Gun accessory company to pay $1.75 million to Buffalo supermarket shooting victims
BUFFALO, New York — The maker of a gun accessory linked to a racist shooting that killed 10 Black people at a Buffalo supermarket will pay $1.75 million to survivors and victims’ families and stop selling the device in New York, state Attorney General Letitia James said Wednesday.
The agreement with Georgia-based Mean Arms settles a lawsuit filed by James and covers claims from families of various victims and survivors of the 2022 attack at Tops Friendly Market. They also reached agreements to resolve their own separate lawsuits against the family of shooter Payton Gendron and a gun seller Vintage Firearms LLC, the plaintiffs’ attorneys announced the day before.
The claims against Mean Arms related to an object that locks a magazine onto a rifle. The lock is supposed to prevent people from swapping high-capacity magazines, which is illegal in New York.
But according to James, Gendron easily removed the bolt from an AR-15-style rifle and was able to add high-capacity magazines. She also said the company provided step-by-step instructions on the back of its product packaging on how to remove it.
“We hope that by holding this manufacturer accountable and prohibiting them from selling this device in New York state, we can offer the people of Buffalo some comfort,” James, a Democrat, said at a news conference in the city.
Messages seeking comment were left for Mean Arms and its attorney.
Relatives of some victims joined James on Wednesday and said the settlement was a step forward.
“No one should be able to walk into a store and, in two minutes, inflict this much damage on a community, on a family, on children,” said Pamela Pritchett, whose mother, Pearl Young, was killed. Young was a 77-year-old Sunday school teacher who ran a food pantry.
Everytown Law, which helped represent some survivors and victims’ relatives, said in a statement that Vintage Firearms has permanently closed its doors and its owner has agreed to refrain from obtaining a federal firearms license in the future. Eric Tirschwell of Everytown Law said his clients’ settlements with Gendron’s parents were confidential.
Lawyers for the shooter’s parents and Vintage Firearms declined to comment.
Authorities say Gendron, who is white, targeted Tops, a supermarket located in a predominantly black neighborhood, for the attack. The victims ranged in age from 32 to 86 and included a guard, a man buying a birthday cake, a grandmother of nine and the mother of a former Buffalo fire commissioner.
Gendron is serving a life sentence without the possibility of parole after pleading guilty in November 2022 to several state charges, including murder.
A federal trial for hate crimes and gun counts is expected to begin this year. Gendron pleaded not guilty. The Justice Department said it would seek the death penalty.
