Parents of the victims of the horrific 2022 Uvalde school shooting are now taking action to file lawsuits against companies such as Activision Games and Meta, the parent company of Instagram and Facebook. Mourning parents are planning to sue the major media companies as they feel themes and scenarios expressed through the companies
Products may have influenced the shooter to commit the horrible crime. The Uvalde school shooting took place on May 24th, 2022 at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas. A total of 22 people died, many of them children, and the shooter.
According to the filed lawsuits by the grieving parents, companies like Activision Games and social media giants like Meta, the companies have previously promoted violent themes such as deadly weapons. The parents of the school shooting victims believe these themes fell into the wrong hands of a generation of “socially vulnerable young men”. In the lawsuits, parents expressed that Meta and Activision exposed the shooter to his shooting weapon of choice through their products.
Activision Games is one of the largest video game production companies and is most popular for its hit series, Call Of Duty. The game is a world-famous first-person shooter video game dealing with gameplay topics of warfare and heavy weapon usage. In the lawsuit, it was stated that the 18-year-old Uvalde shooter, Salvador Ramos, was a habitual player of the violent game since age 15, and used a similar assault rifle to carry out the shooter. Following the lawsuit filing, Activision Games commented on the matter where a spokesperson for the company stated that the Uvalde school shooting was horrific and heartbreaking, and offered the company’s deepest condolences to the families.
As for tech giants like Meta, the parents of the victims believe social media apps like Instagram used, “aggressive marketing” to help link the shooter to further information on deadly weapons by providing the shooter with gun manufacturer accounts through algorithms.
