Firearm Industry Giants Sued For Gun Memes

THE DUMBEST LAWSUIT (SO FAR…)

Did you know that you can be sued for posting gun memes? Well, maybe not you, but firearm brands can. 

In Lowy V. Daniel Defense et al. Karen Lowy of Washington D.C. is suing a very long list of firearm and firearm accessory manufacturers because the companies' products were owned by (not necessarily used by, just owned by) a would-be mass shooter. 

A large part of her case rests on the fact that many of these brands have marketing departments that post gun memes.   

The named defendants include: 

• Daniel Defense
• Fab Defense
• Fab Manufacturing 
• Bravo Company USA
• Loyal 9 (Sons Of Liberty Gunworks)
• Fostech
• Hearing Protection, LLC (Griffin Armament)
• Centurion Arms
• Magpul Industries
• Federal Cartridge Company 
• Vista Outdoor
• Fiocchi Of America
• Fiocchi Munizioni S.P.A
• Starline Brass
• Surefire
• Torkmag

And 20 more unnamed defendants. 

FACTS OF THE CASE

Lowy was the unfortunate victim of a mass shooter. While waiting to pick up her daughter at the Edmund Burke School in Washington D.C., a shooter opened fire from a nearby apartment window. Firing over 200 rounds at the school and pick-up area, the shooter killed no one but wounded four, including Lowy. 

The shooter then killed himself as police arrived.

According to the lawsuit, Lowy only survived the attack after being resuscitated twice by emergency medical teams. There is no doubt that Lowy is a victim in this matter and that she suffered greatly.

However, the lawsuit claims that the shooter only became a shooter because of marketing created by and posted by the named defendants. Basically, the entire gun industry. 

From the filed complaint:

“The mass shooting at Edmund Burke School (the “Shooting”) was the foreseeable and entirely preventable result of a chain of events initiated by Daniel Defense et al. For years, these manufacturers have deceptively and unfairly marketed their assault rifles, rifle accessories, and ammunition in ways designed to appeal to the impulsive, risk-taking tendencies of civilian adolescent and post-adolescent males—the same category of consumers Defendants have watched, time after time, commit the type of mass shooting that unfolded again at the Edmund Burke School.”

The complaint goes on to reiterate this point multiple times. This is, of course, moronic. It’s the same lie dressed up slightly differently. Blaming media for people’s evil. Dungeons & Dragons don’t lead people into the occult, video games don’t make people violent, and gun memes do not make mass shooters. 

Furthermore, most of the parts and accessories mentioned in the complaint were not used in the actual shooting. They were found at the home of the shooter. To paraphrase Brandon Harra, that’s like getting run over by someone driving a Kia and then suing Ford and Toyota because the driver had an F-150 and a Tacoma at their garage. 

What truly boggles the mind is how a lawyer who went to law school and passed the state bar can honestly present gun memes as evidence.

ABSURDITY 

Lowy’s suit contends that:

“These advertisements are especially salient for—and are targeted to attract—troubled young men attracted to violent combat, increasing the risk that these young men will use Defendants’ deadly weapons, weapon accessories, and ammunition to perpetrate mass violence.”

For evidence, her lawyers have submitted a number of marketing posts made by a range of the defendants. A small sample of those should give you a broad idea of the insanity they are trying to claim.

Starting off by bashing Daniel Defense for… existing, the complaint bemoans the fact the company made posts featuring operators holding Daniel Defense rifles. 

From the complaint:

“'Saturdays are for the boys.' All of these advertisements encourage civilians, and particularly ‘boys' and young men like the Shooter, to reenact military-style exercises with Daniel Defense’s weapons. And Defendant Daniel Defense specifically uses hashtags to appeal to impressionable and violent young men like the Shooter, including #gunporn and #cqbr (i.e., ‘close quarter battle receiver,' an adaptation of the M4 rifle used by the military in close combat), while promoting its rifles for everyday use with captions like ‘MK18 Monday.'” 

Torkmag and Fiocchi dared to post a meme and a zombie survival tip.

What normal people would see as wholesome content promoting family, the outdoors, safe hunting, and teaching the next generation has been twisted by the complaint into an attempt to radicalize youth. Jessie Giddens is, as far as I can tell, a mommy blogger who posted a picture of her and her child. This was reposted by Fiocchi USA. 

Starline Brass is accused of “portray[ing] these deadly products as literally child’s play by explicitly comparing bullets to crayons” because they posted this on National Crayon Day (March 31st.)

There are literally dozens of these in the complaint. From calling out Post Malone for holding one of the defendant's rifles to memes about 80% lowers to dragging Call Of Duty into this because they use models of real rifles in the video game. 

Each of these is a nonsensical assault on protected speech. 

AFTERMATH

This suit is ongoing and really has only just started to heat up. Hopefully, we’ll see this quickly dismissed. 

While the fact that Lowy and others were wounded by a madman with a gun, it is hard to say that Lowy isn’t being made a victim a second time by lawyers pushing an insane narrative.

This is yet another instance where the courts are being weaponized against the firearm industry and against the armed citizenry as a whole.

If you want to read the entire complaint, here is the link.

For some legal insight, Washington Gun Law has a great video.

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