Greenwich, CT Wednesday, November 15, 2017 -(TerraUS, mhUSA)-
Connecticut ' s highest court heard arguments Tuesday over whether the families of victims of the Sandy Hook school massacre can revive their lawsuit against the company that made the rifle that Adam Lanza used to kill 20 schoolchildren and six adults in 2012.

A state Superior Court judge last year dismissed the suit, which was brought by relatives of nine people who were killed and one person who survived the shootings at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown on Dec. 14, 2012. The judge cited a federal law that broadly prohibits lawsuits against gun makers and dealers when a weapon functions "as designed and intended."

Attorneys for the families argued in court documents and in the Connecticut Supreme Court in Hartford on Tuesday that an exception to the 2005 law allows lawsuits against companies that know or should reasonably be expected to know that their products are likely to be used "in a manner involving unreasonable risk of physical injury to the person or others."

It ' s a claim called "negligent entrustment," and it has often been argued in cases involving unlicensed or reckless drivers who cause injuries when they ' re driving someone else ' s vehicle.

Remington may never have known Adam Lanza, but they had been courting him for years.” Josh Koskoff, an attorney for the Sandy Hook families, and other legal experts said the Remington suit is believed to be the first to have been filed under the gun law exception.

ʻʻ Like David in the Bible, the plaintiffs are trying to bring down a giant with a slingshot, short of impossible in this case since Defedant is protected or inmune from lawsuits. It would be short of preposterous if for every person that gets ran over by a car or gets into an accident Ford motors, had to shell money in a Lawsuit... ʼʼ

The Sandy Hook suit cites a 1977 case, Moning v. Alfono, in which the Michigan Supreme Court allowed a lawsuit to proceed against the company that made high-speed slingshots. An 11-year-old boy used one of the company ' s slingshots to fire a pellet that ricocheted off a tree and struck his 12-year-old friend in the eye.