Nuns sue gunmaker to halt assault-style rifle sales

A group of activist Catholic nuns in the United States sued the board of gunmaker Smith & Wesson on Tuesday to abandon the manufacture, marketing and sale of its version of the AR-15 assault-style rifle that has been used in US mass shootings.

The nuns, who hold about 1,000 shares collectively of Smith & Wesson, filed the so-called shareholder derivative action in Nevada state court that alleges the publicly traded company's leaders are putting shareholders at risk by the way they have made and sold the rifle.

"These rifles have no purpose other than mass murder," they said in a statement.

Smith & Wesson, which is incorporated in Nevada, did not respond to a request for comment.

Suits by shareholders claiming a company's leadership has breached their duties are common with publicly traded corporations, but lawyers said it appeared to be the first time one has been filed against a gunmaker over the manufacture and marketing of guns.

The nuns have also used the strategy of owning shares to raise concerns on a range of issues with other large companies, including Hyatt Hotels and General Electric.

The legal action by the nuns comes amid a flurry of lawsuits against gun companies that were spurred by a $73 million settlement between the families of those killed in the Sandy Hook Elementary School massacre in Connecticut in 2012 and Remington Arms in a suit over its marketing practices.

Lawrence Keane, senior vice-president and general counsel for the National Shooting Sports Foundation, which represents gunmakers, called the lawsuit frivolous.

"This same group has been filing shareholder proposals and losing, so I guess they're trying a new tactic," Keane told The Wall Street Journal.

Jeffrey Norton, a partner with New York law firm Newman Ferrara and lead attorney for the nuns, said the approach has worked in other industries.

"The theory we are pursuing has been successful in a lot of different situations, but it's novel in pursuing it with the gun industry," Norton told the Journal. "We're trying to get it out of the hands of troubled people."

The nuns also called for stricter safety standards on how the gun is manufactured, so that gun owners cannot easily adapt the semi-automatic rifle to mimic a machine gun.

Joe Kavan, a lawyer who represents firearms companies, said it was an unusual legal tactic, and the case will be watched closely.

"If they get an activist judge, it may survive summary judgment," he told the Journal. "But with most judges, I can't see how it will survive. It's just too speculative."

The AR-15 rifle was first developed for the US military in the 1950s. One version of the rifle, capable of automatic and semi-automatic fire, was adopted by the military in the 1960s and named the M16.

In recent years, a civilian, semi-automatic version of the AR-15 has become the most popular rifle in the US. Civilians today own more than 20 million, industry estimates showed.

Smith & Wesson first started selling its version of the rifle in 2006 and was a major producer of an AR-15 rifle by 2020, according to the suit. The company made more than $695 million in revenue from the sale of AR-15s from 2012 to 2021.

Agencies contributed to this story.