A firearm accessory company has agreed to pay out a massive settlement to the families of the racially-motivated mass shooting at a supermarket in New York.
This comes after New York Attorney General Letitia James filed a lawsuit against Mean Arms, a gun accessory company. At the center of the lawsuit is a part of the company's product that can be removed, allowing users to use “high-capacity” magazines in their rifles. This is what the gunman who targeted black New Yorkers at Tops Supermarket in Buffalo did before carrying out the shooting.
From NBC News:
The agreement with Georgia-based Mean Arms settles a lawsuit filed by James and covers claims from various victims’ families and survivors of the 2022 attack at Tops Friendly Market. They also reached agreements to resolve their own separate suits against gunman Payton Gendron’s family and a gun seller, Vintage Firearms LLC, the plaintiffs’ lawyers announced Wednesday.
The claims against Mean Arms focused on an item that locks a magazine onto a rifle. The lock is supposed to keep people from swapping in high-capacity magazines, which are illegal in New York.
But according to James, Gendron easily removed the lock from an AR-15-style rifle and was able to add high-capacity magazines. She also said the company provided step-by-step instructions on the back of its product packaging on how to remove the lock.
“We hope that by holding this manufacturer accountable and banning it from selling this device in New York state, we can offer the people of Buffalo some measure of comfort,” James, a Democrat, said at a news conference in the city.
My office, @Everytown, @GIFFORDS_org, and law firms are holding @MeanArms, a gun parts marker, accountable for aiding the shooter in the attack at Tops in Buffalo.
— NY AG James (@NewYorkStateAG) February 11, 2026
Mean Arms sold a magazine lock that the shooter easily removed to turn his gun into a deadly assault weapon. pic.twitter.com/mgLZdIT13H
Everytown for Gun Safety, an anti-gun organization that represented some of the survivors and victims’ relatives, celebrated the settlement in a statement. “Everytown’s partnership with the New York Attorney General’s Office led to the first lawsuit to hold Mean Arms accountable, filed on the one-year anniversary of the shooting, and then was followed by multiple private lawsuits naming Mean as well,” the organization said.
On May 14, 2022, an 18-year-old white supremacist traveled to the supermarket, which was located in a predominantly black neighborhood. He opened fire using an AR-15 rifle, killing ten people and wounding three others in a racially motivated hate crime. He reportedly had researched prior racist shootings and posted a 180-page manifesto featuring several racist statements.
Mean Arms to Pay $1.75 Million Over Buffalo Shootinghttps://t.co/qMLlBClC13
— Bearing Arms (@BearingArmsCom) February 13, 2026
The anti-gunners pounced on the opportunity to use the racial aspect of the shooting to push for gun control — even though the history of gun control has been racist from its inception.
This case represents another front in the anti-gunners’ war against the Second Amendment, which makes it difficult for them to prevent people from keeping and bearing arms. If they can’t rely on laws, they will use lawfare against gun companies. Their hope is that by forcing these companies to spend money on lawsuits, they can put at least some of them out of business.
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