A gun parts manufacturer will pay a $1.75 million settlement to families of the victims and survivors of a racist mass shooting at a grocery store in Buffalo, New York, in 2022.
The settlement with the company MEAN Arms came as a result of claims from families and survivors that the company produced a part that supposedly ‘locked’ a magazine onto a semiautomatic rifle, making it legal in New York State. But the company also advertised that the device was easily removed by the shooter, and even provided directions to do so.
“They claimed this device made AR-15 style rifles legal in New York by preventing high-capacity magazines from being attached,” New York Attorney General Letitia James said in a statement. “But MEAN Arms also boasted that this device could easily be removed. On the back of their packaging, they shared step-by-step instruction on how to remove it and even posted videos online showing how to take it off. That is exactly what the shooter did.”
The attack on May 14, 2022, at the Tops supermarket in East Buffalo left 10 Black people dead and three others injured.