Uvalde families sue makers of AR-15, 'Call of Duty' and Meta over elementary school mass shooting

Families of victims killed in the 2022 Uvalde, Texas, mass shooting are suing Meta Platforms, owner of Instagram, the publisher of the “Call of Duty” video game and Daniel Defense, the maker of rifles AR-15 assault.

The civil death suits, filed on the second anniversary of the massacre, accuse the companies of being an “unholy trinity” that works “to turn insane teenagers into mass shooters,” including 18-year-old Salvador Ramos. On the afternoon of May 24, 2022, Ramos entered Robb Elementary School through an unlocked door and barricaded himself in a classroom for nearly an hour.

Ramos killed two teachers and 19 students before being shot and killed by a U.S. Border Patrol agent.

According to the two complaints filed in California and Texas, Ramos downloaded the video game “Call of Duty: Modern Warfare” in November 2021. A few months later, about a week before the school shooting, he purchased a DDM4 V7, a firearm featured in the game, which serves as a “teaser for players eager to try the weapon,” one of the lawsuits claims.

“A few minutes after midnight on May 16, the shooter's 18th birthday, he purchased a DDM4V7,” it said. “Eight days later, the shooter inflicted unspeakable violence on Robb Elementary School, killing 21 people and injuring and traumatizing many more.”

Around the same time, Ramos “was being courted through explicit and aggressive marketing” on Instagram, the suit says.

“In addition to hundreds of images depicting and glorifying the thrill of combat, Daniel Defense used Instagram to tout the illegal and deadly use of his weapons,” the lawsuit states. “Within weeks of downloading Modern Warfare, the shooter was browsing assault weapons, acquiring gun accessories popularized by the game, and repeatedly returning to the Daniel Defense website.”

The lawsuits were filed just days after the victims' families announced they had reached a $2 million settlement with the city.