US Gun Accessory Firm to Pay $1.75 Million to Buffalo Shooting Victims

The manufacturer of a gun accessory linked to the racist shooting that killed ten Black people at a Buffalo supermarket has agreed to pay $1.75 million to survivors and victims’ families, and will cease selling the device in New York, state Attorney General Letitia James announced.

 

The settlement with Georgia-based Mean Arms resolves a lawsuit brought by James and covers claims from multiple victims’ families and survivors of the 2022 attack at Tops Friendly Market. Separate agreements were also reached to resolve claims against the gunman Payton Gendron’s family and the gun seller, Vintage Firearms LLC, the plaintiffs’ lawyers said.

 

The claims against Mean Arms centred on a device designed to lock a magazine onto a rifle, intended to prevent the use of high-capacity magazines, which are illegal in New York. James said Gendron easily removed the lock from an AR-15-style rifle and added high-capacity magazines, aided by instructions provided on the product packaging.

 

“We hope that by holding this manufacturer accountable and banning the sale of this device in New York, we can offer the people of Buffalo some measure of comfort,” James said.

 

Victims’ relatives attending the announcement described the settlement as a step forward. Pamela Pritchett, whose mother Pearl Young, a 77-year-old Sunday school teacher, was killed, said: “No one should be able to come into a store and, in two minutes, inflict so much damage to a community, to a family, to children.”

 

Everytown Law, representing some survivors and relatives, said Vintage Firearms has permanently closed, and its owner has agreed not to seek a federal firearms licence in future. Settlements with Gendron’s parents were confidential.

 

Gendron, who is white, targeted the supermarket in a predominantly Black neighbourhood. Victims ranged in age from 32 to 86 and included a security guard, a birthday shopper, a grandmother of nine, and the mother of a former Buffalo fire commissioner.

 

He is serving a life sentence without parole after pleading guilty in November 2022 to multiple state charges including murder. A federal trial on hate crime and weapons charges is expected this year, with the Justice Department seeking the death penalty; Gendron has pleaded not guilty.

 

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