Updated Monday, Feb. 4, 2019 at 10:35 a.m. with the judge's decision and more information about a federal lawsuit, and Friday, Feb. 1, 2019 at 5:26 p.m. with photos from the hearing.

SAN ANTONIO — A Texas judge has decided that victims and families of the Sutherland Springs church massacre can sue the sporting goods store where the shooter purchased his gun and ammunition.

In a case that could have implications for gun laws here and across the country, Bexar County District Court Judge Karen Pozza on Monday denied Academy Sports + Outdoors' request that the lawsuit be thrown out. Her decision means the lawsuit will proceed and could eventually go to a jury trial.

Pozza's order on summary judgment did not explain her decision.

The Sutherland Springs families allege the chain is liable for shooter Devin P. Kelley's carnage because employees at one of its Texas retailers sold him a high-capacity magazine illegal in Colorado, his state of residence. The families are asking for millions in damages for physical and mental anguish, disfigurement and medical expenses.

The lawsuit could test the limits of state and federal gun laws and may answer some long-standing, hotly contested legal questions, like whether gun dealers must decline to sell certain items based on the buyer's place of residence and whether shooting victims can file civil suits, and get monetary damages, from these dealers in certain circumstances.

Lawyers for both sides went head-to-head in what was at times a heated debate on Thursday. During the nearly three-hour hearing, they argued over federal and state laws, and whether the store should have refused to sell Kelley the gun with which he killed and injured dozens at the First Baptist Church of Sutherland Springs on Nov. 5, 2017.

At the heart of the case is whether the federal definition of a firearm includes the magazine with which it is sold, and if a Colorado law banning the sale of high-capacity magazines applies to Coloradans who buy guns in Texas.

Janet Militello, Academy's attorney, argued that state and federal laws prohibit the company from being held liable for Kelley's "evil acts."

"There was a horrible tragedy," Militello told Pozza. "Nobody thinks that this should be ignored. But Academy is not responsible."

A federal law known as the Protection of Lawful Commerce in Arms Act, or PLCAA, shields firearms dealers from being sued if a crime is committed with a weapon they sold. The only exceptions are in cases of negligence or if the dealer knowingly broke federal or state laws when the weapon was sold.

Colorado law bans the sale of any magazine with a capacity of more than 15 rounds. Kelley presented a Colorado ID card when he purchased the firearm, the 30-round magazine included with it and another 30-round magazine, for which he paid cash.

1 / 4Christopher Johnson, left, whose parents, Sara and Dennis Johnson, were killed by the gunman at First Baptist Church of Sutherland Springs, watches a hearing on whether survivors and victim's families who have sued Academy Sports + Outdoors for selling Kelley the firearm he used, will go to trial, at the Bexar County Courthouse in San Antonio on Thursday, Jan. 31, 2018. (Lisa Krantz / San Antonio Express-News) 2 / 4Deputy Terry Henderson carries a Ruger AR-556 model 8500, the same type of rifle used by the gunman to attack First Baptist Church of Sutherland Springs, out of the Bexar County Courthouse for attorney Jason Webster, right, who showed Judge Karen Pozza the rifle during a hearing as Webster agued on behalf of survivors and victims' families who have sued Academy Sports + Outdoors, in San Antonio on Thursday, Jan. 31, 2018. The deputy had to bring the rifle into and out of the building for the hearing. (Lisa Krantz / San Antonio Express-News) 3 / 4Janet Militello, the attorney for Academy Sports + Outdoors, argues on behalf of her client, which is being sued by survivors and victim's families for selling the firearm to the gunman who attacked the congregation at First Baptist Church of Sutherland Springs, during a hearing at the Bexar County Courthouse in San Antonio on Thursday, Jan. 31, 2018. (Lisa Krantz / San Antonio Express-News) 4 / 4Attorney Jason Webster, an attorney with The Webster Law Firm in Houston, who is representing victims' families, shows a Ruger AR-556 model 8500, the same type of rifle the gunman used to attack First Baptist Church of Sutherland Springs, to Judge Karen Pozza during a hearing with attorneys for survivors and victim's families and an attorney for Academy Sports + Outdoors, at the Bexar County Courthouse in San Antonio on Thursday, Jan. 31, 2018. (Lisa Krantz / San Antonio Express-News)

Militello said that even though Kelley was a resident of Colorado, where the 30-round magazine is banned, Texas law allows Academy to sell high-capacity magazines and added that the "magazine" is not included in the definition of "firearm."

The families' lawyers, however, argued that federal law prohibits sales to residents from out of state unless the buyer meets them in person and the sale "fully" complies "with the legal conditions of sale in both such States." Academy was grossly negligent, they said, when they sold Kelley the Ruger AR-556 and high-capacity magazines in April 2016 that he used in the mass killing the next year.

