Say it ain’t so, Chris Killoy

Not many corporate CEOs want you to send them email, but Fairfield-based Sturm, Ruger and Co.’s Chris Killoy has a page with a direct link. I used it because I think it’s very probable that Ruger sniper rifles are being used to kill unarmed Palestinians in the Gaza Strip. For the six weeks Palestinians from Gaza have been involved in a #GreatReturnMarch, attempting to leave the Gaza Strip, an area that former British Prime Minister Cameron once called a “prison camp”. It’s an area roughly the size of the Connecticut coast from Stratford to Stamford. It’s infinitely poorer, under siege and surrounded by walls, checkpoints and rows of fences.

As of May 15, an astounding 12,000 Palestinians had been injured and 100 killed by Israeli troops. Most have been shot by Israel Defense Force snipers perched on man-made hills around the fenced-in Gaza Strip. No Israeli soldiers have been killed or even injured. None.

The shooting victims include a photojournalist wearing a “Press” jacket, a young man shot in the back while running away (both killed), a 63 year-old woman, and a 13 year-old whose leg had to be amputated. The Israeli human rights group Btselem writes it’s clear that Israeli policy is to allow shooting of any person who comes near the fence, “any person coming within 300 meters of it”. That’s a distance of three football fields.

What has this to do with Ruger? I remember reading years ago that Ruger had sold rifles to Israel and last December when a sniper shot dead Ibrahim AbuThurayya, a man with no legs, I wondered if he had been killed by a Ruger rifle. I started looking at gun-fan websites and came across an old page praising the Ruger 10/22 and its use by the Israeli army.

In mid-March, I wrote to Chris Killoy and asked him if a Ruger had been used to kill Thurraya,, whether Ruger was still selling rifles to Israel and if Ruger monitored how its rifles were being used. I never got an answer. On March 31 — a day after Israeli forces shot 758 people — I again wrote to Killoy. I asked him if his rifles were being used for “crowd control” and firing at “leaders” of demonstrations as “The Firearm Blog” maintained. I pointed out that if this was true, Ruger might be in legal jeopardy for violating international law. I didn’t get an answer.

On April 12, I wrote again bringing Killoy up to date, telling him about a video that had gone viral, a video taken by a sniper. It showed him taking down a Palestinian who was standing unarmed, far from anyone and absolutely still. There was no answer. A day or so later, I noticed a picture of a Ruger on a fan site “Israeli Special Forces Database”. It was claimed in the caption that the photo was from February of this year and the source was the IDF

So it is very possible that Rugers are going to Israel and many or most of those unarmed victims in Gaza were shot with those guns. That would be an international crime. This is a shame and a disgrace for Connecticut. The state legislature and our Federal officials should mount an investigation and demand answers.

Stanley Heller is executive director of the Middle East Crisis Committee, a human rights organization founded in New Haven in 1982. www.TheStruggle.org Reach him at mail@thestruggle.org

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