Business

Uvalde Families Sue Meta, ‘Call Of Duty’ Studio Activision, AR-15 Maker

May 26, 2024

Topline

Families of the victims of the 2022 Uvalde school shooting are suing a gun manufacturer, Instagram parent Meta and the Microsoft-controlled maker of video game franchise “Call of Duty,” accusing the companies of promoting the gun that was used to kill 19 students and two teachers in Texas.

The lawsuits were filed two years to the day after the Uvalde elementary school shooting that left … [+] 21 people dead.

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Key Facts

One of the suits, filed in California two years to the day after the deadly shooting, lists Meta and “Call of Duty”’ parent Activision (which was acquired by Microsoft), while a separate suit also filed by family members of the victims lists defendant Daniel Defense, the maker of the AR-15-style gun that was used in the Uvalde shooting.

Plaintiffs in the California suit claim Activision and Meta “have aided and abetted firearm manufacturers’ efforts to expand the market for their weapons by granting unprecedented, direct, 24/7 access to children.”

Specifically, they claim Activision is in the “business of training adolescents to become gunmen,” citing the company’s popular first-person shooter franchise “Call of Duty,” while plaintiffs say Meta provides an “unsupervised channel to speak directly to minors,” through Instagram, with “flimsy” and “easily circumvented rules that ostensibly prohibit firearm advertising.”

The lawsuit claimed the Uvalde shooter downloaded “Call of Duty” and played it “obsessively,” and argued he discovered Daniel Defense rifles by playing the game and seeing ads on Instagram, which it said he had an “unhealthy, likely obsessive, relationship with.”

Activision called the shooting “horrendous and heartbreaking in every way” in a statement to Forbes, adding that “millions of people around the world enjoy video games without turning to horrific acts” (Forbes has also reached out to Meta for comment).

In the suit filed in Texas against Daniel Defense, plaintiffs claim the gun maker “has perfected the art of indoctrinating a particular demographic: adolescents who are vulnerable to marketing that stokes their sense of aggrievement and desire for power.”

Plaintiffs claim the company’s marketing tactics “[glamorize] fantasies of combat and revenge” due to its profiting off the AR-15—Daniel Defense did not immediately respond to Forbes’ request for comment.

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Crucial Quote

Plaintiffs argue Activision “collaborated with the firearms industry in a scheme that makes the Joe Camel campaign look laughably harmless, even quaint,” referencing the former mascot of Camel cigarettes.

Big Number

$2 million. That’s how much families of the victims received as a settlement in a separate case earlier this week, stemming from a suit filed against the city of Uvalde, attorney Josh Koskoff, who represents the plaintiffs, said adding those families are also planning to take legal actions against all 92 state police officers who responded to the 2022 shooting.

Key Background

Salvador Ramos, the 18-year-old gunman, fired hundreds of rounds with an AR-15 style rifle at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde. Police responding to the shooting have faced criticism for an 77-minute response time to apprehend the gunman, with a state report faulting that lax response on “systemic failures” and “egregious poor decision making.” Then-chief of the school District Police Pete Arredondo blamed that response on a locked door, though a state official later found the door was not locked. Arredondo was fired four months after the shooting, while more than 20 of the officers involved were cleared of wrongdoing following an independent review into the attack in March, which found no officers violated policies in their actions. Families of survivors have filed a series of suits against city officials, including a $27 billion December 2022 class-action suit alleging law enforcement failed to prevent the gunman from carrying out the shooting. Families also sued Daniel Defense in another class-action suit in November 2022, a suit that also named the school district and law enforcement as defendants, accusing them of “negligent, careless and reckless” action.

Tangent

Microsoft closed on its long sought after and long-delayed purchase of Activision Blizzard, the video game giant behind “Call of Duty” and “World of Warcraft,” in October for a staggering $68.7 billion, making Microsoft the world’s third-largest gaming company. That purchase came after intense scrutiny from regulators in the U.S. and U.K. over antitrust concerns, including a question of whether the sale would prevent users of Sony’s PlayStation from accessing Activision games. Microsoft, in response, offered a 10-year deal allowing “Call of Duty” releases on the PlayStation.