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Feb. 15 (UPI) -- Gunmaker Remington has agreed to pay more than $70 million to settle a lawsuit with several families of victims of the Sandy Hook shooting attack that killed 20 young children a almost decade ago. Court documents filed on Tuesday show that the company agreed to pay $73 million to nine Sandy Hook families to settle the case, which stems from the assault-style rifle used in the attack -- a Remington Bushmaster XM15-E2S AR-15.
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Shooter Adam Lanza used the rifle to kill 20 first-graders and six educators at the Newtown, Conn., elementary school on Dec. 14, 2012. Lanza also killed his mother before the attack, and killed himself at the end of the assault.
As part of the settlement, the families are also allowed to release materials related to how Remington marketed the rifle.
"The plaintiffs request that the court set a status conference, to be held at a date convenient to the court and counsel for the parties so that the parties may further report on the settlement, including what must be accomplished before the case can be withdrawn," the document said, according to WVIT-TV.
Financial details were not disclosed in the documents, but a lawyer for the families said Remington agreed to pay $73 million.
While a 2005 federal law shields most gun manufacturers from wrongful death lawsuits for how their weapons are used, Sandy Hook families developed a strategy of holding Remington partly responsible for the way it was marketed.
The families said that Remington's marketing praised the rifle's militaristic qualities and reinforced the image of a combat weapon, a violation of Connecticut law. Remington petitioned the U.S. Supreme Court in 2019, but the court refused to hear the company's appeal and allowed the suit to move forward. Remington filed for bankruptcy in 2020.
