uvalde, Texas, filed a lawsuit against Meta, the owner of Instagram, Friday, according to multiple reports.
Two teachers and 19 children died in the May 2022 mass shooting at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde before Border Patrol agents stormed the classroom and fatally shot the perpetrator. The lawsuit also targets Activision, the maker of the Call of Duty video game franchise, and Daniel Defense, which made the rifle used in the shooting, CBS News reported.
"It accuses the gaming company of desensitizing young men to acts of mass violence and grooming them to seek out weapons like those featured in Call of Duty." https://t.co/72wH9q0C02
— Firearms Policy Coalition (@gunpolicy) May 24, 2024
“[The shooter] was targeted and cultivated online by Instagram, Activision and Daniel Defense,” attorney Josh Koskoff said in a statement released to CBS. “This three-headed monster knowingly exposed him to the weapon, conditioned him to see it as a tool to solve his problems and trained him to use it.”
The law enforcement response to the shooting drew criticism from the Justice Department in a January report, while a Texas House of Representatives committee slammed “shortcomings and failures” in the law enforcement response in a report issued in July 2022. Over 300 officers waited outside the school for 77 minutes until the gunman was killed.
The CEO of Daniel Defense came under fire from Democratic Reps. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York and Ayanna Pressley of Massachusetts during a July 2022 House Oversight Committee hearing. The company is already facing at least one other suit related to the Uvalde shooting, according to The Associated Press.
Koskoff secured a $2 million settlement with the city of Uvalde over the response Wednesday, shortly before filing the suits.
“There is a direct line between the conduct of these companies and the Uvalde shooting,” Koskoff said, according to NBC News.
Meta, Daniel Defense and Activision did not immediately respond to the Daily Caller News Foundation’s request for comment.
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Harold Hutchinson is a reporter at Daily Caller News Foundation.
Photo “Robb Elementary School” by UCISD.Â
