Gunmakers’ tactics under spotlight

Committee looks at sales of Ar-15-style firearms which have gained notoriety because of use in mass killings

GIn short, the gun industry is profiting off the blood of

innocent Americans. Carolyn Maloney, Democrat

unmakers have taken in more than US$1 billion from selling Ar-15-style guns over the past decade, at times marketing them as a way for young men to prove their masculinity, even as the number of mass shootings in the US increases, according to a investigation unveiled yesterday.

The weapons have been used in massacres that have horrified the US, including one that left 10 people dead at a grocery store in Buffalo and another where 19 children and two teachers were shot to death in Uvalde, Texas.

The Committee on Oversight and Reform said some ads mimic popular first-person shooter video games or tout the weapons’ military pedigree while others claim the guns will put buyers “at the top of the testosterone food chain”.

Those sales tactics are “deeply disturbing, exploitative and reckless”, said Democrat Carolyn Maloney of New York. “In short, the gun industry is profiting off the blood of innocent Americans.”

Gunmakers, on the other hand, said Ar-15-style rifles are responsible for a small portion of gun homicides and the blame must go to the shooters rather than their weapons.

“What we saw in Uvalde, Buffalo and Highland Park was pure evil,” said Marty Daniels, the CEO of Daniel Defence, the company that made the weapon used in Texas.

“The cruelty of the murderers who committed these acts is unfathomable and deeply disturbs me, my family, my employees and millions of Americans across this country.”

However, he added, “I believe that these murders are local problems that have to be solved locally.”

Gun violence overall spiked in 2020, but recent statistics indicate it is coming down this year in many cities.

The House panel’s investigation focused on five major gunmakers, and found they took in a combined total of more than US$1B ($1.6b) in revenue over the past 10 years from the sale of Ar-15-style firearms.

The revenue numbers were released for the committee hearing focused on the marketing and sales of the firearms that have gained notoriety because of their use in the mass killings.

Two of the companies approximately tripled their revenue from the weapons over the past three years, the committee found.

The increases are against a backdrop of a record-setting overall increase in gun sales that began around the start of the coronavirus pandemic. About 8.5 million people bought guns for the first time in 2020, said Republican Jody Hice of Georgia.

The hearing comes amid a push by House Democrats to get legislation passed that would ban certain semiautomatic weapons. It’s the lawmakers’ most far-reaching response yet to the US summer’s mass shootings.

While Ar-15-style firearms aren’t necessarily the main drivers of US gun violence overall, their design allows shooters to harm more people from a greater distance, said Kelly Sampson, senior counsel and director of racial justice with Brady, a group pressing to end gun violence that generally supports restrictions.

There have been 15 mass killings this year, according to the Associated Press/usa Today/northeastern University Mass Killing Database.

According to that research, those incidents have left 86 dead and 63 injured. Guns were used in all of them, and in at least seven instances they were Ar-15-style weapons. Mass killings are defined as incidents where at least four people are killed.

But the AR-15 and similar weapons are also popular with people who buy guns for self defence, said Antonia Okafor, the national director of outreach for the group Gun Owners of America.