PATRICK T. FALLON/AFP via Getty Images.
A House Oversight Committee report offered a scathing critique of manufacturers of AR-15 rifles, calling them “the weapon of choice for mass murderers” and collecting the data on the mass shooting death toll attributed to guns from each manufacturer along with the companies’ sales revenues.
The 23-page report was released in advance of a Wednesday morning committee hearing titled “Examining the Practices and Profits of Gun Manufacturers,” which is being live-streamed on YouTube:
The committee launched an investigation into the leading manufacturers of AR-15 style rifles, the report said, and sent letters to five companies — Bushmaster, Daniel Defense, Sig Sauer, Smith & Wesson, and Sturm, Ruger & Company — that had made and sold AR-15 rifles used in mass shootings.
“AR-15-style rifles have been the weapon of choice for the killers responsible for the deadliest mass shootings in American history, including the recent mass murders in Buffalo, New York, and Uvalde, Texas,” the report noted.
“These companies sell weapons to civilians that are engineered to kill many people as fast as possible,” said the report, and “used disturbing sales tactics—including marketing deadly weapons as a way for young men to prove their manliness and selling guns to mass shooters on credit.”
The committee’s investigation found that gun manufacturers “collected more than $1 billion from the sale of AR-15-style semiautomatic weapons in the last decade,” with data showing “sales [of AR-15-style rifles] are increasing as gun deaths and mass shootings rise.” Sales “skyrocketed” in 2021, and two manufacturers nearly doubled their revenues from the previous year:
Daniel Defense’s revenue from AR-15-style rifles tripled from $40 million in 2019 to over $120 million in 2021.
Ruger’s gross earnings from AR-15-style rifles also nearly tripled from 2019 to 2021, increasing from $39 million to over $103 million.
Smith & Wesson’s revenue from all long guns, which include AR-15- style rifles, more than doubled between 2019 and 2021, from $108 million to $253 million.
In one particularly stark table, the report juxtaposed each manufacturer’s revenues from selling AR-15 rifles with the death toll attributed to their guns in mass shootings over the past decade:
The report also described how the manufacturers have used “a variety of financing tactics and manipulative marketing campaigns to sell AR-15-style rifles to civilians, including young people,” including promoting the guns’ “military pedigree,” making “covert references to violent white supremacists,” and “prey[ing] on young men’s insecurities by claiming their weapons will put them ‘at the top of the testosterone food chain.'”
Example of Bushmaster advertisements included in House Oversight Committee report
The manufacturers’ sales tactics allowed these weapons “to be purchased easily online,” and included “offering rebates, free gifts, and financing opportunities,” commenting that “buy now, pay later” financing systems and multiple credit cards have been used by mass shooters to purchase the weapons and ammunition they used to kill civilians.
“The right to bear arms is protected by the Second Amendment,” the report concluded. “Firearms manufacturers, however, do not have a constitutional right to engage in the irresponsible marketing and sale of dangerous assault weapons that are used to terrorize communities across the United States.”
The report recommended Congress consider further legal restrictions on the sale of these type of weapons, increased funding for gun violence research, taking action “to rein in the irresponsible business practices of the gun industry,” passing “death and crime reporting requirements for the gun industry,” and “imposing reasonable regulations on how the gun industry advertises its products, such as age limitations, content warnings, and further enabling agencies like the Federal Trade Commission to regulate misleading advertisements.”
Read the complete report here.
The post Scathing House Oversight Committee Report Calculates AR-15 Death Toll for Each Gun Manufacturer’s Weapons Used in Mass Shootings first appeared on Mediaite.
