Families of the Uvalde victims have filed a lawsuit against Daniel Defense, the makers of the AR-15 assault rifle, Activision, the publisher of the first-person shooter video game series “Call of Duty,” and Meta, the parent company of Instagram, alleging that they promoted the gun used in the shooting.
The lawsuit claims that the corporations collaborated to promote the weapon to teenage boys in games and on social media.
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On Friday, two years after the incident, we filed the complaint.
Salvador Ramos, the 18-year-old shooter who killed 19 students and two teachers and injured 17 others, purchased the DDM4V7 rifle a week before the shooting, months after starting to play a version of the game and posting about weapons on Instagram, according to Josh Koskoff, the families’ attorney.
“This three-headed monster knowingly exposed him to the weapon, conditioned him to see it as a tool to solve his problems, and trained him to use it,” Koskoff stated in a statement.
Daniel Defense, Activision, and Meta did not immediately respond to ABC News’ inquiries about the complaint.
In a statement to the New York Times, Activision said that “we express our deepest sympathies to the families” in Uvalde, but added that “millions of people around the world enjoy video games without turning to horrific acts.”
The suit claims that the “Call of Duty” franchise provides realistic depictions of gun violence where “the weapons are authentic.”
“They are designed to perfectly imitate their real-life counterparts in look, feel, recoil, and accuracy,” the lawsuit claims.
The lawyers said, “With Instagram’s blessing and assistance, purveyors of assault weapons can inundate teens with content that exalts lone gunmen, exploits tropes of sex and hypermasculinity, and directs them where to buy their Call of Duty-tested weapon of choice.”
“According to one firearms marketing agency, ‘there are some major loopholes in… advertising regulations for Facebook and Instagram,’ allowing organic posts promoting firearms to infiltrate the platform,” the complaint claims.
According to the lawsuit, police “courted” the shooter through explicit, aggressive marketing on Instagram before killing him.
In November 2021, he downloaded the 2019 game “Call of Duty: Modern Warfare,” according to the lawsuit. He has been playing a mobile version of the game since he was 15, according to the lawsuit.
According to the lawsuit, after purchasing the game, the shooter “researched firearms on his phone and browsed Daniel Defense’s website.”
The lawsuit claims that the shooter registered an account on Daniel Defense’s website and added the DDM4 V7 to his basket.
“The shooter became consumed with anticipation, compulsively googling how many days remained until his birthday on May 16,” according to the lawsuit.
Friday’s lawsuit is the most recent in a series of criminal and civil court actions brought after the incident.
This week, 19 families settled in the city of Uvalde. The city will pay out a total of $2 million under its insurance policy.
The families stated that, as part of the settlement, they were working to reform the Uvalde Police Department. The settlement also outlines the city’s assistance to the grieving community, including the formation of a committee to build a permanent memorial, which the city will fund.
This Monday, the families launched lawsuits against 92 Texas Department of Public Safety officers. The lawsuit names the Uvalde School District and several of its employees, including the principal and police chief, as defendants.
According to their counsel, the families intend to sue the federal government, citing the presence of nearly 150 federal officers at the school.
