“As Catholic Sisters and women of faith who believe in the sanctity of life, our hearts ache at the exponential rise in gun deaths and mass shootings in our country that have ravaged the lives of so many children, women, men, their families, and communities. AR-15-style rifles, like those manufactured by Smith & Wesson, have been the weapon of choice for killers responsible for the deadliest mass shootings in American history,” the statement said.

“By design, they inflict the greatest number of casualties with maximum bodily harm in the shortest amount of time and are easily modified for automatic fire,” it said. “These rifles have no purpose other than mass murder.”

The lawsuit notes that AR-15 style rifles made by other manufacturers have been used in some of the worst mass shootings in the nation, including one that took 21 lives at an elementary school in Uvalde, Texas, in 2022 and one that killed 22 people at a Walmart in El Paso, Texas, in 2019.

Filed in a Nevada District Court where the company is incorporated, the suit notes that five highly-publicized mass shootings involving Smith & Wesson’s AR-15-style rifles were perpetrated by males between the ages of 19 and 28, and alleges the company specifically marketed to them “to take advantage of young men’s impulsive behavior and lack of self-control,” despite a previous settlement.

— Dan Stockman in Group of Nuns Sue Gunmaker Smith & Wesson Over Assault Weapons

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106 COMMENTS

  1. I did 8 years of Catholic school. I don’t like nuns. This statement: “to take advantage of young men’s impulsive behavior and lack of self-control” is a typical thing that comes out of their mouths. They are obsessed with controlling the behavior of others.

      • The public school system is where the most molestation occurs, and gets covered up by media, and moving teachers around even more than the Catholics did.

        • I used to think that until I started teaching at a public high school. To be honest I haven’t seen anything of the sort. Unfortunately when the fake news make every case a prime time story, it begins to seem like it’s happening all the time. But if you do the math, hundreds of thousands of teachers day in and day out, it’s almost statistically insignificant. And I can assure you where I work nothings covered up. You WILL be prosecuted and lose your license in a heartbeat. Just my .02

        • It doesn’t happen in your backyard (as far as you know), therefore, it can’t exist. But this other thing the trustworthy news media likes to highlight definitely happens all over the place because it isn’t like the news media would ever push an agenda.

          According to the data compiled by DFI, “between 2010 and 2019, the number of complaints filed with the U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights (OCR) alleging sexual violence against K–12 schools more than tripled.” The most recent available data, collected in 2017–18, showed 13,799 “incidents of sexual violence” and 685 instances of “rape or attempted rape” across about 95,000 schools—an increase of 43 percent and 74 percent, respectively, from the 2015–16 data.

          DFI finds that when public school employees are investigated for sexual abuse, many school districts are under no legal obligation to notify parents or even note the investigation in the employee’s personnel file. “This allows administrators to pawn off known abusers to different schools and districts in a phenomenon called ‘passing the trash,’” the report notes.

          Collective bargaining agreements negotiated between teachers’ unions and school districts are a key contributor to the problem. They “often allow for scrubbing of personnel files,” observes Zimmerman, so that no record of abuse is left once an offender leaves the system. State legislators—many of whom depend on teachers’ union support—are notoriously lax in this area.

        • Yes, I have noticed that. The secular atheist media pounced on the catholics and they’re raping h0m0sexual priests.
          And then completely ignore the atheistic rapists in the public school system.

        • And you, lil’ deb, is what femininity is to an aged, filthy, smelly street walker… 😉

      • The devil is a Christian invention. No such entity exists in Torah. It’s a fiction of the unauthorized sequels.

        • Um, have you read the Book of Job. I know you said “Torah,” the Pentateuch, but the Book of Job is from the Jewish tradition. And, what faith was Jesus, who spoke of Satan and Gahenna?

        • Um, Nikita, the very first book of the Torah (Genesis) very clearly tells of Satan (devil) in the Garden.

          Yo, dude…

        • “Um, Nikita, the very first book of the Torah (Genesis) very clearly tells of Satan (devil) in the Garden.”

          Nope, genesis doesn’t mention Satan.

          If you’re thinking of the serpent, according to the Bible it was “the lowest beast of the field” and certainly not a fallen angel.

