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Activision denies allegations that Call of Duty is connected to the Uvalde tragedy and defends the franchise's content as protected by the First Amendment.
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Activision's defense includes statements from experts countering the game's “boot camp for mass shooters” claim.
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The Uvalde families have until late February to respond to Activision's filings in the current lawsuit.
Activision has filed a comprehensive defense in response to lawsuits stemming from the tragic 2022 Uvalde school shooting. Lawsuits filed by the victims' families in May 2024 alleged that the shooter was influenced by violent content on Activision. call of duty series
The shooting at Rab Elementary School on May 24, 2022, killed 19 children and two teachers and injured 17 others. The shooter, an 18-year-old former student at Robb Elementary, was a regular guy call of duty Player, download Modern warfare in November 2021, and used an AR-15 rifle similar to the one in the game. The lawsuit alleged that Meta facilitated communication between the shooter and firearms manufacturers through Instagram, exposing him to advertisements for weapons such as the AR-15 he later purchased. The families alleged that both Activision and Meta helped create a harmful environment that preyed on insecure and impressionable teenagers and indirectly encouraged violent behavior.

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According to Game File, Activision officially responded to the California lawsuit and filed a 150-page defense last December. The company denied all the allegations and argued that there was no direct connection between them call of duty and the tragedy of Rob's elementary school. Activision is also seeking to dismiss the suit under California's anti-SLAPP statutes, which are intended to protect free speech rights from legal abuse. In a separate filing, the publisher asserted that call of duty is an expressive work protected by the First Amendment, and claims that claims against the game based on its “overly realistic content” conflict with this fundamental right.
Activision defends Call of Duty in Uvalde lawsuit
In its defense, Activision submitted a 35-page statement from Notre Dame professor Matthew Thomas Payne, who argued that call of duty It follows the tradition of military realism seen in war movies and television, rather than being a “training camp for mass shooters,” as the lawsuit suggested. In addition, Patrick Kelly, Chief Creative Officer for call of dutyprovided a 38-page submission detailing the game's design, including information about the game's $700 million budget. Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War. The documents are part of Activision's broader strategy to challenge the claims made by the Uvalde families in an effort to counter the legal arguments presented in the lawsuit.
Activision's filed documents contain much more detail, and the Uvalde families have until late February to respond to the filings. While the outcome of the case is unclear, it's worth noting that violent video games have often been blamed for mass shootings in the past, making the issue part of a larger ongoing debate.