Uvalde families appeal a judge’s decision to dismiss Meta from lawsuit

On Monday, families of the victims from the 2022 Uvalde school shooting that happened in Texas appealed a decision, made in December 2025, by Los Angeles Superior Court Judge William F. Highberger to dismiss Meta, the owners of Instagram, from any fault in the shooting that took the lives of 19 children and two teachers.

Plaintiffs in the case allege that the shooter, Salvador Ramos, was influenced by Daniel Defense, a firearms manufacturer that uploaded "aggressive and combat-fetishizing" posts on Instagram, which is owned by the company, and by the game “Call of Duty,” owned by Activision. Meta, Daniel Defense and Activision are all defendants in the lawsuit. 

According to families, Ramos had a growing interest in Daniel Defense weapons and accessories before committing the mass shooting.

Judge Highberger eliminated Meta as a defendant back in December, finding that blaming the company would allow for other companies to be blamed for posts from anywhere around the world. Moreover, Activision is also requesting to be dismissed as a defendant from the lawsuit in a motion, scheduled for a hearing on January 28. Activision attorneys argue that the company has no liability in the families' lawsuit.

"Just as plaintiffs failed to plead proximate cause or duty as to Meta, so too have they failed to plead proximate cause or duty as to Activision," the Activision attorneys state in their court papers.

The Uvalde families said that back in 2019, Ramos began playing Activision's "Call of Duty" video games, which they allege exposed him to the Daniel Defense brand. The families maintain that the vividly realistic content of the "Call of Duty" video games groomed Ramos to commit the mass killings.