          And really, the serpent was the only honest one in that whole tree of knowledge debacle.
          The serpent told Eve but if she ate of the Apple she would receive the knowledge of good and evil, which was absolutely correct.

          On the other hand, Jehovah said that on the day they took a bite of the apple “thou shalt surely die”, which proved to be total bullshit. They continued to live, actually for many hundreds of years after that:

          “Adam lives 930 years, up to the 56th year of Lamech, father of Noah“

          The Bible is full of these contradictions, why any reasonable person believes this fragmentary record of the taboos of a savage and war-like Bronze Age tribe is beyond me.

          The only thing I find more surprising, is the fact that many of the adherents have never actually read their holy book and are unaware of its contents.

        • Nope, Genesis clearly says the serpent is the ‘lowest beast of the field”, no mention of being Satan or a fallen angel.

          For folks who claim to have a particular faith, you sure don’t know your holy book very well.

        • Nope, Genesis clearly says the serpent is the ‘lowest beast of the field”, no mention of being Satan or a fallen angel.

          I’m impressed Minerva: You actually posted something factual, probably because it falls in line with your twisted view of religion…

        • MINOR49er, as you are an atheist, your opinion as to whether the serpent was Satan in the Garden of Eden, is tatamount to trivial.

        • Poor translation. Learn Hebrew and THEN read it again. Reading the twisted translations means nothing. Ha-Satan simply means adversary or opponent. It is not a specific name of a person or being. An adversary could be anyone -even someone who is otherwise a relatively good person. King David was even referred to as the adversary in the text.

          A being called “Satan” is only inferred through poor understanding of the Hebrew and reading bastardized translations of the Torah.

          https://hebrewwordlessons.com/2019/06/16/satan-adversary-is-not-a-name/

    • you have to use a combination of the comfy chair and the soft cushions. tricky but not entirely impossible.

      • “you have to use a combination of the comfy chair and the soft cushions.”

        No one expects the Spanish inquisition! 😉

        It was *fun* being a kid back then…

        • Our main weapon is fear, fear and surprise…and ruthless efficiency, and an almost fanatical devotion to the Pope.

  3. They can’t get laws passed to ban them, so now they want to litigate them into oblivion with legal action and bankrupt them with legal fees. I say it’s time to counter-sue for the frivolous legal tactics. No more games.

    Their hope is to make companies fear manufacturing or, make the cost so high that the average citizen can no longer afford the arm because all the legal costs will be passed onto the consumer.

    • Tell that to the ‘Subjects’ of Illinois. Ironically, Dementia Joe proclaimed today December 15,2023. Bill of Rights remembrance day, as they were ratified on this day in 1791. Now ask yourself are many of those Rights any less endangered today, than they were before the the British Crown was expelled from our nation.

    • I am not a lawyer, but the FIRST thing that popped into my mind was, How the HELL do a bunch of nuns have “standing” to sue in this matter? How have they been personally harmed by Smith & Wesson?

      Second thing was the Protection of lawful commerce act.

      Smith & Wesson produces firearms for lawful purposes and cannot be held responsible for individuals using their firearms for illegal purposes. And who are they going to market them to other than 18-25 year old men? Seems like that’s exactly the demographic likely to be military or recently left military and of course many of them want a firearm similar to the one they are used to.

      And where in the hell do they come up with the notion that just because you advertise your product to the most likely demographic for sales that you are somehow liable for the small minority of those (Democrat) wack-jobs who will use it to commit crimes. It’s not like they are publishing ads that say, “Buy our gun! They worked great in Sandyhook and Uvalde!”

      • If they own stock (and it’s a common tactic for activists to buy a token share to facilitate this kind of publicity stunt), then technically they would have standing to file a shareholder derivative suit.

        But their chances of success are nil. Shareholders can’t prevail in this kind of suit absent very clear proof that what management is doing is either clearly illegal or unquestionably contrary to their duties to shareholders, and management get the benefit of the doubt (the “business judgment rule”).

        This is nothing but a publicity stunt.

