SALT LAKE CITY, UT - JANUARY 15: Brett Nielsen fires an Glock handgun at the "Get Some Guns & Ammo" shooting range on January 15, 2013 in Salt Lake City, Utah. Lawmakers are calling for tougher gun legislation after recent mass shootings at an Aurora, Colorado movie theater and at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut. (Photo by George Frey/Getty Images)
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SALT LAKE CITY, UT - JANUARY 15: Brett Nielsen fires an Glock handgun at the "Get Some Guns & Ammo" shooting range on January 15, 2013 in Salt Lake City, Utah. Lawmakers are calling for tougher gun legislation after recent mass shootings at an Aurora, Colorado movie theater and at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut. (Photo by George Frey/Getty Images)
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In this photo taken Oct. 30, 2013, Jeremy Richman in Newtown stands the backyard of his home in Newtown, Conn. His daughter, Avielle Richman, was one of 20 Sandy Hook Elementary School students that were killed in a mass shooting Dec. 14, 2012. As the Richman's gathered with friends who offered support, an idea emerged on the day of Avielle's funeral for a way to channel their grief and try to prevent other such tragedies a foundation to support research into the brain pathologies behind violence. (AP Photo/Craig Ruttle)
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Mandatory Credit: Photo by Rex / Rex USA (1189688x) Adam Lanza, 20, who used three weapons to shoot 26 people dead, 20 of them schoolchildren aged five to ten, and then shot himself at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut, United States, yesterday. Mass Shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School, Newtown, Connecticut, America
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Story highlights

Victims' families say Remington hides marketing strategies and other trade secrets on military-style weapons

A 2005 law grants gun manufacturers immunity from lawsuits related to injuries from criminal misuse

CNN  — 

Families of the victims in the 2012 massacre by shooter Adam Lanza in Newtown, Connecticut, are no longer united only in their grief. Some of them are also now part of a potentially precedent-setting lawsuit seeking accountability from the gunmaker, Remington.

At issue are what the families allege are the manufacturer’s marketing strategies and other trade secrets on military-style weapons.

Although the trial is not set to begin until April 2018, the case is moving closer to discovery, the pretrial process that allows each party access to internal documents from the other side.

Some experts believe the discovery process could yield the type of incriminating internal information unearthed during landmark litigation against tobacco companies in the 1990s.

During that litigation, the discovery process unearthed much of the damaging internal information that forced Big Tobacco into massive settlements.