New lawsuits filed by the families of victims killed in a Texas school shooting allege that a Georgia gun maker used Instagram and the Call of Duty video game to market assault-style rifles to teenage boys while the companies' owners looked the other way.
The wrongful death claims were filed Friday on the second anniversary of the 2022 massacre that killed 19 children and two teachers at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas, Reuters reported.
The 18-year-old shooter, who was slain during a gun battle with authorities, used an AR-15-style rifle manufactured by Daniel Defense of Black Creek, Georgia, after allegedly obsessively visiting Instagram, where the company advertised its weapons.
He also played Call of Duty, which features the gun and and allegedly led the killer to become fixated on getting one.
"There is a direct line between the conduct of these companies and the Uvalde shooting," Josh Koskoff, one of the families' lawyers, said in a statement. "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."
Activision Blizzard, which makes Call of Duty, called the Uvalde shooting "horrendous and heartbreaking in every way" and said millions of people played video games "without turning to horrific acts," according to the Associated Press.
An industry group, the Entertainment Software Association, also said there's been no research linking video games to real-life violence.
Neither Daniel Defense nor Facebook parent company Meta Platforms, which owns Instagram, responded to requests for comment, AP and Reuters said.
The lawsuits filed in Los Angeles and Uvalde came two days after Uvalde officials agreed to pay $2 million in insurance money to to settle a lawsuit filed by victims' families over the May 24, 2022, mass shooting.
Also Wednesday, their lawyers announced lawsuits against scores of police officers involved in what U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland in March called a "series of major failures" in the botched law enforcement response to the bloodbath.
A Justice Department review found that 33 students and three teachers, many of whom had been shot, were trapped in the room with the killer for more than an hour as authorities waited outside.
