Tell insurance companies to stop doing business with manufacturers of weapons of war

Dear Nation’s Insurers:

Today, February 15, 2022, Remington and its insurers have been held accountable for the gun violence crisis in our nation. No amount of settlement dollars will bring back the Sandy Hook families’ children and loved ones but their lawsuit against Remington has given other families of shooting victims some hope that they too can pursue justice in the courts. 

The $73 million settlement with the Sandy Hook families is the maximum coverage from Remington's insurance carriers Liberty Mutual, James River, Chubb and Swiss Re. We call on the nation's insurers to learn from this settlement and reconsider doing business with the gun manufacturers who market and sell weapons of war. Insuring and Investing in weapons of choice for mass shooters is an irresponsible business decision.  

The Sandy Hook families were interested in the discovery phase of the lawsuit to shed light on the gun industry’s dangerous marketing tactics that place profit over public safety. We hope that thousands of pages of internal company documents that proved Remington's wrongdoing will be made public so that other gun manufacturers and their insurers will learn important lessons and help us prevent future mass shootings and all forms of gun violence.

AR15s are the weapons of choice for mass shooters. The gun industry and the gun lobby have worked for years to convince Americans that AR15s are “modern sport sporting rifles” when in reality they are nothing more than weapons of war that are being used to hunt our children and loved ones in our schools, places of worship and other public places all across America. Recently, the National Shooting Sports Foundation (NSSF) allowed a gunmaker to showcase JR-15s, AR15s made for children at its annual SHOT Show.

Yesterday was the four year mark of the Parkland school shooting tragedy when a 19-year-old gunman used an AR15 to kill 17 students and teachers and injure 17 others. ‘AR15s were also used by the gunmen in Orlando, Las Vegas, Sutherland Springs, El Paso, San Bernardino and other mass shooting events. We know firsthand that one AR15 can cause significant damage to an entire community in a matter of minutes. Please help us end the gun violence crisis in our nation.

Sincerely,

Newtown Action Alliance