Families of victims of Uvalde school shooting sue Activision and Meta

In a joint action, the families of the victims of the shooting at the Uvalde school in Texas (USA) submitted a lawsuit against the Activision (Call of Duty) and Goal (owner of Instagram), for allegedly promoting the use of firearms to minors.

On May 24, 2022, Salvador Ramos18 years old, entered the Uvalde school and shot the students, killing 21.

The lawsuit states that both companies “consciously exposed the shooter to the gun, conditioned him to see it as the solution to his problems, and trained him to use it”.

Regarding Activision it is stated that the game has an AR-15, the same weapon used by the killer and that he played Call of Duty obsessively, developing skills as a shooter and obtaining rewards that only become available after a substantial investment of time.

In relation to the Instagramit is said that the shooter was “wooed through explicit and aggressive marketing” and that the social network showed “hundreds of images portraying and venerating the emotion of combat”.

Families are also processing the Daniel Defensea weapons company that manufactured the AR-15 used in the shooting. The lawsuit alleges that the company promotes its weapons to minors on Instagram through posts “glorify” the combat.

Josh Koskoffthe lawyer for the Uvalde families, stated:

Companies like Instagram and Activision do more than just enable gun companies to reach consumers – they underwrite and generalize violence to struggling teenagers. Instagram should stop allowing gun companies to market AR-15s to children; and Activision should stop training and habituating children to kill.