New Haven Register (New Haven, CT)
CT gun manufacturer faces lawsuit in store shooting
As Ruger readies a fresh legal defense of its marketing practices in New York federal court, the Connecticut-based manufacturer plans a new push of promotional activities as sales ebb from the boom years of 2020 and 2021.
Ruger has its headquarters in Fairfield as one of the three biggest U.S. gun manufacturers for recreational use, with its primary casting and assembly plants located in New Hampshire, North Carolina and Arizona. The company made more than 1.7 million guns in 2022, entering this year with a backlog of nearly 650,000 more on order that was down by about half from 12 months earlier.
Profits totaled $88 million on net sales of $596 million, with revenue down 18 percent from a year earlier. Speaking Wednesday on a conference call, CEO Chris Killoy cited the pinch inflation is having on some prospective gun buyers, some of whom are purchasing used guns as an alternative to new models. He added the overall industry expected lower sales in 2022, after a surge in gun buying coinciding with the COVID-19 pandemic and tensions nationally after the death of George Floyd.
In a lawsuit filed in New York state court last November that was moved this past February to federal court, the city of Buffalo sued Smith & Wesson, Ruger and nearly 30 more manufacturers and distributors including O.F. Mossberg & Sons based in North Haven and Colt Manufacturing, which continues to maintain a West Hartford facility after its 2021 sale to the Czech Republic-based company now known as Colt CZ Group.
Buffalo began preparing the lawsuit after a mass shooting last May at a Tops Friendly Market. Last week, a judge handed down a life sentence without possibility of parole after the shooter pleaded guilty to the murders of 10 people.
The original Buffalo lawsuit was filed in advance of another one by the City of Rochester, N.Y. against the larger industry. Ruger and other manufacturers are defending themselves as well in ongoing litigation filed in U.S. federal court by Mexico, which wants to hold them responsible for gun violence there.
Buffalo claims the industry’s marketing “appeals to prospective purchasers with criminal intent” by highlighting features like high-capacity magazines, and that manufacturers are not policing adequately the sales practices of their distributors and dealers. As of Wednesday, Ruger and other defendants had yet to file a formal answer in court, but have defended their marketing practices in the past.
Kevin Reid, Ruger’s general counsel, did not provide a timeline for any formal response in court in an email response to a CT Insider query, stating the company cannot comment on pending litigation.
Killoy testified last summer to the U.S. House of Representatives Committee on Oversight & Reform, referencing the Buffalo mass shooting and the school shooting in Uvalde, Texas. Killoy said he condemned “this criminal behavior in the strongest possible terms” in his words, while defending his company’s sales practices.
“I am proud of our marketing efforts and believe they reflect the integrity for which Ruger is known,” Killoy testified last July. “Our marketing of our popular modern sporting rifle — the Ruger AR-556 — does not sensationalize the product or its use, but rather seeks to educate lawful, responsible citizens of the particular features that set our products apart from others.”
In the past year, Ruger has been heavily marketing throwback, lever-action rifles under the Marlin Firearms brand it acquired from Remington two years ago. But the company continues to develop new models that allow for a comparatively rapid rate of fire, to include the Ruger SmallFrame Autoloading Rifle which can be purchased with magazines for 20 rounds.
“Our advertising strategy generally follows our cycle of product launches, with the most attention devoted to those new products that drive our business,” Killoy said last July. by