INDIANAPOLIS — Victims of the 2021 Indianapolis FedEx mass shooting, along with their families, filed a lawsuit against American Tactical Inc., the distributor of the magazine used in the shooting.
The lawsuit accuses the company of selling the high-capacity magazine “knowing that mass killers are attracted to these styles of magazines.”
“Gun manufacturers and distributors know that high-capacity magazines are favored by mass shooters due to their ability to kill as many people as possible,” Kris Brown, president of the Brady Center to Prevent Gun Violence, said.
Eight people died and five more were hospitalized after the mass shooting at FedEx Ground-Plainfield Operation Center in Indianapolis in April 2021.
The suspect, 19-year-old Brandon Scott Hole, was found dead after he died by suicide at the scene of the shooting.
According to the FBI, Hole purchased an HM Defense HM15F and a Ruger AR-556. About seven months later, he used those rifles at the FedEx ground facility.
According to the lawsuit, the company was negligent and reckless by not only providing 60-round magazines, but also marketing and selling them without a limit or safety precautions in place.
The lawsuit argues there is a clear duty by magazine manufacturers to take steps in preventing dangerous individuals from obtaining the weapon accessory.
“If you decide to sell such highly lethal products to the general public, you need to be very careful about who you’re selling them to,” the lawsuit said.
The lawsuit claims that rather than recognize the risk of selling the magazines, American Tactical Inc. uploaded several marketing videos in the style of violent video games and action movies, featuring men wearing tactical vests.
According to the lawsuit, during the mass shooting, the gunman wore a tactical vest nearly identical to the one used in American Tactical Inc.’s advertisements.
“American Tactical Inc. is well aware that these magazines are instruments of mass killings and have no problem marketing them directly to people with horrific intentions,” Gurinder Singh Bains, son of Jaswinder Singh who died in the shooting, said.
American Tactical Inc. President Tony DiChario and Marketing Director Joe Calabro, along with magazine manufacturer Schmeisser GmbH were also named in the lawsuit.
“American Tactical Inc.’s high-capacity magazine used in the FedEx mas shooting had 60 rounds, two to three times the killing capacity of standard magazines,” the lawsuit said. “It is clear that the Defendants put profits ahead of people.”
The lawsuit alleges that American Tactical Inc.’s reckless practices include:
- Selling magazines with a 60-round capacity
- Allowing customers to purchase high-capacity magazines without any transactions involving federal firearms licenses
- Allowing customers to purchase high-capacity magazines without providing their criminal history, completing a mental health screening or obtaining a background check
- Marketing high-capacity magazines in a reckless manner that would mirror video games and action movies
“This isn’t a hypothetical. My father is gone because they didn’t care that they were enabling mass shooters,” Singh Bains said. “They have to be held accountable not just for my father’s sake, but for everyone who may still suffer from what my family and I have been forced to go through.”
The plaintiffs are represented by Leslie Mitchell Kroeger of Cohen Milstein Sellers & Toll, along with Philip Bangle at the Brady Center to Prevent Gun Violence.
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