ROCHESTER, N.Y. (WKBW) — On Tuesday, five judges from the state's Supreme Court of the Appellate Division, Fourth Judicial Department heard three hours worth of arguments involving lawsuits connected to the Buffalo mass shooting at Tops on Jefferson Avenue.
The deliberation centered around two questions:
- Should a gun accessory manufacturer be held liable for the deadly attack?
- Should social media platforms be held liable as well?
A decision could take weeks to decide the future of these lawsuits.
Gun accessory manufacturer
In 2023 I told you about Mean LLC, which owns Mean Arms. The Georgia-based gun accessory manufacturer makes the MA Lock.
Authorities said the convicted killer, Payton Gendron, purchased an AR-15 in January 2022. In court on Tuesday, attorneys for the families of the victims argued that Gendron knew he would easily be able to remove the lock to attach a higher capacity magazine, making his gun illegal.
According to Attorney General Letitia James, Gendron wrote about removing the lock in his manifesto. James said the shooter followed directions from the company on how to remove the lock, using a drill in his family's home.
The attorney for Mean LLC said unlike in New York, removing this lock to add a higher capacity is legal in other states. However, attorneys for victims of the mass shooting said that Mean LLC promoted and marketed removing the lock to New Yorkers. They said this was a way for gun owners in New York to get around restrictions on assault weapons.
Social media platforms
Buffalo-based attorney John Elmore was joined by Matthew Bergman in court. Bergman is the founding attorney of the Social Media Victims Law Center in Seattle.
Elmore argued in court that Gendron would not have carried out the heinous mass-murder had he not been exposed to the addictive algorithm of these platforms. Elmore said Gendron was fed and became obsessed with white-supremacy related content. One attorney alluded to Gendron's manifesto, in which the teen stated he was motivated by being able to live stream the attack on Twitch.
Attorneys represented Meta, Snapchat, Discord, Twitch, 4chan and other platforms in court. They said their companies did not aid in the mass shooting. Twitch allows users to live stream an event, often used in video games. The attorney for Twitch argued that live streaming has had many benefits for society, and their millions of users don't choose violence.
However, on the other side, Elmore argued that these companies knowingly promote potentially dangerous content or options that could be utilized for toxic actions. Elmore said the mass shooting never would've happened if Gendron hadn't been exposed to online material involving these platforms.
