Lawyers for the Sandy Hook families say manufacturers and retail companies have been negligent by marketing a military-grade weapon to civilians

Lawyers for the companies that manufactured and sold the rifle used to massacre 20 first-graders and six staff at Sandy Hook elementary school in 2012 argued in a Connecticut court on Monday that attempts to regulate the firearm should be left to the legislature.

Bushmaster Firearms LLC said it was protected under a 2005 federal law and asked the federal district court judge that the lawsuit brought against them by the family members of nine of the victims and one survivor of the Newtown shooting be dismissed.

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“A personal injury case in front of a jury is not the place for a new policy to emerge on who should own firearms and what type of firearms,” James Vogts, an attorney for Remington Arms, told Connecticut superior court judge Barbara Bellis on Monday. Behind him in the small courtroom, the family members of several Sandy Hook victims filled the wooden pews.

The Bushmaster XM15-E2S rifle, used by 20-year-old Adam Lanza in the massacre at Sandy Hook elementary school before killing himself, was purchased legally by his mother, Nancy Lanza, whom he killed before driving to the school. But the lawyers for the Sandy Hook families are not arguing that the single transaction was handled negligently. Rather, they’re making the case that the gun manufacturing and retail companies have for years been negligent by marketing a military-grade weapon of war to civilians.

“A weapon that was designed to be used in combat by military to assault and kill enemies of war in the fields of Vietnam and more recently in the streets of Fallujah, and there it was lying not on a battlefield but on the floor of Vicki Soto’s first-grade classroom,” Josh Koskoff, a lawyer for the Sandy Hook families, told the judge. Soto is remembered as a hero after she died protecting her students at Sandy Hook. Her mother, Donna, who wears a photo of Vicki on a square pendant around her neck, and 18-year-old brother, Matthew, were present at the hearing.

In addition to Bushmaster, the lawsuit also names Camfour, a firearms distributor; and Riverview Sales Inc, a local Connecticut gun store that legally sold the rifle to Lanza’s mother, Nancy. Lawyers for the companies said that they are exempted from litigation by the Protection of Lawful Commerce in Arms Act (PLCAA), a 2005 law passed with the support of gun companies and the National Rifle Association that shields the industry from lawsuits when third parties “criminally or unlawfully misuse” their guns.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest A Bushmaster rifle belonging to the Sandy Hook elementary school gunman is seen in this police evidence photo. Photograph: HANDOUT/Reuters

“If the PLCAA does not prohibit this case against retribution against firearms manufacturers than what kind of case does the PLCAA prohibit?

Is it just a meaningless congressional act that really doesn’t prohibit much of anything?” Vogts, the Remington attorney said. “The PLCAA was enacted to prevent this very kind of case.”

Monday’s hearing comes just eight days after the deadliest mass shooting in US history, when a gunman armed with an AR-15-style rifle opened fire at a gay nightclub in Orlando, killing 49 people and wounding more than 50 others.

Days after the shooting, Democratic senators led by Chris Murphy of Connecticut staged a 15-hour filibuster in an effort to protest congressional inaction on gun violence. In Washington DC on Monday, senators were poised to vote on a host of bills that would expand background check and prevent suspected terrorists from buying weapons.

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The lawsuit became a flashpoint in the Democratic race, with Hillary Clinton advocating her support for the case on the campaign trail. She put the fight for stricter gun control measures at the center of her campaign, and repeatedly castigated her Democratic opponent, Bernie Sanders, for voting in support of the PLCAA. Earlier this year, Erica Smegielski, the daughter of slain Sandy Hook elementary school principal Dawn Hochsprung, became a vocal advocate for Clinton and has appeared in a campaign ad.

Bellis, who has set an April 2018 trial date, will now decide whether the companies are indeed exempt under the statute.

Legal experts say the lawsuit has a remote chance of success. That the judge has yet to dismiss the case is in itself a “small” victory, the plaintiffs have said. A Colorado court recently rejected a negligent entrustment claim brought by the parents of a victim of the 2012 Aurora movie theater killing under the PLCAA law. Courts have rejected analogous cases brought against the manufacturers of products that proved dangerous.

Ahead of the hearing, the plaintiffs held a press conference outside the courthouse. Matthew Soto, the brother of Vicki Soto, expressed solidarity with the victims and families of those killed last week at a LGBT nightclub in Orlando.

“Because our country cannot come together on the issue of assault rifles, these mass shootings will continue in the future,” Soto said, reading from a notecard.

He continued: “My family and those represented here stand in solidarity with the families from Orlando and the community of Orlando. Our actions here are meant to bring about change. Sadly, that change did not come in time for your loved ones. This is why we’ll continue to fight for change.”