Everytown Law Announces Latest Victory in Civil Lawsuits Arising From Buffalo Mass Shooting

NEW YORK – Everytown Law, along with civil rights lawyers from the firms Bonner & Bonner and Ryder Law, today announced the latest in a series of important pretrial victories secured in their suits filed on behalf of 25 survivors of the racially motivated mass shooting at Tops Friendly Market in Buffalo. Earlier today, a judge in the Erie County Supreme Court denied a motion to dismiss filed by Vintage Firearms, the gun store that sold the shooter the illegal assault weapon used in the deadly massacre. 

“The tragedy at Tops Friendly Market was one of the worst racist attacks in modern American history and we intend to prove that Vintage Firearms illegally and negligently sold a radicalized teen an assault weapon that is banned in New York State,” said Eric Tirschwell, Executive Director of Everytown Law. “For too long members of the gun industry – including multiple defendants in these suits – have hidden behind a federal law that gives them special protections from lawsuits, but decisions like today’s make it clear that more and more courts are rejecting their attempts to dodge accountability.”

The court found that plaintiffs sufficiently alleged that Vintage violated the New York SAFE Act by selling an illegal assault weapon prohibited under state law, and that gun industry members who engage in knowing violation of such laws are not entitled to a defense under Protection of Lawful Commerce in Arms Act (PLCAA). The case against Vintage will now proceed to discovery.

Today’s victory comes just two weeks after Everytown Law announced the same judge denied a motion to dismiss filed by MEAN Arms, similarly rejecting arguments that the defendants were protected by the PLCAA and allowing the case against MEAN Arms to proceed to discovery. MEAN Arms manufactured an easy-to-remove lock that facilitated the shooter’s acquisition of an illegal assault weapon used in the deadly massacre.

More information about the lawsuits, including the court’s decisions, can be found here.