Gun-maker Remington has moved a lawsuit filed against it by families of those shot in the Sandy Hook school massacre from state to federal court, where at least one expert says it has less chance of succeeding.

Nine families sued Remington and others in Bridgeport superior court in December arguing the Bushmaster AR-15 rifle used in the shooting should not have been sold for civilian use because of its overwhelming firepower. A 10th family joined the lawsuit adding a wrongful death claim.

The lawsuit move comes as officials in Newtown voted on Wednesday night to tear down the home where Adam Lanza lived before he carried out the 2012 massacre at Sandy Hook elementary school.

Neighbors had been pleading with town officials to tear down the house of the mass murderer, with one resident saying it’s “a constant reminder of the evil that resided there”. Newtown first selectwoman Pat Llodra said she expects the Lanza house will be razed once winter is over.

The case was placed before US district judge Robert Chatigny last week after Remington argued that since they are located in North Carolina and not Connecticut, federal court was a more proper jurisdiction.

Timothy Lytton, a professor at the Albany law school who has written extensively about suing the gun industry, said getting the case into the second US circuit, of which Connecticut is a part, is a victory for the defendants.

“The second circuit has previously refused to hold gun manufacturers liable or permit lawsuits against gun manufacturers for injuries caused by third parties,” he said. “It has a history of knocking these types of cases down.”

A 2005 federal law shields gun manufacturers from most lawsuits over criminal use of their products, but it does include an exception for cases where companies should know a weapon is likely to be used in a way that risks injury to others.

That exception, known as “negligent entrustment”, was designed for cases such as when a gun store sells to someone who is obviously intoxicated and threatening to kill someone, Lytton said.

The lawyers for the Newtown families are arguing that the Bushmaster is a military weapon that was negligently entrusted to civilians, who should not have been allowed to purchase it.

The plaintiffs in the case stemming from the Sandy Hook elementary school massacre include the families of Mary Sherlach, Vicki Soto, Dylan Hockley, Noah Pozner, Lauren Rousseau, Benjamin Wheeler, Jesse Lewis, Daniel Barden, Rachel D’Avino and a teacher, Natalie Hammond, who was injured and survived.

In addition to Remington Arms, which makes the rifle, the defendants are Camfour, a firearm distributor, and Riverview Gun Sales, the now-closed East Windsor store where the gunman’s mother purchased the Bushmaster rifle in 2010.