      • How the hell do they have the money to buy stock? (evidently, they don’t embrace the vow of poverty)… Do they understand that they are taking money from themselves if they prevail? Are they suing for monetary damages or are they trying to stop production of the AR? This is a frivolous lawsuit and should have been tossed minutes after it was filed… How many high-end S&W ANYTHING has been used in a mass shooting? Guy at Walmart used an AK, the Uvalde shooter used Daniel Defense DDM4 (averages around $2000), Sandy Hook shooter used a Bushmaster and it was stolen by the shooter (Reminton settled for $73 million, still building ARs)… I guess in a world where Taylor Swift can be named “person of the year” anything is possible… Best case the nuns make a few bucks and the world keeps turning…

        • I’m just guessing but the money likely came from an advocacy group. It’s part of the duped contributors to a “charity”, non-profit NGOs, and “community activists cycle of money laundering. Add in one of the largest contributors to “charities” – unionized government employees – and the Democrat Party/GOP (the GOP is far from innocent when it comes to this sort of stuff) and you can see how the money is cycled from taxpayers’ pockets into political support for the Uniparty. Fortunately, except for the now dying DEI initiatives by commercial lenders, the legal world of finance hasn’t been infected nearly as severely with promulgating The Message as the entertainment or education/indoctrination industries. As LKB stated, these kinds of shareholders lawsuits rarely go much past the news release that they’ve been filed…

      • “These rifles have no purpose other than mass murder.”
        That statement, the foundation of their suit, is patently and provably false, ergo the suit is arbitrary and without merit or standing.

  4. I suppose nuns can be progressives, too. Damned shame. The nuns probably don’t want to see criminal prosecuted any more than Brandon, or Soros, or Bloomberg wants that to happen. Who is funding the nuns?

    • Hay Zues said, “My Kingdom is not of this world.”
      Maybe the Nuns should read a biblee.
      Oh I get it, the Catholic Church ain’t doing so great no more so they are going to jump on the No Gunm band wagon along with Mr Catholic the Good Pedophile Joe theBiden.
      ( I just flashed a seen off the exorcist, The power of Christ compels you)
      I doubt an exorcism could rid the White House of the Legion.
      Need more water and a bigger cross Father Flanigan.

    • Let’s circle back to the group of Gun talking blowbags who look down their noses at the AR-15 as if Gun Rights are along the lines of Ford verses Chevy. Time for them to start sharing the load by shutting their pieholes and going AR-15 shopping for a rifle or a stripped receiver they can keep in a draw. Strength is in numbers, anything less is hot air.

      • silly. my unbuilt 80% kits do nothing to help with anything. nor do personal preferences towards one design or another.
        i like tart cherry pie baked in a brown paper grocery bag at the elegant farmer in mukwonago, where my motorbikey was built. my hole that feeds my spaghetti closet shall remain open. di has an accuracy advantage, but it’s kind of dumb.

        • …and that weak attempt at criticism comes from the confirmed expert in being pathetic, the vile deborah… 😉

      • Buy an AK
        Granada and Kuwait, the only wars America has kinda won since it started using the AR style shutter.
        How many wars have been won where an AK was involved.
        ?????? A bunch.

  6. Religious people should stick to preaching the Gospel, but otherwise STFU.

    Like many other ignorant people, these nuns will love AR-15s when Biden’s border is overrun with third world terrorists bent on r**ing every woman in sight, including dried up old nuns.

    Reference Oct 7th in Israel.

    • “Religious people should stick to preaching the Gospel, but otherwise STFU“

      I completely agree, why don’t you let these people know how you feel cold

      “Robert Jeffress, the head of 14,000-member megachurch First Baptist Dallas, a contributor to Fox News, and one of the earliest evangelical leaders to support Trump, presided over the meeting. “I usually stand when he comes in the room as a way of showing respect — he doesn’t ask that, but that’s just something that I’ve normally done,” Jeffress explained to the assembled, who included Wayne Grudem, a well-known theologian and co-founder of the Council on Biblical Manhood and Womanhood; Eric Metaxas, a bestselling Christian author and radio host; Ryan Anderson, a senior fellow at the Heritage Foundation; Jay Richards, a philosopher and senior fellow at the Discovery Institute, a conservative think tank that campaigns against teaching evolution in school; and Ivanka Trump, who popped in momentarily to say hello.“

      https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-features/christian-right-worships-donald-trump-915381/amp/

      • Yeah, Rolling Stone, my go to when I want the REAL hard-hitting news… I guess showing respect to a person who has held the highest elected office in the United States has now been elevated to “Worship”? I’ll keep that in mind if I’m ever in the same room and Obribem happens to walk in…. Fukin moron…

  7. It seems like the Uvalde shooter was female using a KelTech Sub2000 and a handgun.

    My question about this is why these nuns are shareholders of this company if they feel this way.

