The family of Uvalde's victims sued Activision, saying Call of Duty is "the most prolific and effective offensive weapon marketer in the United States."

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The family of Uvalde's victims sued Activision, saying Call of Duty is "the most prolific and effective offensive weapon marketer in the United States."

On the 2022 school shooting anniversary in Uvalde, Texas, the victims' families filed 2 lawsuits accusing Instagram, gun maker Daniel Defense, and Activision of "grooming" the 18-year-old mass shooter, the New York Times reports.2Instagram claims to have "grooming" the 2022 mass shooter to mark the 2nd anniversary of the school shooting, which took place on April 18.

In 2022/5/24, gunmen killed 19 students and 2 teachers at Rob Elementary School and injured 17 others. The ineffective police response has so far been the main subject of criticism, and the family recently reached a和解2 million settlement with the city of Uvalde.

These new lawsuits will be filed 1 in California and 1 in Texas, drawing attention to the marketing and sale of rifles used by shooters. The California lawsuit alleges that the 2021 Call of Duty: Modern Warfare was powered by a Daniel Defense M4V7 weapon on the splash screen, and that playing the game led a 10-year-old youth to research the gun a few hours after his 18th birthday and buy it later. 

According to The Times, the complaint states that Call of Duty's recognizable gun simulation makes Activision "the most prolific and effective offensive weapon marketer in the United States.""

Representatives of Activision told the paper that the company expresses its "deep sympathy" to the family, but Call of Duty disagrees with the conclusion that "millions of people around the world enjoy video games without turning a blind eye to horrific acts," motivating the shooter."

Entertainment Software Association, Its membership includes the owner of Activision Blizzard Microsoft, calling the accusations "baseless.""

"We are saddened and outraged by senseless acts of violence," reads the ESA statement provided to PC Gamer. "At the same time, we focus on the underlying issues of the problem and link these tragedies to video gameplay that undermines efforts to protect against future tragedies, and while many other countries have similar video gameplay rates as the United States, we do not see similar gun violence rates.

In 2023, the Wall Street Journal published a report in Remington to feature the gun maker's Adaptive Combat rifle in the same gun that Activision used in the 2009 Call of Duty Modern Warfare 2, the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting in 2012. It was reported that he had made a "secret agreement" with the company. Remington was sued by the families of those victims for irresponsible marketing, and it fought the lawsuit, but it eventually settled in 2022 for77300 million. Activision was not the target of that lawsuit.

Efforts to find manufacturers of violent video games have so far not been successful, and in 2011 the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that video games are subject to the first Amendment, but the idea that game makers may be responsible for irresponsibly selling weapons seems to be a new angle.

Except for Activision, the family has accused Meta's Instagram and Daniel Defense of recklessly marketing weapons.

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