Mike Bloomberg-affiliated Everytown for Gun Safety filed a lawsuit Tuesday on behalf of 16 people who witnessed the May 14, 2022, shooting in which an attacker took the lives of ten people in a Buffalo, New York, grocery store.
Breitbart News reported that the gun used in the attack at Tops Friendly Markets was purchased legally. ABC 7 indicated the attacker used a rifle that was purchased at a store in Broome County, New York.
NBC News noted that the lawsuit alleges the 16 witnesses — some of whom were Tops employees, others of whom were customers — “survived the racist attack but had to endure moments of terror that left lasting effects, such as nightmares, trouble sleeping, anxiety and paranoia.”
Some of the witnesses who worked at Tops claim they have been psychologically unable to return to the store.
Fragrance Harris Stanfield, a Tops employee at the time of the attack, said:
While I escaped without a bullet wound, the terror that the shooter inflicted on me and other survivors will live with us forever. It’s my hope that this lawsuit can help to not only hold the individuals and entities accountable who allowed the shooter to carry out his racist rampage, but that we can also change the conversation around who constitutes a victim following tragedies like this one.
The lawsuit names social media platforms believed to have been vehicles for radicalizing the attacker, as well as “RMA Armament, a body armor manufacturer, and Vintage Firearms LLC, a gun retailer.”
“The death, terror and other harm suffered by plaintiffs was made possible by the companies and individuals who facilitated and equipped the shooter for his racist attack,” the lawsuit claims. “As a result of their negligent and unlawful actions, the shooter gained the racist motivation, tools and knowledge necessary for him to commit the mass shooting at Tops.”
AWR Hawkins is an award-winning Second Amendment columnist for Breitbart News and the writer/curator of Down Range with AWR Hawkins, a weekly newsletter focused on all things Second Amendment, also for Breitbart News. He is the political analyst for Armed American Radio and a Turning Point USA Ambassador. He was a Visiting Fellow at the Russell Kirk Center for Cultural Renewal in 2010, a speaker at the 2023 Western Conservative Summit, and he holds a Ph.D. in Military History, with a focus on the Vietnam War (brown water navy), U.S. Navy since Inception, the Civil War, and Early Modern Europe. Follow him on Instagram: @awr_hawkins. You can sign up to get Down Range at breitbart.com/downrange. Reach him directly at awrhawkins@breitbart.com.
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