MGM Resorts agrees to pay up to $800 million in wake of Las Vegas massacre

October 7, 2019 By
Photo credit: AFP/Getty Images as reported by the New York Post on 10/3/19.

Photo credit: AFP/Getty Images as reported by the New York Post on 10/3/19.

MGM Resorts International will pay up to $800 million in a settlement for victims of the October 2017 mass shooting in Las Vegas, the deadliest mass shooting in American history, The New York Times reports. The shooting left 58 people dead and hundreds injured.

The killer, Stephen Paddock, opened fire from his room in the Mandalay Bay hotel, which MGM owns, into an outdoor country music concert.

The settlement is in response to claims that MGM was negligent in allowing Paddock to stockpile weapons and ammunition in the 32nd-floor room, The Times reports.

“Police recovered 23 assault-style weapons, including 14 fitted with since-outlawed bump stock attachments that allowed the firearms to fire rapidly like machine guns,” according to a report by The New York Post.

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Connecticut’s highest court rules against Remington over Sandy Hook

March 27, 2019 By
Photo Credit: REUTERS/Joshua Roberts, as included in the report by Reuters on 3/14/19.

Photo Credit: REUTERS/Joshua Roberts, as included in the report by Reuters on 3/14/19.

Remington Outdoor Co. Inc. can be sued for the 2012 mass shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn., that left 20 school children aged 6 and 7 and six adult staff dead, a court ruled on March 14. 

This marks a “setback for gun makers long shielded from liability in mass shootings,” Reuters reported.

“In a 4-3 ruling widely expected to be appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court, Connecticut’s highest court found the lawsuit could proceed based on a state law protecting consumers against fraudulent marketing,” noted Reuters.

Litigants argued that Remington marketed its AR-15 Bushmaster rifle “based on its militaristic appeal.”

USA Today noted the larger ramifications of the ruling: “By ruling against a gun-maker, the Connecticut Supreme Court appears to have pierced a legal shield that could lead to more lawsuits and damaging disclosures involving the arms industry, gun control advocates say.”

The newspaper added that the method of marketing was questioned, quoting Justice Richard Powers in the majority opinion: “The regulation of advertising that threatens the public’s health, safety and morals has long been considered a core exercise of the states’ police powers.”

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Remington mum about effects of bankruptcy on settlement

March 9, 2018 By
Photo credit: Reuters file photo as reported on 2/8/18.

Photo credit: Reuters file photo as reported on 2/8/18.

The 202-year-old gun manufacturer Remington is not disclosing whether a pending bankruptcy filing will jeopardize a class action settlement involving its Model 700 bolt-action rifle.

“Neither Remington nor its attorneys responded to multiple emails about whether the company intends to abide by the agreement in the event of a bankruptcy filing,” CNBC reported. “While the settlement includes a guarantee that the company will meet its financial obligations under the agreement, it does not address the possibility of a bankruptcy.”

Reuters reported in February, “Remington, which is controlled by buyout firm Cerberus Capital Management LP, was abandoned by some of Cerberus’ private equity fund investors after one of its Bushmaster rifles was used in the Sandy Hook elementary school shooting in Connecticut in 2012 that killed 20 children and six adults. … Remington’s sales plunged 27 percent in the first nine months of 2017, resulting in a $28 million operating loss.”

CNBC reported, “Remington has agreed to replace millions of triggers on the 700 and a dozen other models to settle allegations that, for decades, the company covered up a deadly design defect that allowed the guns to fire without the trigger being pulled.”

The company denies any cover-up or the defect, but acknowledged the fix could cost as much as half a billion dollars, CNBC reported. “There are real concerns that with the bankruptcy no guns will be fixed at all.”

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