Sales of AR-15 rifles generated sales of $ 1 billion in the United States

America’s top five arms manufacturers they have earned more than $ 1,000 million in a decade with the sale of assault rifles, a lawmaker said Wednesday at the start of a hearing on gun ownership.

Semi-automatic rifles type AR-15 “are extremely lethal 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 enriched themselves by doing this,” added the Democrat.

Maloney also highlighted the profits made through targeted “dangerous marketing tactics” “The insecurities of young people”.

Very popular

Such weapons are often promoted to young men as a way to demonstrate their masculinity, the House Government Oversight and Reform Committee said.

Some ads mimic images from popular first person shooter video games. Others say the guns will get buyers high “at the top of the testosterone food chain”.

Such promotional tactics are “deeply disturbing, instrumental and reckless,” said Democratic Representative Carolyn Maloney. “Clearly, the firearms industry is benefiting from the blood of innocent Americans.”

According to the deputy, the Ruger company, earned more than $ 100 million from sales of this type of rifle in 2021twice as much as in 2020, and Daniel Defense tripled his earnings from these weapons between 2019 and 2021.

The executives of both companies, who testified by videoconference, denounced the bloodshed committed with their weapons, but denied having any responsibility for it.

“Our country’s response should not be about the type of weapons, but the type of people who can commit this carnage,” said Marty Daniel, CEO of Daniel Defense, whose model was used by the killer who killed 21 people. at a Texas school last May.

The debate

“I am deeply shocked by this horrible act committed by an evil person,” he said. But “I’m afraid the purpose of this commission it is the fault of the more than 24 million sporting rifles in circulation “and that were involved” in only 4% of the homicides with firearms in 2019 “.

Ruger president Christopher Killoy concluded that guns “are inanimate objects”. His company is the leading assault rifle manufacturer in the United States as well it has 2,000 jobs “well paid,” according to Killoy.

The hearing comes when the House of Representatives votes later this week on a ban on assault rifles.

The bill, supported by President Joe Biden, is not expected to pass in the Senate, where the support of ten Republicans would be neededsupporters of the right of Americans to bear arms.

In 1994, Congress passed a 10-year law banning assault rifles, designed to kill as many people as possible, and certain high-capacity magazines. The law expired in 2004 and since then sales have skyrocketed, especially among young people.

Source: AFP and AP

PB