The families of schoolchildren who were shot at Robb Elementary School in 2022 filed two lawsuits on Friday accusing Instagram, the publisher of the popular “Call of Duty” video game and a manufacturer of semiautomatic rifles of helping to train and equip the teenage gunman who committed the massacre.
The unusual lawsuits were filed on the second anniversary of the elementary school shooting, in which 19 fourth-graders and two teachers were killed in their classrooms by an 18-year-old gunman who had purchased his weapon — an AR-15-style rifle — a few days before, as soon as he was legally able.
Each company, the lawsuits claim, took part in “grooming” the teenager to become a mass shooter.
Together, the suits are among the most far-reaching actions to be filed in response to the escalating number of mass shootings in the United States.
The California suit, which names the publisher Activision, appeared to be one of the first to go after a video game maker for helping to promote weapons used in mass shootings.
Persons:
Instagram
Organizations:
Robb Elementary School, Activision
Locations:
California, Texas, United States