Families of Uvalde victims sue Activision, say Call of Duty is 'the most prolific and effective marketer of assault weapons in the United States'

Image for Families of Uvalde victims sue Activision, say Call of Duty is 'the most prolific and effective marketer of assault weapons in the United States'
(Image credit: Activision)

On the second anniversary of the 2022 school shooting in Uvalde, Texas, families of the victims have filed two lawsuits which accuse Instagram, gun maker Daniel Defense, and Activision of "grooming" the 18-year-old mass shooter, reports The New York Times.

On May 24, 2022, the shooter killed 19 students and two teachers at Robb Elementary School, and injured 17 others. The ineffective police response has been the primary subject of criticism so far, and the families recently reached a $2 million settlement with the city of Uvalde.

These new lawsuits, one filed in California and the other in Texas, turn attention to the marketing and sale of the rifle used by the shooter. The California suit claims that 2021's Call of Duty: Modern Warfare featured the weapon, a Daniel Defense M4 V7, on a splash screen, and that playing the game led the teenager to research and then later purchase the gun hours after his 18th birthday. 

According to The Times, the complaint says that Call of Duty's simulation of recognizable guns makes Activision "the most prolific and effective marketer of assault weapons in the United States."

An Activision representative told the paper that the company expresses its "deepest sympathies" to the families, but disagrees with the conclusion that Call of Duty motivated the shooter, saying that "millions of people around the world enjoy videogames without turning to horrific acts."

The Entertainment Software Association, whose membership includes Activision Blizzard owner Microsoft, has called the accusation "baseless."

"We are saddened and outraged by senseless acts of violence," reads an ESA statement provided to PC Gamer. "At the same time, we discourage baseless accusations linking these tragedies to video gameplay, which detract from efforts to focus on the root issues in question and safeguard against future tragedies. Many other countries have similar rates of video gameplay to the United States, yet do not see similar rates of gun violence."

In 2023, The Wall Street Journal reported that Activision once made a "secret deal" with Remington to feature the gun maker's Adaptive Combat Rifle in 2009's Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2, the same gun used in the 2012 Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting. Remington was sued by the families of those victims for irresponsible marketing, and though it fought the suit, it ultimately settled for $73 million in 2022. Activision was not targeted by that lawsuit.

Efforts to find the makers of violent videogames legally responsible for the actions of mass shooters have thus far not been successful, and in 2011 the US Supreme Court ruled that videogames are protected by the First Amendment. The notion that a game maker might be held liable for irresponsibly marketing a weapon, however, seems to be a new angle.

Aside from Activision, the families have accused Meta's Instagram and Daniel Defense of recklessly marketing the weapon.

Tyler Wilde
Editor-in-Chief, US

Tyler grew up in Silicon Valley during the '80s and '90s, playing games like Zork and Arkanoid on early PCs. He was later captivated by Myst, SimCity, Civilization, Command & Conquer, all the shooters they call "boomer shooters" now, and PS1 classic Bushido Blade (that's right: he had Bleem!). Tyler joined PC Gamer in 2011, and today he's focused on the site's news coverage. His hobbies include amateur boxing and adding to his 1,200-plus hours in Rocket League.

Read more
Fortnite jacked Peter Griffin
Parents are suing Epic over Fortnite item shop 'FOMO' timers they say are inaccurate and manipulative
 A Canadair CL-415 Super Scooper makes a water drop during a demonstration Wednesday, October 26, 2022.
Drone operator who damaged LA firefighting plane was Peter Akemann, who co-founded Treyarch back in the '90s
Ghost, from Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 (2022), looks bleakly at a fellow passenger in a transport.
For COD’s sake: One player’s 763-day legal quest to make Activision unban their account ends in total success: ‘Worth the effort’
Rainbow Six Siege: Rauora key art
Ubisoft apologizes for 'oversight' in Rainbow Six Siege's upcoming new operator after people notice the New Zealand-born character's birthday is the same date as the 2019 Christchurch mosque killings
Characters with guns next to a train
Call of Duty's development budget ballooned by $250 million between 2015 and 2020 to an eye-watering $700 million
Close up of new CoD skin in support of LA wildfire relief, with a hooded figure wearing a mask that looks like a fingerprint and holding a firearm, all with a matte grey texture overlaid with a psychedelic, metallic swirl camo pattern.
Call of Duty is getting a microtransaction nobody can get mad at: A unique premium skin whose proceeds will go to LA wildfire relief
Latest in FPS
spectre divide
Spectre Divide and its studio are shutting down after just six months: 'The industry is in a tough spot right now'
Masked Counter-Terrorist in helmet in forefront with sunglasses and beret-wearing CT in background touching headset
There's hope yet for Classic Offensive after its Steam rejection: The team behind the Counter-Strike 1.6 revival mod is in touch with Valve about its 'concerns'
Destiny 2 Rite of the Nine: The Emissary, massive, ominously standing at the edge of a water basin.
Oops! Bungie rolled out Destiny 2's Rite of the Nine event three weeks early, and new loot is already dropping
A soldier looks out over the Verdansk map, as a single tear rolls down his cheek.
The original Verdansk map is returning to Call of Duty: Warzone, to celebrate which we get a soldier crying to Nat King Cole
FragPunk codes - A close-up shot of a mercenary wearing a mask with glowing eyes.
All FragPunk codes and how to redeem them
An evil-looking demon with red eyes and horns
You can theoretically beat Doom: The Dark Ages without using a gun, but 'You'd have a hard time, that's for sure,' says the game's director
Latest in News
Dante smiling
'No AI used': Netflix's Devil May Cry showrunner confirms that all of Kevin Conroy's lines were recorded before he passed
Nvidia RTX 5090 Founders Edition graphics card on different backgrounds
AI will be crammed in more of the graphics pipeline as Nvidia and Microsoft are bringing AI shading to a DirectX preview next month
Nvidia RTX 50-series graphics cards alongside an RTX 4090
Nvidia says it's sold twice as many RTX 50-series cards as RTX 40-series in the first 5 weeks. I'd bloody well hope so given there was essentially just the RTX 4090 for competition
AMD Radeon RX 9070/9070 XT graphics cards with artistic renders of reference design cards circled
Looks like a reference design AMD RX 9070 XT card has shown up in China, but let's not get carried away with thoughts of MBA cards just yet
Concept art of WoW's upcoming player housing system, showing a warm homestead with a welcoming figure in shade.
WoW flexes its MMO player housing system in a new blog post, and it really might just beat FF14's dated furniture placement into the dirt
spectre divide
Spectre Divide and its studio are shutting down after just six months: 'The industry is in a tough spot right now'