District Court Rejects Sturm, Ruger & Co.’s Attempt to Move Civil Lawsuits on Behalf of Survivors of King Soopers Mass Shooting 

The U.S. District Court for the District of Connecticut Ruled in Favor of Plaintiff to Send the Lawsuits Back to State Court

CONNECTICUT –The United States District Court for the District of Connecticut yesterday rejected Sturm, Ruger & Company’s attempt to remove from state court the civil lawsuits filed by survivors of the King Soopers mass shooting. The District Court correctly determined that the federal courts do not have jurisdiction over the plaintiffs’ claims, which seek relief under Connecticut state law for Ruger’s allegedly unlawful marketing and sale of the shooter’s weapon in violation of the National Firearms Act and Gun Control Act. The cases will now continue in Connecticut state court.

“We are pleased this case will be sent back to the state court where it belongs,” said Eric Tirschwell, Executive Director of Everytown Law. “We look forward to proving our case that Ruger’s illegal marketing and sale of a short-barreled rifle made the King Soopers shooting possible.” 

On March 22, 2021, Suzanne Fountain was at the King Soopers Supermarket in Boulder, Colorado, when she and nine others were killed in the deadliest mass shooting of the year. The shooter was armed with a Ruger gun misleadingly called an AR-556 “Pistol”–in reality, the weapon was a short-barreled rifle, which is subject to heightened regulations under longstanding federal firearms laws. 

On behalf of Nathaniel Getz, Suzanne Fountain’s son and administrator of her estate, Everytown Law and the teams lead by Soumya Dayananda of Willkie Farr & Gallagher LLP and Andrew Garza, Andrew Ranks, and Alexa Mahony of Connecticut Trial Firm, LLC, are suing Ruger for selling this short-barreled rifle in violation of the National Firearms Act and Gun Control Act. More on the case can be found here. The estates of Neven Stanišić, Denny Stong, Lynn Murray, Jody Waters, and Kevin Mahoney are represented in a parallel case against Ruger by Connecticut Trial Firm, LLC.  

This is the second federal court decision this month rejecting a gun industry defendant’s attempt to remove a case arising out of a mass shooting from state to federal court.