Sad news indeed!

Burdened by buyout debt and battered by lawsuits from families of the Sandy Hook Elementary School massacre, in which a Remington assault-style rifle was used, the historic gun manufacturer earlier in October went into bankruptcy reorganization.

The company was then auctioned off to seven buyers who are purchasing various parts of Remington, including its ammunition division and the firearms factories in Ilion and in Huntsville, Ala. The Ilion operation is being purchased by the Roundhill Group, which has invested in other gunmakers.

The company is expected to hire back 200 workers within 60 days, according to state Sen. James Seward’s office, whose district includes Ilion. It wasn’t immediately clear, however, if the new workers would be represented by the UMW as the company is emerging from bankruptcy.

Founded here 1816, Remington is said to be the nation’s oldest gunmaker.

Lawsuits[edit]

Since the law's passage, there have been two cases taken to a jury trial for damages. In the first, a jury found in favor of a gun store in Alaska after a gun purchased by Jason Coday was used in a murder. The second resulted in a six million dollar verdict against Badger Guns after guns negligently sold there were used to shoot police officers.^[15]

In 2016, a Missouri gun store settled for $2.2 million, for selling a gun to a schizophrenic woman who later killed her father, after the Missouri Supreme Court ruled that the sale was "negligent entrustment" and therefore was not protected by the PLCAA.^[16][17] The store had previously been warned by the woman's parents that she was mentally unstable, and asked that she not be sold a gun.

In October 2016, a Connecticut Superior Court judge dismissed a lawsuit filed by the families of some victims of the 2012 Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting against the manufacturer (Remington), the wholesale distributor, and the retailer of the semi-automatic rifle used in the shooting. Judge Barbara Bellis ruled that the suit "falls squarely within the broad immunity" provided to gun manufacturers and dealers by the Protection of Lawful Commerce in Arms Act.^[18] However, on March 14, 2019, the Connecticut Supreme Court reversed the lower court's ruling, allowing plaintiffs to continue their suit against Remington.^[19] The US Supreme Court declined to intervene in ongoing litigation that had not been decided.^[20][21]

A lawsuit by victims of the Sutherland Springs shooting against the gun shop that sold the gun has been allowed to proceed because the shooter used a Colorado driver's license as identification to purchase the gun with a 30-round magazine (a 30-round magazine is standard on the gun). In sales of firearms to the resident of another state, the sale must comply with the laws of both the seller's and the purchaser's states. Colorado law prohibits the sale of magazines capable of holding more than 15 rounds.^[22]