  12. “These rifles have no purpose other than mass murder.”

    That’s why all the cops have them. 👍

    • That’s why “progressives” just want state agents to have them. They want to kill us all and take our stuff.

    • Ask 100 Ukranians whether the populace should own AR-15s and I’ll bet a year’s salary that upwards of 70% of them will say yes.

      Counting on local police or federal military to stop all evil attackers in all circumstances is like counting on your local electricity utility to always supply absolutely uninterrupted electricity in all circumstances for mission critical applications. (Hint: life-support equipment have significant batteries to run them when electricity fails–and hospitals have massive electricity generators and fuel supplies to generate their own electricity for days when the local electricity utility fails.)

      • One difference is electric companies very rarely round up their own customers and load them onto box cars to camps where they’ll be worked to death or executed, but this has happened a number of times with police and militaries.

  13. So if I attend a Catholic church a few times, does that give me standing to sue them for “Minor Attracted Priests” diddling little boys?

  14. These nuns started this at least as far back as 2017. Do a search using a non curated search engine. There were plenty of stories about the plan.

  15. nuns should be sued for trying to drive the value of the stock down and interfere with the manufacturing of the business.
    there actions interfere with the potential profits of the business and impact the other stock holders.

  16. How about just sell your shares and give the money a real charity, not the Pedophile False Church you serve. Maybe a charity that helps the thousands of victims of Pedo Priests. while your at it, go get a real job and be a productive member of society.

  17. People of faith? Faith in whom? Last time I checked, the great commission was to go into the four corners of the Earth, and proclaim the gospel of Jesus Christ.

  18. This is only the start, car manufacturers will be sued for Climate Change, as will meat and dairy farmers. Home construction industry for deforesting Gaia, etc…

  20. More people chasing one of the least used firearms in criminal activity. The vast majority of gun related crimes happen with a handgun, not a rifle. A statistic I have posted so many times now it’s seared into my mind; On average, 3 times as many people are killed each year by knives or cutting weapons than AR15’s or rifles in general. Nearly twice as many are killed by Hands, fists or feet. Perhaps they have the standing to sue god for giving us all hands, fists and feet since they are used to kill. This suit is ludicrous and is nothing more than a publicity stunt. These women should be excommunicated.

  21. “By design, they inflict the greatest number of casualties with maximum bodily harm in the shortest amount of time and are easily modified for automatic fire,” it said. “These rifles have no purpose other than mass murder.”

    Those are all lies, and I thought Catholic nuns weren’t supposed to lie.
    But I guess they can just go to confession, confess to lying about AR-15s, and then continue lying, using confession just a “get-out-of-hell-free” card. Confession isn’t supposed to work that way, though (you’re also supposed to repent and stop sinning).

    Or more likely, the nuns don’t know they’re lying because they’ve been brainwashed.
    I guess it’s not a sin if they don’t know that they’re lying.
    Stay in your lane, nuns!

    • My bet is that these nuns are clueless frontpersons for the real backer of the lawsuit. Someone s using them, willingly on the part of the nuns, perhaps promising them some signficant money to act as fronts for the legal action.
      But none of them have been persnally harmed, thus none have standing. They should all sit dow and shut up.

      WOnder if their local bishop is aware of their stunt, and what does HE think about it?

