A woman who was shot in a Brooklyn subway shooting that left 10 people wounded filed a lawsuit Tuesday against gun-maker Glock Inc. and its parent company, accusing them of fueling "a public nuisance" in New York and endangering public health and safety.
Ilene Steur, the woman behind the federal lawsuit filed in the Eastern District of New York, was on her way to work when she was shot in the April 12 attack in which a gunman fired dozens of bullets aboard a busy subway train.
Frank James, who is charged with committing the attack, is alleged to have used a 9mm Glock handgun in the shooting. Last month, he pleaded not guilty to terrorism and weapons charges.
In the lawsuit, Steur, 49, and her lawyers accuse Glock of marketing its products in ways that emphasize "firearm characteristics such as their high capacity and ease of concealment, that appeal to prospective purchasers with criminal intent.”
The lawsuit further accuses Glock of "purposely supplying more firearms than the legitimate market could bear in order to induce sales in the secondary market," as well as of failing to train dealers to avoid illegal transactions, and refusing to shut down contracts with distributors who have sold to dealers "with disproportionately high volumes of guns traced to crime scenes."
As a result, it says, Glock has “endangered the public health and safety” of New York residents by marketing, distributing, promoting and selling firearms "with reckless disregard for human life and for the peace, tranquility and economic well-being of the public."
Glock did not immediately respond to an overnight request for comment from NBC News.
The lawsuit comes after gun industry leaders unsuccessfully challenged a 2021 New York law allowing victims of gun violence to sue gun manufacturers and dealers over their injuries.
A federal district judge upheld the law last week, rejecting gun manufacturers' claims that the legislation was unconstitutional.
The decision was handed down just a day after the deadly school shooting in Uvalde, Texas, that left 19 children and two teachers dead. The massacre at Robb Elementary School has prompted widespread calls for strengthened gun control measures.
The lawsuit also follows a deadly Memorial Day weekend that left at least nine people dead and more than 60 injured in mass shootings, according to the Gun Violence Archive. The organization defines a mass shooting as one in which four or more victims are shot or killed, not including the suspect.
President Joe Biden on Monday pushed for tougher gun control measures, including a ban on assault weapons. "Remember, the Constitution, the Second Amendment was never absolute,” he told reporters outside the White House. “You couldn’t buy a cannon when the Second Amendment was passed. You couldn’t go out and purchase a lot of weaponry.”
