The Sandy Hook Litigation and the Predicate Statute Exception
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 07 August 2025
Chapter 6 details the events surrounding the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting perpetrated by Adam Lanzer with a semiautomatic firearm that killed numerous first grade students and their teachers. The chapter begins with a description of the U.S. Supreme Court’s denial of a writ of certiorari in 2019, refusing an appeal from the Connecticut Supreme Court’s finding of a valid application of PLCAA’s predicate statute exception to immunity from suit. The chapter explores the initial Sandy Hook trial litigation against firearms manufacturers in which the defendants invoked PLCAA immunity. The discussion sets forth the trial court’s grant of the defendant’s dismissal of the case, finding no applicable PLCAA exception to immunity from suit. The chapter next focuses on the Connecticut Supreme Court’s reversal of the trial court’s dismissal, effectively reviving the litigation. The analysis considers the broad implications of the U.S. Supreme Court’s refusal to hear the PLCAA appeal, as well as the precedential value of the Sandy Hook decision upholding a PLCAA predicate statute exception. The chapter concludes with a survey of post-Sandy Hook litigation seeking to exploit the inroads on firearms immunity after the Sandy Hook litigation.
To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure no-reply@cambridge.org is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.
Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.
Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.
To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.
To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.