  22. Bill of rights rememberence day? They didn’t fuckin die yet, despite people like Joe trying to kill em.

  23. Can we talk about the Swiss Guard yet? How many armed guards does the Pope have again? Who murdered Jesus again?

    • that was the jewish leaders of the day, using the roman government as their hitmen. They thought they ad Him beat, but were more than a little surprised three days later when Up from the grave He rose. The Sea Beast and the Land Beast in cahoots tried ti disappear Him but failed. Some forty years later, tthe Sea Beast, growing weary of the petulant and corrupt jews, roared into town and not only trashed their centrepiece of architecture, sodciety, religion, money, and political power, tearing the joint down to flat dirt, and then went on to do the same to the entire city of Jerusalem. Three years later there was nothing left but a barren sterile plain of dirt.

    • “Who murdered Jesus again?”

      If “they” hadn’t, the promise would not gave been fulfilled. Kinda silly to complain about people who are responsible for an otherwise unwarranted gift that one takes advantage of.

    • “Who murdered Jesus again?“

      That’s a time-honored tactic, use a make-believe religious figure to hide your antisemitism.
      Just like that German fellow…

      “And the founder of Christianity made no secret indeed of his estimation of the Jewish people. When He found it necessary, He drove those enemies of the human race out of the Temple of God; because then, as always, they used religion as a means of advancing their commercial interests. But at that time Christ was nailed to the Cross for his attitude towards the Jews; whereas our modern Christians enter into party politics and when elections are being held they debase themselves to beg for Jewish votes. They even enter into political intrigues with the atheistic Jewish parties against the interests of their own Christian nation.
– Adolf Hitler, Mein Kampf, Vol. 1 Chapter 11“

      • I don’t think Hitler managed to be resurrected…
        Although he certainly has his adherents, still in this age and time, ech, Miner?

      • Not sure what your problem is, I just pointed out that just like Hitler, he was using a story of Jesus to indict the Hebrew peoples.

        • It’s not MY problem, it’s YOUR infatuation with Hitler and your obsession with comparing everyone who does not drink from the same jug of Kool-Aid that you do as another Hitler (oddly confusing since he appears to be YOUR hero)… Must really suck to be you…

  25. Counter sue them for filing a frivolous suit and abusing the courts to conduct law fare.

    Make them spend their money defending themselves.

  26. “These rifles have no purpose other than mass murder.”

    Why are they issued to police around the country then??? How many masses of people do they plan to murder?

    This is what happens to people with outrage as wide as a lake and principles as shallow as a puddle.

    • Why it will be the weapon of choice for dacian’s Caravan of Death, after .25 and .32 pistols, to execute their enemies of the state into the mass graves.

      All according to the precedent set by other followers of the holy books: Mein Kampf, Das Kapital and The Turner Diaries.

  27. SCOTUS needs to step in and finally quash all of the BS related to the 2nd. These Penguins need to be counter sued into bankruptcy

  28. Its puzzling these Nuns are invested in any Arms manufacturers. Guns can kill, most are designed to kill, and will do so in any form as a rifle, pistol, revolver, or shotgun.

    So something stinks here. As much as the sweaty armpits of these Marxist Sisters.

    • The answer above (bought a token share to give them legal standing using money from some activist backer or organization) had the ring of truth to me. But your point stands. If they were serious, they could just sell the stock, couldn’t they?

    • It is a tradition from the Council of Avignon where a debate about allowing priests to marry was held. After much discussion it was concluded that “married priests would have divided loyalties” (and concerns of church property in divorce settlements) “but fornicators, adulterers, pedarists, and sodomites would have only one loyalty, that of the church”.

  31. The last suit, they never should have settled. The courts are lame for allowing these types of lawsuits. But they are…

    • “Loser must pay all court costs” would put a stop to this bullshit overnight.”

      That would certainly allow big pocket potential defendants to avoid trial.

  34. If the nuns win their lawsuit they will rejoice in their victory. However they will then ask for more donations since their dividends will decrease.

  35. The number of uneducated Christians of all sects who don’t know anything, about the bible’s declarations on armed self defense is simply astonishing.

    In the past TTAG has covered this subject many times over the years.

    Perhaps these nuns are only caring about what the Bible says regarding gun control. And yes gun control is in the Bible. And so was the proper storage of your machine guns handguns in houses of worship as well.

  36. I worked the security detail for the CEO of Northrop-Grumman. At the stockholder meetings there was always a group of nuns who had purchased one share of stock and always interrupted the meetings by protesting N-G’s involvement in the defense industry. PITA.

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