Today is Tuesday, February 15, 2022. A bittersweet moment arrived today when relatives of nine victims of the Sandy Hook Elementary School massacre reached a massive $73 million settlement with Remington, the manufacturer of the Bushmaster AR-15-style rifle that was used in the unspeakable December 2012 killings of 20 first-graders and six educators in Newtown, Connecticut. This concludes a lawsuit in which a gun manufacturer for the first time faced financial liability following a mass shooting in this blood-soaked United States. This should give other gun manufacturers pause after this historic settlement was awarded to these nine plaintiffs. This is a landmark victory for all of us who still live in fear of being slaughtered by some lunatic brandishing such powerful firearms that never should be in individuals’ hands in the first place. This story appears in an article in NBC News by Elizabeth Chuck entitled “Sandy Hook families reach historic $73M settlement with gunmaker Remington.”

The victory over Remington came after a protracted battle over how Remington marketed its rifle that was used by the lone gunman, Adam Lanza, who first fatally shot his mother before slaughtering 20 innocent lives at Sandy Hook Elementary School.

In addressing the outcome today, Veronique de la Rosa, the mother of six-year-old victim Noah Pozner, said “Today marks an inflection point.” At a press conference held today, the mother further said, “Today is a day of accountability for an industry that has thus far enjoyed operating with immunity and impunity, and for this I am grateful.”

In their lawsuit against Remington, which has since filed for bankruptcy [very good, in my opinion – one less gun manufacturer, the better!] families of the victims argued that the gun- maker irresponsibly marketed the weapon to at-risk young men such as the Sandy Hook shooter through product placement in violent video games.

The gun manufacturer, Remington, based in North Carolina, has denied the allegations. The company did not immediately respond to a request for comment from NBC News today.

Joshua Koskoff, attorney for the families, started today’s press conference that would have easily brought tears to those watching by displaying photos of the young victims and described details about the final days of their mainly unlived lives. The lawyer said, “These families would pay everything, give it all back, just for one minute” more with their loved ones.

The path to a substantial settlement was strewn with many roadblocks along the way, with the lawsuit making its way through the state Supreme Court after Remington argued it should be shielded under a federal law designed to prevent gun manufacturers from being held liable for crimes in which their firearms were used. But in 2019, a differently composed Supreme Court said it would allow the suit to go forward.

Last July, attorneys for the defendant offered nearly $33 million to settle the suit. The families did not accept the offer.

In September, Remington subpoenaed school records of children and educators killed in the massacre. Attorneys for the families quickly cried foul and asked to seal those records. In a statement to The Connecticut Post, Koskoff said, “We have no explanation for why Remington subpoenaed the Newtown Public School District to obtain the kindergarten and first-grade academic, attendance, and disciplinary records of these five schoolchildren.” Analyzing the motives of the gun manufacturer quite accurately, Koskoff asserted, “The records cannot possibly excuse Remington’s egregious marketing conduct, or be of any assistance in estimating the catastrophic damages in this case. The only relevant part of their attendance records is that they were at their desks on December 14, 2012.” Take that, Remington!

Another mother of a first-grade victim, Francine Wheeler, stated, “Our legal system has given some justice today.” She added this about her son Benjamin, “True justice would be our 15-year-old, healthy and standing next to us right now, but Benny will never be 15. He will be six forever, because he is gone forever. Today is about what is right and what is wrong.”

With this punitive settlement today, let’s hope that other families of young schoolchildren will never experience the pain that these families have had to suffer since 2012. Remember, this historic settlement took 7 long years of litigation and stonewalling on the part of Remington to escape its responsibility in causing such a dreadful explosion of mass murder.

The rest of America owes a debt of gratitude to these courageous and tenacious family members who persevered in their lawsuit against an odious gun manufacturer. Right prevailed today in this one hopeful instance.

In real time, I’m listening to David Wheeler, the father of young Benjamin Wheeler who was cut down at the age of six by a disturbed 20-year-old obsessed with guns. His words are quite powerful and moving. Wheeler condemns the gun manufacturer for its rank marketing of its guns to young impressionable men, and how it profited from such marketing and distribution of its product to these malleable individuals. The still-grieving father describes how his son would look like at 15, but that’s just fantasizing. “He will always be six,” Wheeler says. No other family should ever have to experience such horror again, that’s all I can say.

Oh, stay my fluttering heart! There is a great online article in RawStory on my smartphone that is written by Tom Boggioni which posits a calamitous outcome for the Dumpf Organization which could possibly be shuttered by the Attorney General of New York, Letitia James. This dire prediction came from former U.S. Attorney, Joyce Vance, who is a longterm contributor to MSNBC, directing her comments to host Chris Jansing. Vance claims that the letter from the Mazars Group accounting firm that cautioned that the past 10 years of Trump Organization financial statements are not to be trusted could mean that Dumpf and his family are in a heap of “trouble with Uncle Sam.”

In a sit-down interview with Jansing and NBC’s Tom Winters to discuss the breakup between the Trump Organization and its accounting firm, Vance stated that the letter is a stunning legal setback for the Dump family and could lead to the shuttering of their company. This letter from the accounting firm stating the unreliability of financial data from the company has led legal analysts to believe that Mazars may have “flipped” on their client. Could we possibly see Dumpf panhandling outside of Grand Central Terminal for quarters anytime soon?

Vance acknowledged that James has the ability to prevent the Trump Organization from operating in the state of New York, just as she shut down the Orange One’s phony charitable fund that was doing anything but giving money to deserving charities or individuals. Vance said that the consequences “could be dramatic.” She also added that Dumpf may have bigger problems with the Internal Revenue Service (IRS), stating, “If you’re knowingly and intentionally giving the IRS fake numbers, that’s what Mazars seems to be saying – there was trouble with the data we received from Trump – if they did that on purpose, they could have trouble with Uncle Sam.”

As I wrote earlier, this new development in the Dumpf saga could portend potential accountability for the Teflon Don – finally. Even if its financial at first, it’s still a reckoning.

Today was another cold day overall. The highlight was conferring with our contractor, “Cameron,” about our kitchen remodeling job that is slated to begin tomorrow. I got Cameron to commit to a schedule, where he said he would begin working at 10 and ending sometime between 5 and 6. Of course, that doesn’t mean that he might be called away at any moment. Or that he might drive somewhere to pick up materials. We are fortunate that we have an apartment to go to during the hours Cameron works in the kitchen: our friend “Patricia’s” apartment 10 minutes away. Patricia is currently in Palm Springs and is not expected to return until the end of April, I believe. I would hope our job would be finished by then! We can either listen to radio or read books in her apartment. We can’t watch TV since she turned off her service while she is away in Palm Springs.

Or we could even take refuge in the bedroom or living room while Cameron works. It’s hard to say how noisy the remodeling job will be, which would determine if we stay in the apartment while Cameron paints or hangs wallpaper or does any cutting or sawing. This is all conjecture; not until he actually starts will we have a better idea of what to expect.

So tomorrow is the big day! Depending on what develops during the day and my mood, my blog writing might be erratic for the next two weeks or so. I don’t think the computer will be covered or anything like that. We’ll have to see.

I will still go to my comic book store tomorrow. There’s no reason why I shouldn’t.

I hope to see you soon.

Stay safe and be well.