Washington. The top five U.S. gunmakers have made more than $1 billion in a decade from the sale of assault rifles, a congresswoman said yesterday, July 27, at the start of a hearing on gun ownership. .
AR-15-type semi-automatic rifles “are extremely deadly weapons designed to kill enemy soldiers on the battlefield,” said Carolyn Maloney, who chairs the House Oversight Committee.
“The industry has flooded our neighborhoods, our schools, even our churches and synagogues with these deadly weapons and has gotten rich doing it,” the Democrat added.
According to the congresswoman, the Ruger company earned more than 100 million dollars from sales of this type of rifle in 2021, twice as much as in 2020, and Daniel Defense tripled its profits from these weapons between 2019 and 2021.
At the hearing attended by several relatives of victims of recent mass shootings, Democrats called for the immunity of gunmakers from lawsuits to be lifted so that they can be held accountable.
Under a 2005 law, gun manufacturers are not liable in the United States for the use of their firearms when a crime is committed.
The directors of both companies, declared by videoconference, denied having responsibility in the matter.
“Our country’s response should not be to the type of weapons, but to the type of people who can commit these carnage,” said Marty Daniel, CEO of Daniel Defense, whose model was used by the shooter who killed 21 people in a Texas school last May.
“I am deeply shocked by this horrible act committed by an evil person,” he said. But “I fear that the purpose of this commission is to blame the more than 24 million sporting rifles in circulation” and that they were implicated in “only 4% of firearm homicides in 2019.”
Ruger president Christopher Killoy concluded that guns “are inanimate objects.” His company is the largest manufacturer of assault rifles in the United States and has 2,000 “high-paying” jobs, according to Killoy.
Republicans, obstacle
Republican lawmakers also lashed out at their Democratic colleagues.
“Gun manufacturers don’t cause violent crime,” said Rep. James Comer of Kentucky. “Criminals cause violent crime.”
The hearing comes as the House of Representatives is set to vote later this week on a ban on assault rifles.
The bill, backed by President Joe Biden, is not expected to pass the Senate, where it would need the support of 10 Republicans who support the right of Americans to bear arms.
In 1994, Congress passed a 10-year law banning assault rifles.