"Academy is the gatekeeper to protect people from buying guns who shouldn't have them," attorney Jason Webster said. "When you have a guy who's 850 miles from his home and paying cash ... that kind of raises some flags."

Turning away from Judge Pozza, Webster then pointed out the Sutherland Springs families present in the courtroom, including the mother of Joann Ward, who died shielding her four children, two of whom were killed, and Dennis and Sara Johnson's loved ones.

In one hand, Webster clutched an AR-556. In the other, a magazine. One doesn't work without the other, he said, so arguing that "magazine" and "gun" are two different things is like arguing a car isn't a car without its wheels.

"If Academy were to have followed the law, that gun would not have been in his hands," Webster said. "If anybody deserves their day in court, it's these families here."

1 / 5A row of crosses sit on the shoulder off of Highway 87 just north of the city limits in Sutherland Springs, Texas, photographed on Friday, November 2, 2018. November 5 is the one-year anniversary of the attack at Sutherland Springs Baptist Church, where 26 people were killed by a lone gunman at a Sunday morning worship service. (Louis DeLuca / Staff Photographer) 2 / 5The church sign at Sutherland Springs Baptist Church expresses the sentiment "Evil did not win" as the new church building rises in the background in Sutherland Spring, Texas, photographed on Friday, November 2, 2018. November 5 is the one-year anniversary of the attack at the church, where 26 people were killed by a lone gunman at a Sunday morning worship service. (Louis DeLuca / Staff Photographer) 3 / 5A look at the interior of the Sutherland Springs Baptist Church in Sutherland Springs, Texas, which has been turned into a memorial, photographed on Friday, November 2, 2018. November 5 is the one-year anniversary of the attack there, where 26 people were killed by a lone gunman at a Sunday morning worship service. The chairs are placed for each victim in the exact spot where they were on that fateful day. (Louis DeLuca / Staff Photographer) 4 / 5The Johnson Family pose for a portrait after the funeral of Dennis and Sara Johnson at First Baptist Church in Floresville, Texas on Nov. 12, 2017. The The Johnson's were killed in the First Baptist Church in Sutherland Springs, Texas the site of a shooting that killed 26 parishioners and left 30 injured. Top row (from left, starting with man with beard): Jason Wall, Aaron Staton, Butch Johns, Dennis Neil Johnson, Jr. (holding Savion Juarez), Michael Johnson, Jared Makohan, Taylor Johnson, Devon Johnson. Middle row: Michael Deaton, Katrina Johns-Sadler, Ruth Johns, Kati Wall, (slightly up) Lynn Dormer, Deanna Staton, Jimmy Graham, Leah Johnson, Leticia Blanchard, Christopher Ryan Johnson. Bottom row: Robert Deaton, Caleb Deaton, Kassandra Johnson (holding Loveen Johnson), Scarlet Patterson. (Nathan Hunsinger / Staff Photographer) 5 / 5These two file photo images widely distributed on social networks on November 6, 2017, allegedly show 26-year-old Devin Kelley who walked into the church in Sutherland Springs with an assault rifle on November 5, killing 26 people and wounding 20 more. The US Air Force said on November 28, 2017 it has found several dozen cases where it failed to report military convictions to civilian police, meaning some airmen could have illegally bought guns.Air Force investigators are wading through some 60,000 military criminal files dating back to 2002 as part of a probe into how a former airman who carried out a mass shooting was able to buy firearms, even though he had a domestic violence conviction. Devin Kelley, the shooter in the November 5 attack at a Texas church that killed 26 people and wounded 20 more, was convicted by court-martial in 2012 of two charges of domestic assault against his wife and stepson.The fact his conviction failed to reach a key federal database prompted the Air Force and other services to look through old cases. (AFP / Getty Images)

After the hearing, one Johnson family member said he was "on the fence" about how it went. He'd like to be optimistic, but always comes back to the fact that his "Nanny" and "Pa" will still be gone regardless of the outcome.

"It's never off your mind," Chris Johnson said. "Nothing's going to bring them back."

Several families, including those in court Thursday, are also suing the federal government for negligence. Kelley had a history of domestic violence the U.S. Air Force admitted it failed to report to a federal criminal database, allowing him to purchase his weapons without raising red flags.

In a December report, the Air Force said it failed on six occasions to report information that would have prevented Kelley from legally purchasing a gun. But the government is still arguing it should not be liable for these mistakes, arguing that its employees are immune to legal action of this kind. The families responded to the government's request that the lawsuit be thrown out on Friday, calling its arguments "absurd" and "self-defeating."

Like the state civil case, the Sutherland Springs families' federal lawsuit is also unique. It might be the first time in modern history that victims are able to draw a straight line between a mass shooting and a government mistake they argue could have prevented it.