A video game maker and Instagram parent company, Meta, are being sued by victim’s families in connection with the Uvalde school shooting.
According to the lawsuits, the companies promoted deadly weapons to a generation of “socially vulnerable” young men, including the gunman, who was 18 years old at the time of the shooting.
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The BBC reports,
The lawsuits contend that Meta and Activision “knowingly exposed” him to the gun he used at Uvalde and conditioned him to see it as the solution to his problems.
The lawsuits claim that Instagram, Activision and Daniel Defense have been “partnering…in a scheme that preys upon insecure, adolescent boys”, attorneys said in a news release.
“There is a direct line between the conduct of these companies and the Uvalde shooting,” the statement said.
“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.”
According to lawsuits, the gunman had been playing Call of Duty, a war-based video game with a rifle similar to the one used in the shooting, since he was 15 years old.
The lawsuit says the gunman was “simultaneously” the subject of “aggressive marketing” by Daniel Defense, which targeted the teen with ads on Instagram.
“Instagram creates a connection between …an adolescent …and the gun and a gun company,” Josh Koskoff, the plaintiffs’ attorney, told the BBC’s US media partner CBS, on Friday. “And nobody exploited Instagram for this purpose more than Daniel Defense.”
CBS reported that an Activision spokesperson described the Uvalde shooting as “horrific and heartbreaking in every way,” and the company offered its “deepest sympathies” to the victims and their families.
“Millions of people around the world enjoy video games without turning to horrific acts”, the spokesman said.
Meta, Daniel Defense, and Activision have been contacted by the BBC for their comments.
Daniel Defense, a steadfast supporter of the Second Amendment, is currently facing lawsuits from a number of victim’s families. In a 2022 statement, the company firmly condemned these lawsuits as “frivolous” and “politically motivated.”
On Wednesday, families of the victims reached a $2m (£1.5m) settlement with the city of Uvalde.
More than 370 officers from various local, state and federal departments were at Robb Elementary during the attack.
It took police more than an hour to stop the gunman, who was barricaded inside adjoining classrooms.
As part of their legal action, the families also disclosed that they would be suing 92 individual officers from the state’s Department of Public Safety for “shocking and extensive failures” following the shooting.
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