Assault Weapons Makers Testify They Bear No Responsibility for Gun Violence

WASHINGTON — Two prime executives whose firms make the assault weapons which have been used to perpetrate among the deadliest mass shootings within the nation testified to Congress on Wednesday that they bore no accountability for the surge in gun violence that has taken maintain in america, whilst their revenues from the gross sales of such weapons have soared.

With the dad and mom of a 10-year-old woman shot and killed with an AR-15-style rifle within the Uvalde, Texas, elementary college bloodbath wanting on, the gun manufacturing executives stated the military-grade weapons they make and market to civilians had nothing to do with the rise in violence in recent times.

“Mass shootings have been all however unheard-of only a few a long time in the past,” Marty Daniel, the chief govt of Daniel Protection, stated, testifying remotely earlier than the Home Oversight and Reform Committee. “So what modified? Not the firearms. They’re considerably the identical as these manufactured over 100 years in the past.”

Mr. Daniel, whose firm manufactured the weapon used within the Uvalde bloodbath, known as the mass capturing there “horrible.” However he stated any response to the rise in such occasions needed to focus “not on the kind of gun, however on the kind of individuals who’re prone to commit mass shootings.”

Mr. Daniel’s firm and the 4 different main producers of assault rifles in america have introduced in a mixed complete of at the least $1.7 billion in income from AR-15-style weapons over the previous decade as gun violence throughout the nation has surged, in keeping with an investigative report the panel introduced on the listening to on Wednesday.

“I can’t even think about what these harmless youngsters needed to undergo,” Mr. Daniel stated. However he prevented answering whether or not he felt any private accountability, saying, “These murders are native issues that should be solved domestically.”

The findings underscored how the gun business has thrived by making and promoting weapons of conflict, particularly focusing on and taking part in to the insecurities of younger males, whereas some have made thinly veiled references to white supremacist teams.

The panel requested that the nation’s prime 5 gun producers share info on their gross sales and advertising and marketing methods, in addition to any efforts they make to trace security knowledge associated to their merchandise.

“The enterprise practices of those gun producers are deeply disturbing, exploitative and reckless,” Consultant Carolyn B. Maloney, Democrat of New York and the chairwoman of the committee, stated in a press release. “We discovered that none of those firms bothers to maintain monitor of the demise and destruction brought on by their merchandise.”

The listening to got here weeks after President Biden signed into legislation the primary substantial gun security invoice in a long time, the product of a bipartisan compromise that beefed up background checks for gun patrons below the age of 21. But extra sweeping measures, corresponding to a ban on assault weapons, have gone nowhere amid strong opposition by Republicans.

The Home was anticipated to vote on such a ban within the coming weeks, however the invoice has no likelihood of passage within the evenly divided Senate. The vote had initially been anticipated on Friday however was delayed as Home Democrats haggled amongst themselves over whether or not to tie it to a broader public security invoice that may enhance funding for the police, in keeping with an individual accustomed to the plans.

On Wednesday, the committee heard testimony from Mr. Daniel and Christopher Killoy, the president and chief govt of Sturm, Ruger & Firm — the primary time in practically twenty years that the chief executives of gun producers have testified earlier than Congress about their enterprise practices.

However the questions from lawmakers produced little past the usual speaking factors from producers defending their merchandise.

Mr. Killoy, who additionally testified remotely, stated that “a firearm, any firearm, can be utilized for good or for evil. The distinction is within the particular person possessing it.”

Forward of the executives’ appearances, Ms. Maloney performed video testimonials from survivors of gun violence and from relations who’ve misplaced family members in mass shootings, all demanding solutions from the gun producers.

“What are you going to do to verify your merchandise don’t get into the arms of a white supremacist mass shooter ever once more who will take a toddler’s father away,” stated Tracey Maciulewicz, whose fiancé, Andre Mackniel, was shot and killed at Tops grocery store in Buffalo on his son’s third birthday whereas shopping for a birthday cake.

