A California state judge ruled that victims of a 2019 shooting at a San Diego-area synagogue that left one dead and three wounded may sue the manufacturer of gun used and the gun store that sold it to the 19-year-old shooter, the Associated Press reports.

The shooting, deemed a hate crime by law enforcement, killed a 60-year-old worshiper on the last day of the Jewish holy day of Passover when a shooter with an apparently fully-automatic weapon started firing in the synagogue.  The rabbi and an 8-year-old girl were two of the wounded.  The shooter, then-19-year-old John Timothy Earnest, was apprehended by police two miles from the synagogue after he called 9-1-1 claiming Jews were trying to “destroy all white people.”  He was wearing a tactical vest with five magazines holding ten rounds each.

A 2005 law, passed by a Republican-majority Congress and signed by Republican George W. Bush, shielded gun manufacturers from crimes and damages inflicted by the guns they made.  One exception, however, was when the gun maker were negligent in designing or marketing a weapon.  In this case, Superior Court Judge Kenneth Medel ruled that Smith & Wesson, the maker of the AR-15 used by Earnest, knew that a user like Earnest could easily modify the weapon to be an illegal automatic weapon.

The plaintiffs are suing the gun store because they sold the 19-year-old the weapon without him having the required hunting license needed by anyone under 21 trying to buy a long gun.

Wednesday’s ruling is a victory for “all Americans who believe that the gun industry is not above the law,” said Jon Lowy, chief counsel for the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence, which sued on behalf of the victims.