Interesting NewsSite : The Knife Media

Twitter users called for a boycott of MGM Resorts International, which owns Las Vegas’ Mandalay Bay hotel, and associated businesses on Tuesday. Last Friday, MGM filed a lawsuit in Nevada and California against more than 1,000 people whom it said had sued the company or given notice they intended to do so over last October’s Las Vegas shooting that killed 58 people and wounded more than 500. The suit requested that a federal court rule that MGM cannot be held liable for the shooting.

On Oct. 1, 2017, Stephen Paddock shot from the 32nd floor of MGM’s Mandalay Bay hotel into a crowd at an outdoor country music festival below.

Certain victims have brought lawsuits against MGM for what they allege was inadequate security, which allowed Paddock to bring multiple suitcases with rifles and thousands of rounds of ammunition into his hotel room, The New York Times reported.

A security company that MGM hired for the country music festival, Contemporary Services Corporation (CSC), had certain protection from liability in acts of terrorism, as granted by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) under the federal SAFETY Act. MGM argued in its lawsuit that the shooting qualified as an “act of terrorism.”

Congress passed the SAFETY Act, formally called the Support Anti-terrorism by Fostering Effective Technologies Act, more than a year after 9/11 to avoid the “threat of liability” of manufacturers and sellers of “anti-terrorism technologies.” Such technologies include detections systems, sensors and security services.

Prior to the Act, a company could be held responsible for damages if that company’s technology was “impacted by an act of terrorism,” according to DHS, which said this made the private sector “extremely reluctant to deploy security technologies and services in civilian settings.” By limiting liabilities, the Act sought to promote the development, commercialization, and deployment of such technologies.

DHS has approved more than 800 applications for SAFETY Act liability protections, including some by National Football League and Major League Baseball stadiums, the Los Angeles Times reported.

MGM lawyer Michael Doyen said “there has apparently never been any litigation” in which the SAFETY Act was invoked in its arguments. He said the Las Vegas shooting “appears to have been the first act of mass violence at an event at which a DHS-certified service or technology was employed.”

DHS has not officially declared the shooting an “act of terrorism.”

Craig Eiland, an attorney for hundreds of the shooting victims, said, “CSC had nothing to do with Mandalay Bay not having security stop Stephen Paddock from unloading luggage with 23 assault rifles, carrying them up to his room and not noticing anything for three to five days.” He added that the lawsuit is about “immunizing” MGM from liability and “staying out of state courts.”

MGM spokeswoman, Debra DeShong, said, “The federal court is an appropriate venue for these cases and provides those affected with the opportunity for a timely resolution. Years of drawn-out litigation and hearings are not in the best interest of victims, the community and those still healing.”

“Congress provided that the federal courts were the correct place for such litigation relating to incidents of mass violence like this one, where security services approved by the Department of Homeland Security were provided,” Deshrong said.