[JURIST] Connecticut Superior Court [official website] Judge Barbara Bellis on Thursday denied a motion to dismiss [opinion, PDF] raised by three gun companies who are being sued by families affected by the 2012 Sandy Hook massacre. The ten families filed [JURIST report] the civil action against the companies for manufacturing, distributing, and selling Bushmaster semi-automatic AR-15 rifles, the weapon used by the Sandy Hook shooter. Defendants Remington Arms, Camfour, and Riverview Guns Sales [official websites] attempted to dismiss the case last December by claiming that the Protection of Lawful Commerce in Arms Act (PLCAA) [text, PDF] grants them immunity from civil liability cases. However, Bellis allowed the case to proceed upon consideration of the families’ legal claim that the gun companies may have negligently promoted a weapon too dangerous for civilian use. The opposing parties plan to meet next Tuesday and proceed with the matter.

Since the December 2012 Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting in Newtown, Connecticut, the Connecticut legislature has tightened gun laws while the families of victims have called for gun control. In October, the US Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit upheld [JURIST report] Connecticut and New York’s gun control legislation that bans semiautomatic weapons and high-capacity magazines. A judge for the US District Court for the District of Connecticut in January 2014 upheld [ruling, PDF] the constitutionality of the state’s new gun control law [text, PDF], while still acknowledging the Second Amendment rights of gun owners. The new law, enacted in response to the shootings at Sandy Hook Elementary School in December 2012 expanded a previous ban [JURIST report] on assault weapons and introduced a prohibition on high-capacity ammunition magazines.