(Reuters) - The families of some of the 26 children and educators killed at a Connecticut elementary school in 2012 asked the state’s top court on Tuesday to overturn a lower court’s dismissal of their lawsuit against the maker of the gun used in the massacre. Families of nine Sandy Hook victims and one of the survivors asked the Connecticut Supreme Court on Tuesday to hear their appeal a month after their civil suit against Remington Arms Company Bushmaster Firearms, Camfour Holding and Riverview Gun Sales of East Winsdor was tossed out by Superior Court Judge Barbara Bellis. “We feel strongly that the critical issues raised in this case belong before our state’s Supreme Court and we hope the Court agrees,” said the families’ attorney, Josh Koskoff of Koskoff, Koskoff & Bieder. In Bellis’s decision on Oct. 14, she said the plaintiffs’ allegations “do not fit within the common-law tort of negligence entrustment under well established Connecticut law, nor do they come within the PLCAA [Protection of Lawful Commerce in Arms Act]’s definition of negligent entrustment.” Bellis’s ruling also said the plaintiffs “cannot avail themselves of the Connecticut Unfair Trade Practices Act (CUTPA) to bring this action within PLCAA’s exceptions allowing lawsuits for violation of a state statute applicable to the sale of marketing of firearms.”

The appeal was filed in the state Appellate Court Clerk’s office.
The families of those killed in the Sandy Hook Elementary School shootings of 2012 ask the Connecticut Supreme Court to reverse a lower court dismissal of their lawsuit against Remington Arms, maker of the Bushmaster rifle used by murderer Adam Lanza.