Family of ASU graduate killed in Las Vegas mass shooting sues gunmakers
Jul 3, 2019, 6:45 AM | Updated: 4:06 pm
(Twitter Photo)
(Twitter Photo)
The family of an Arizona State University graduate killed in the Las Vegas mass shooting filed a wrongful death lawsuit Tuesday against eight gunmakers and three dealers.
Carrie Parsons, 31, of Seattle, Washington, died in the October 2017 attack at a country music festival. She was one of 58 fatalities. More than 800 were injured in the worst mass shooting in modern U.S. history.
The Parsons family lawsuit said the manufacturers, including Colt, showed a “reckless lack of regard for public safety” by advertising the firearms “as military weapons and signaling the weapon’s ability to be simply modified.”
The Washington state family’s lawsuit alleged there were dozens of videos online showing people how to install bump stocks on their AR-15 style rifles, one of the kinds of weapons used by the Las Vegas shooter.
Stephen Paddock’s rifles had been fitted with bump stocks.
The modifications allow that type of rifle to act as a machine gun with rapid, continuous firing.
The suit pointed out that violated state and federal bans on automatic weapons.
“Having created the conditions that made a mass shooting with a modified AR-15 inevitable, Defendant Manufacturers continued conducting business as usual,” the lawsuit said.
Parsons attended ASU from 2004 to 2008 and graduated with an arts degree.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