Kimberly and Felix Rubio, whose daughter Alexandria “Lexi” Aniyah Rubio was killed at Robb Elementary College in Uvalde, attended the listening to as observers however didn’t converse. Because the capturing, the Rubios have been urgent Congress to cross an assault rifle ban and different gun management measures.

The producers that have been investigated — Bushmaster, Daniel Protection, Sig Sauer, Smith & Wesson, and Sturm, Ruger & Firm — all marketed their weapons to younger males as a approach to “show their manliness,” in keeping with the report, and bought “weapons to mass shooters on credit score” whereas failing to take fundamental steps to observe deaths related to their merchandise.

The report discovered that, because the nation has struggled to deal with an epidemic of gun violence that has plagued colleges, church buildings, supermarkets, live shows and procuring malls, firearms producers have been having fun with ballooning proceeds from the sale of the weapons used to hold out mass shootings.

Daniel Protection’s income from AR-15-style rifles tripled from 2019 to 2021, to greater than $120 million from $40 million, the report stated. Its income from AR-15-style rifles since 2012 was $528 million.

Ruger, the nation’s largest maker of rifles, reported that its gross earnings from AR-15-style rifles additionally practically tripled from 2019 to 2021, growing to greater than $103 million from $39 million, with gross sales income from such weapons over the previous decade amounting to $514 million. The corporate’s AR-15-style rifle and pistols have been utilized by mass shooters in Sutherland Springs, Texas, in 2017 and Boulder, Colo., in 2021.

Smith & Wesson’s income from all lengthy weapons, which embody AR-15-style rifles, greater than doubled between 2019 and 2021, to $253 million from $108 million. The corporate bought the weapon used within the July 4 bloodbath in Highland Park, Ailing., in addition to the Parkland college capturing in Florida in 2018. The report stated the corporate made at the least $695 million from AR-15-style weapons since 2012.

Sig Sauer, the corporate that bought the AR-15-style rifle utilized in a mass capturing in 2016 on the Pulse nightclub in Orlando, Fla., and three of the weapons utilized by the gunman in Las Vegas in 2017, refused to reveal its income.

And Bushmaster, which made the weapon used within the Sandy Hook Elementary College capturing in Newtown, Conn., in 2012, stated it had no monetary knowledge from earlier years as a result of it was not too long ago bought by a brand new firm.

Consultant Jody B. Hice, Republican of Georgia, stated gun gross sales had risen as a result of extra law-abiding residents have been buying weapons to guard themselves amid worries about rising crime.

However as their enterprise has expanded, the gun producers have additionally made covert references to white supremacist teams just like the Boogaloo Bois, in keeping with the report.

The Boogaloo motion is a gaggle of anti-government extremists that believes a race conflict, or a second Civil Conflict, is on the horizon. Members of the group usually gown in Hawaiian-style floral print shirts and navy fatigues. The Palmetto State Armory, a firearms firm, markets a “Huge Igloo Aloha” AK-47-style assault rifle adorned with such a floral print, which the report stated was a transparent reference to the Boogaloo motion.

Daniel Protection has additionally posted photographs of an assault rifle with the same floral sample.

One Daniel Protection stock catalogue from 2017 additionally featured a picture of a shooter with a tattoo of a Valknot, a Norse image carefully related to transnational white supremacists. The Valknot has been recognized as a hate image by the Anti-Defamation League.

The gun producers additionally made appeals that performed on male insecurities, claiming that proudly owning their weapons would put clients “on the prime of the testosterone meals chain,” the report stated.

A Bushmaster advert for an AR-15 used the slogan “Contemplate your man card reissued.”

The businesses that didn’t take part within the hearings didn’t instantly reply to a request for remark. Ms. Maloney stated she deliberate to situation a subpoena for paperwork from Smith & Wesson’s chief govt, “so we are able to lastly get solutions about why this firm is promoting assault weapons to mass murderers.”

Antonia Okafor, the nationwide director of ladies’s outreach for Gun Homeowners of America, a gun rights group, appeared on the listening to on the invitation of Republicans to defend the AR-15. She known as it the firearm of selection for feminine gun house owners who wish to shield themselves, giving examples of ladies who used the rifle to cease armed attackers of their properties.