Wrongful death cases filed in Texas and California focus on how unholy trinity of Instagram, Call of Duty and Daniel Defense working together to convert alienated teenage boys into mass shooters
Press Release submitted by Berlin Rosen on behalf of Koskoff Koskoff & Bieder PC and Guerra LLP
Top Picture screen shot from Call of Duty
Justices Roberts & Alito: Companies like Activision “allow troubled teens to experience … what it would be like to carry out unspeakable acts of violence”
UVALDE, TX—Most of the families whose loved ones were murdered or injured at Robb Elementary School, along with several survivors, today filed wrongful death lawsuits against Meta, Instagram’s parent company; Activision, the maker of Call of Duty; and Daniel Defense, which manufactured the AR-15 style assault rifle used in the 2022 massacre.
The lawsuits map out in great detail how the unholy trinity formed over the last 15 years by Instagram and Activison partnering with Daniel Defense in a scheme that preys upon insecure, adolescent boys. Meta and Activision, through products that count millions of teenagers and pre-teens as users, have enabled and emboldened firearm manufacturers’ efforts to expand the market for their weapons by granting unprecedented, direct and 24/7 access to children, as detailed in the complaints.
The filings, which come on the second anniversary of the third most deadly school shooting in the nation’s history, include wrongful death, gross negligence and unjust enrichment. The case against Meta and Activision was filed in California Superior Court in Los Angeles; the case against Daniel Defense was filed in Uvalde District Court.
“There is a direct line between the conduct of these companies and the Uvalde shooting. Just 23 minutes after midnight on his 18th birthday, the Uvalde shooter bought an AR-15 made by a company with a market share of less than one percent. Why? Because, well before he was old enough to purchase it, he was targeted and cultivated online by Instagram, Activision and Daniel Defense. This three-headed monster knowingly exposed him to the weapon, conditioned him to see it as a tool to solve his problems and trained him to use it,” said Josh Koskoff, partner at Koskoff, Koskoff & Bieder and attorney for the families. “Gun companies like Daniel Defense don’t act alone. AR-15s were available when many of us were growing up, but we didn’t have mass shootings by kids. What has changed is that companies like Instagram and Activision do more than just allow gun companies to reach consumers–they underwrite and mainstream violence to struggling adolescents. Instagram should stop enabling the marketing of AR-15s to kids by gun companies; and Activision should stop training and habituating kids to kill. It’s that simple.”
Activision’s brainchild, the first-person shooter enterprise Call of Duty, offers its young, impressionable target audience the opportunity to become soldiers. It trains them, virtually, to kill; desensitizes them to the life-shattering impacts of repetitive, graphic violence; and rewards them for efficient killing and high body counts, as the complaints lays clear in alarming detail. Although the killing is virtual, the weapons are authentic—they are designed to perfectly imitate their real-life counterparts in look, feel, recoil and accuracy.
In 2011, two jurists wrote with startling prescience about how the conduct of companies like Activision might lead us to exactly the place society now finds itself: “If the technological characteristics of the sophisticated games that are likely to be available in the near future are combined with the characteristics of the most violent games already marketed, the result will be games that allow troubled teens to experience in an extraordinarily personal and vivid way what it would be like to carry out unspeakable acts of violence,” wrote Supreme Court Justices John Roberts and Samuel Alito in Brown v. Entertainment Merchants Association.
Along with Activision, Meta’s Instagram, now an essential accessory for every teen, offers firearm manufacturers something even Call of Duty cannot: an unsupervised channel to speak directly to the most vulnerable and insecure customers available: adolescent boys. The platform knowingly promulgates flimsy, easily circumvented rules that ostensibly prohibit firearm advertising to children, as highlighted in graphic detail in the lawsuits. According to one firearms marketing agency, “there are some major loopholes in … advertising regulations for Facebook and Instagram,” allowing organic posts promoting firearms to infiltrate the platform.
With Instagram’s blessing and assistance, purveyors of assault weapons can inundate teens with content that exalts lone gunmen, exploits tropes of sex and hypermasculinity and directs them where to buy their Call of Duty-tested weapon of choice.
In November of 2021, the Robb Elementary School shooter downloaded the most recent version of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare, a wildly popular offshoot of the franchise. He had previously been playing Call of Duty: Mobile on his phone since he was 15 years old. This version of Modern Warfare, which was released in 2019, featured the DDM4V7, the gun used in the Robb Elementary School mass shooting, on its opening title page—a marketing coup for Daniel Defense and a teaser for players. Simultaneously, on Instagram, the shooter was being courted through explicit, aggressive marketing. In addition to hundreds of images depicting and venerating the thrill of combat, Daniel Defense used Instagram to extol the illegal, murderous use of its weapons.
Within weeks of downloading Modern Warfare, the shooter was researching firearms on his phone and browsing Daniel Defense’s website. He created an account with Daniel Defense on April 27, 2022, 19 days before his eighteenth birthday, and added the DDM4V7 to his cart. The shooter became consumed with anticipation, compulsively googling how many days remained until his birthday on May 16. Mere minutes after midnight on May 16, the shooter completed his purchase and began the final stage of waiting for his DDM4V7. Eight days later, the shooter inflicted unspeakable horror at Robb Elementary School, killing 19 children and two teachers while injuring 17 others.
The lawsuits were filed on behalf of families and individuals represented by Josh Koskoff of Koskoff, Koskoff & Bieder PC and Erin Rogiers of Guerra LLP, as well as Katie Mesner-Hage, Colin Antaya and Alinor Sterling of Koskoff, Koskoff & Bieder PC.
###
About Koskoff Koskoff & Bieder PC
Koskoff Koskoff & Bieder, based in Connecticut, is a nationally recognized law firm that, in 2022, achieved landmark legal victories on behalf of nine families of the Sandy Hook School shooting. The firm has also achieved record verdicts for people who suffer serious harm from violation of their civil or constitutional rights, medical malpractice, dangerous products, negligence, corporate or governmental abuse and commercial misconduct.
About Guerra LLP
Guerra LLP stands on a strong foundation of hard work and dedication, fueled by an unwavering passion for helping others. The firm is based out of San Antonio, Texas but is a true nationwide practice recognized for trailblazing legal victories for clients in class actions, mass torts, environmental torts, civil litigation, commercial litigation, product liability, and personal injury. We are proud to help bring justice to the community of Uvalde that is located close to home.
