Dem takes aim at gun firm with subpoena for sales info

Rep. Carolyn Maloney fired off a subpoena Tuesday at gunmaker Smith & Wesson, demanding documents about sales of assault weapons like the ones used in recent mass shootings.

The powerful head of the House Oversight Committee warned Smith & Wesson CEO Mark Smith to hand over information about its marketing efforts and failure even to keep track of how its products are used in deadly attacks.

“Even as your company is reaping growing revenue from assault rifles, your weapons are being used in deadly mass shootings with increasing frequency,” Maloney (D-Manhattan, Brooklyn, Queens) wrote.

The gunmaker boycotted a hearing last month at which CEOs of two other major gunmakers were grilled by Democrats about their sales of AR-15-style weapons similar to those used in mass shooting massacres in Buffalo; Uvalde, Texas, and Highland Park, Ill.

All three shootings were carried out by young men who bought the assault weapons legally.

The House of Representatives has since passed a ban on assault weapons, although the measure has no chance of passing in the Senate, where pro-gun Republicans hold effective veto power.

Maloney wants details about how the gunmaker markets weapons to young men and extremists. She also wants information about the rapid rise in profits from sales of assault weapons that are designed to kill as many people as possible as quickly as possible.

Congress did pass a modest compromise package of new gun restrictions in response to the bloody killings in an Uvalde elementary school. But the GOP and gun-rights advocates say any tighter restrictions would infringe on the Second Amendment.