Families of Uvalde school shooting victims attend LA lawsuit hearing against Meta, Activision

LOS ANGELES (KABC) -- Families who lost children in the school shooting in Uvalde, Texas in 2022 were in a Southern California courtroom Friday, as part of a wrongful death lawsuit.

A hearing was underway in Los Angeles Superior Court as the video game company, Activision, and social media giant Meta tried to get a lawsuit dismissed.

They're being sued by the families of children killed in the Uvalde, Texas school shooting, who claim the companies are partially to blame for their children's deaths.

The families walked hand-in-hand into court. Their complaint calls Activision's "Call of Duty" video game a "training camp for mass shooters."

Gunmaker Daniel Defense is also named in the lawsuit, which was filed last year. The parents claim all three companies work together to market to impressionable boys, "and give the firearm manufacturer unprecedented, direct and 24/7 access to children," a statement on behalf of the families said.

The 2022 shooting claimed the lives of 17 children and two teachers.

The shooter, who was killed during the shooting by law enforcement, was "being courted through explicit, aggressive marketing," on Instagram, the suit alleged.

He downloaded the 2019 game "Call of Duty: Modern Warfare," in November 2021, the suit claimed. He has been playing a mobile offshoot of the game since he was 15, according to the suit.

After he purchased the game, the shooter allegedly began "researching firearms on his phone and browsing Daniel Defense's website," according to the suit.

The shooter allegedly created an account on Daniel Defense's website and put the DDM4 V7 in his cart, the lawsuit contends.

This was the families' first time in a courtroom in their fight for accountability over the 2022 school shooting.

ABC News contributed to this report.