INDIANAPOLIS — Survivors of the Indianapolis FedEx mass shooting along with families of the victims have filed a lawsuit against American Tactical, Inc. accusing the gun importer and manufacturer of selling the high-capacity magazine used by the gunman despite “knowing that mass killers are attracted to high-capacity magazines.”

The lawsuit quotes famed firearms manufacturer William B. Ruger in stating, “No honest man needs more than 10 rounds,” and accuses the company of being negligent and reckless by not only providing 60-round magazines, but by specifically targetting “impulsive young men who feel they need to harm others in order to prove their strength.”

“High-capacity magazines have no business in civilian hands,” said Philip Bangle, senior litigation counsel at Brady Center to Prevent Gun Violence. “If you decide to sell such highly lethal products to the general public anyway, you need to be very careful about who you’re selling them to. As we allege in our complaint, Defendants here have instead taken a hard turn and specifically marketed their highly lethal products to a dangerous class of individuals.”

The lawsuit claims that American Tactical was reckless in its practices by not only selling high-capacity magazines with a 60-round capacity, but by allowing customers to acquire these magazines without providing any legitimate reason for needing 60-rounds for law-abiding activity.

“High-capacity magazines are not necessary, or even useful, for lawful self-defense or hunting,” the lawsuit reads. “They are, however, very useful for killing large numbers of people quickly, before the user can be stopped as he reloads.”

The lawsuit also alleges that American Tactical reckless practices include:

• selling high-capacity magazines with a 60-round capacity
• allowing customers to acquire high-capacity magazines without customers engaging in any face-to-face transactions with any federal firearms licensee.
• allowing customers to acquire high-capacity magazines without providing their criminal history or completing a mental health screening.
• by marketing high-capacity magazines in a manner they knew, and intended, would target young men with delusions of fighting in a war and who have a need to harm others to prove their own strength.

“American Tactical, Inc. is well aware that these magazines are instruments of mass killing and have no problem marketing them directly to people with horrific intentions,” said Gurinder Singh Bains, son of Jaswinder Singh who died in the FedEx shooting.

“This isn’t a hypothetical,” he said. “My father is gone because they didn’t care they were enabling mass shooters. They have to be held accountable not just for my father’s sake but everyone who may still suffer what my family and I have been forced to go through.”

The lawsuit argues that American Tactical is aware of mass killers being attracted to buy high-capacity magazines and lists 11 shootings that occurred in the U.S. between 2012 and 2019 where the gunman used high-capacity magazines during their rampage. The lawsuit also references an analysis by Everytown for Gun Safety from March 22, 2019, that found that 58 percent of mass shootings from 2009-2017 were committed with guns using high-capacity magazines.

Also named in the lawsuit are American Tactical, Inc. President Tony DiChario and Marketing Director Joe Calabro, along with the magazine manufacturer Schmeisser.

Read the lawsuit in full below.