NY Attorney General sues gun maker over Buffalo mass shooting

New York Attorney General Letitia James has filed a lawsuit against the manufacturer of a rifle accessory used in a 2022 Buffalo shooting, where a gunman killed 10 people in a racially motivated attack.

In the lawsuit, filed in New York Supreme Court, James argues that the device Payton Gendron used to modify his AR-15 rifle in the Buffalo grocery store massacre turned it into "an even deadlier" weapon.

The target of the legal challenge is Mean Arms LLC, a company that makes and sells a device meant to lock a magazine filled with ammunition onto a semiautomatic rifle.

James alleges the company "falsely" advertised that the so-called MA Lock device makes the weapon legal in New York but included instructions on how to remove the lock. The lawsuit notes the lock can "easily be removed" so that high-capacity magazines — illegal in New York — can be inserted into an AR-15 rifle.

"We lost 10 innocent lives because a hate-fueled individual was able to make an AR-15 even deadlier through a simple change at home," James said in a statement. "We cannot undo the devastating harm that was done, but this lawsuit against Mean Arms is part of our ongoing effort to pursue justice for the ten innocent lives that were unjustly taken."

Gendron, 19, killed 10 people at a grocery store in a predominantly Black area of Buffalo last May. In November, he pleaded guilty to multiple counts of murder and state charges of domestic terrorism and was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole. He also faces federal charges, which could include the death penalty.

In the lawsuit, James alleges the company's instructions on how to remove the lock device with basic household tools allowed Gendren to gun down 10 people in about two minutes.

"During the attack, the Buffalo shooter inserted multiple 30-round detachable magazines to the Bushmaster XM-15 that also had a pistol grip, so that he did not have to reload frequently and when he did reload, he could do so quickly, adding to the deadliness of the attack," James wrote in the 20-page complaint.

James is asking the court to issue an order stopping Mean Arms from doing business in New York and to require the company to "pay restitution, damages, and civil penalties for its illegal practices that violated state laws and caused irreparable harm."

The lawsuit is the latest effort by James to crack down on firearm violence and enforce New York’s gun laws following the U.S. Supreme Court's landmark decision in the N.Y. State Rifle and Pistol Association v. Bruen case, which struck down a New York law requiring applicants to show “proper cause” to get a permit to carry a firearm.

The court's conservative majority affirmed the constitutional right to carry firearms in public places for self-defense, which has prompted reviews of firearm licensing laws in New York and other states that heavily restrict gun ownership.

But the ruling prompted New York and other Democrat-led states to tighten their gun laws to restrict further firearm carrying, which spurred other legal challenges from Second Amendment groups. New York is facing several lawsuits over its gun control laws, the outcomes of which are still pending.

Gun control advocates praised James’ new lawsuit, which they say will hold gun manufacturers accountable for mass shootings carried out with their products.

"Assault weapons have no place in our communities, and when reckless actors in the gun industry put profits over public safety and sell products that facilitate the circumvention of laws that keep New Yorkers safe, they must be held to account," Eric Tirschwell, executive director of Everytown Law, said in a statement.