Sandy Hook Families Considering Next Steps After Settlement Offer

NEWTOWN, CT — The attorney representing nine families from the 2012 Sandy Hook mass shooting said his clients "will consider their next steps" after gun manufacturer Remington this week offered to settle the lawsuit against it for a reported $33 million.

Josh Koskoff, with the law firm Koskoff Koskoff & Bieder, said in a statement that since 2014, when the lawsuit was filed, "the families' focus has been on preventing the next Sandy Hook," which has included calling out companies that help facilitate the sale of weapons of war to civilians.

"An important part of that goal has been showing banks and insurers that companies that sell assault weapons to civilians are fraught with financial risk," Koskoff said. "Financial institutions like JP Morgan and Franklin Square learned that lesson when Remington went bankrupt."

Remington's offer was disclosed in recent court documents, reported Reuters.

Two of four insurance companies that used to do business with Remington, Ironshore and James River, "deserve credit for now realizing that promoting the use of AR-15s as weapons of war to civilians is indefensible," Koskoff added.

Twenty-six people were killed in the mass shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School in December 2012, and the families of nine children and one teacher who died in the massacre filed suit against Remington and others. A Remington Bushmaster rifle was used by the assailant.

The Remington settlement offer would pay each of those families $3.66 million, according to Reuters.

"Insuring this kind of conduct is an unprofitable and untenable business model," Koskoff said. "It appears that the other two insurance companies involved — Chubb and Swiss Re — have yet to learn that lesson and continue to stand firmly behind dangerous marketing and against the families. The families will consider their next steps."