I was the proud grandfather of four beautiful, elementary school-age girls when 10 years ago, a deranged young man – using a Remington Bushmaster AR-15 style weapon – murdered 28 people at Sandy Hook Elementary School.
Twenty of these innocent victims were children just starting their lives.
Put yourself in the shoes of the survivors and the families that lost children and spouses. In the morning they were here and in the afternoon, they were gone.
Gone forever. Reduced to a memory. A memory that will never disappear. An open tear in your soul that cannot heal.
People of good will believe that there are processes to set the worth of a life. When apartheid ended in South Africa, Nelson Mandela set up the Truth and Reconciliation Commission to hear the grievances of the victims of apartheid. It was headed by Bishop Desmond Tutu and held hearings across the country. In this case, the oppressor confessing and apologizing was cathartic enough to let an entire country move forward.
The federal September 11th Victim Compensation Fund – plus other sources – provided nearly $11 billion dollars for the victims of the World Trade Center, Pentagon attack and Virginia plane crash. In this case, money was used to determine the worth of a life.
The Remington Arms $73 million settlement was reached last week, with the now-bankrupt company and its four insurers. The goal of the plaintiffs was not money. The motivation was to do what they could to keep future families from suffering the agony and pain from similar deranged or purposeful shooters.
The locations of these tragic events include schools, movie theaters, night clubs, concerts, churches, college campuses, stores and sporting events. Just about any place our loved ones go might be the venue of the next tragedy.
The bottom line of the Remington settlement is that the records of the manufacturer can be used to show how it markets its products.
Nicole Hockley – whose 6-year-old son was a victim – accused Remington of prioritizing profit over safety.
“Marketing by Remington was targeted at those who wanted to appear more intimidating, more powerful and more masculine through the use of their AR-15’s.”
The case was first tossed by a Connecticut judge, who ruled that federal gun manufacturer protection from liability prohibited the claims of the victims’ families. The suit was then refiled as a consumer suit, alleging that the Bushmaster was a combat weapon being marketed to civilians.
Rather than face trial, the company and its insurers settled for $73 million.
The settlement seems to be a large amount of money for 10 families, but this case was not about money.
It was about changing the system. It was about leveling the equation of the pain suffered by the victims’ families with the profits made by the manufacturer. It was about justice through raising the risk to profiteers, their insurers and their political enablers.
If this settlement forces a dialog that puts an end to these mass shootings, we may have established the worth of a human life.
Roger Carlton writes a bi-weekly column for The Graham Star. He can be reached via email, rcarlton57@hotmail.com.