According to a House investigation released Wednesday, major gun companies that made the weapons used in mass shootings earned over $1 billion in revenue over ten years. They sold hundreds of thousands of assault guns to the public each and every year.
The House Oversight Committee report findsFive major manufacturers received this revenue purely from the sale of military-style assault guns to civilians like AR-15-style semiautomatic weapons. AR-15-style semiautomatic arms are the gun of choiceMany mass shooters were involved, including the gunman who was responsible for the recent massacre at Uvalde, Texas.
“How much are the lives of America’s children, teachers, parents, and families worth to gun manufacturers?” said Oversight Committee Chair Rep. Carolyn Maloney (D-New York) in a statement. “These companies are selling the weapon of choice for mass murderers who terrorize young children at school, hunt down worshippers at churches and synagogues, and slaughter families on the Fourth of July. In short, the gun industry is profiting off the blood of innocent Americans.”
Lawmakers’ findings are based on letters sent to manufacturers Daniel Defense; Smith & Wesson Brands; Sturm, Ruger & Company; Sig Sauer; and Bushmaster Firearms Industries, who they say use “disturbing sales tactics” to market their products to young men.
“Materials obtained by the Committee show how sellers tout assault rifles’ military pedigree” while manufacturers “make sly references to Boogaloo Boys, violent white supremacists,” lawmakers wrote. Such weapons can often be purchased on credit, with Daniel Defense bragging that financing is approved “in seconds,” the report finds.
These companies produced the guns that were behind a series of mass shootings. report says.
Daniel Defense’s AR-15-style weapon revenue tripled between 2019 and 2021 from $40 million to $120 millions. This rifle was used to kill 19 children as well as two teachers at Robb Elementary School, Uvalde in Texas. Investigators also discovered that the shooter responsible for the attack was not Daniel Defense. the deadliest mass shootingThe 2017 Las Vegas shooting was the most recent in modern history. Four guns made by Daniel Defense were part of his collection.
Smith & Wesson, which was the second largest manufacturer of rifles in the U.S. in 2020, sold the assault weapons used in the mass shooting in Highland Park, Illinois, earlier this monthThe 2018 massacre at Marjory Stoneman high school in Parkland, Florida, the 2015 shootingat a San Bernardino, California social services center. The company more than doubled its revenue from all long guns, including AR-15-style rifles, between 2019 and 2020 — from $108 million to $253 million.
Sig Sauer, did notDisclosure of its revenue, sold the assault rifle that was used in the massacre of 49 people and the injury to 53 others at the gay nightclub Pulse in Florida in 2016, the nation’s second deadliest shooting in modern history. It also sold three weapons used in the Las Vegas massacre of 2017.
Sturm, Ruger & Company, the largestAmerican rifle manufacturer made the AR-15-style rifles and pistols that were used for mass shootings. a supermarket in Boulder, ColoradoIn 2021 and at a church in Sutherland Springs, Texas,2017 was the year with the most fatal shootings in Texas. Ruger’s gross earnings from AR-15-style rifles nearly tripled between 2019 and 2021, from $39 million to $103 million.
Finally, Bushmaster, which claimed it couldn’t report its revenue because it was recently bought by another company, made the gun that a White supremacists used to kill 10 people, injure 3 others, and inflict three more.In May, a supermarket in a predominantly Black neighbourhood in Buffalo, New York was attacked by a gunman. A Bushmaster assault weapon was also used in the mass shooting in Newtown, Connecticut, in 2012, when a shooter opened fire on children in Sandy Hook Elementary School — the deadliest school shooting in U.S. history.
According to the manufacturers, there is no way to collect or report safety data about their products, including injuries or deaths. Bushmaster went so far as to say that it was “aware of no such deaths or injuries” due to its recent acquisition by another brand.
These revenue spikes follow long-standing trends that show gun sales peak after civil unrest, elections, and mass shootings. According to the report, gun manufacturers not only recognize these patterns but also market them to investors as potential sales opportunities.
The report was previously released an Oversight Committee hearingThe role of gun manufacturers and gun violence in the U.S.A, one of a series of hearings held by the group to investigate the epidemic of gun violence.
It happens because lawmakers are considering it an assault weapons banThe House recently approved the measure, which was passed by a committee vote. Data shows that Interdiction of assault weapons are effective in preventing gun violenceResearch has shown that mass shootings fell dramatically in the 10 years the ban was in place after President Bill Clinton signed the assault weapon ban in 1994. However, mass shootings and gun death nearly doubled after the ban was lifted by lawmakers in 2004.
