Activision presents extensive defense in Call of Duty Uvalde school shooting lawsuit

Summary

Activision denies allegations linking Call of Duty to the Uvalde tragedy and defends the franchise's content as protected by the First Amendment.
Activision's defense includes expert statements countering claims that the game is a “mass shooter training camp.”
The Uvalde families have until the end of February to respond to documentation filed by Activision in the ongoing lawsuit.

Activision filed a comprehensive defense in response to lawsuits stemming from the tragic Uvalde school shooting in 2022. The lawsuits, filed by the victims' families in May 2024, allege that the shooter was influenced by violent content found in Activision video games . call of Duty series.

The shooting at Robb Elementary School on May 24, 2022, left 19 children and two teachers dead, as well as wounding 17 others. The shooter, an 18-year-old former student at Robb Elementary, was a regular visitor call of Duty player, download Modern warfare in November 2021 and used an AR-15 rifle similar to the one featured in the game. The lawsuit alleged that Meta, through Instagram, facilitated contact between the shooter and firearms manufacturers, exposing him to advertisements for weapons such as the AR-15, which he subsequently purchased. The families alleged that both Activision and Meta helped create a harmful environment that exploited insecure and impressionable teenagers, indirectly encouraging violent behavior.

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According to Game File, Activision formally responded to California's lawsuit, filing a 150-page defense last December. The company denied all allegations and maintained that there was no direct link between the two call of Duty and the Robb Elementary School tragedy. Activision also asked for the lawsuit to be dismissed under California's anti-SLAPP laws, which aim to protect the right to free speech from legal abuse. In a separate document, the publisher highlighted this call of Duty is an expressive work protected by the First Amendment, stating that claims against the game based on its “hyper-realistic content” contradict this fundamental right.

Activision Defends Call of Duty in Uvalde Lawsuit

To support its defense, Activision included a 35-page statement from Notre Dame professor Matthew Thomas Payne, who supported that call of Duty follows the tradition of military realism seen in war films and TV, rather than being a “mass shooter training camp” as suggested in the lawsuit. Also, Patrick Kelly, Chief Creative Officer of call of Dutyprovided a 38-page document detailing the game's design, including information on the $700 million budget for Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War. These documents are part of Activision's broader strategy to contest the claims made by the Uvalde families, aiming to counter the legal arguments presented in the lawsuit.

The documentation presented by Activision includes many more details, and Uvalde families have until the end of February to respond to these documents. While the outcome of this case remains uncertain, it's worth noting that violent video games have often been blamed for mass shootings in the past, making this case part of a larger ongoing debate.

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