Committee: gun makers earned over $1bn from AR-15s
Joan E Greve
Gun manufacturers made more than $1bn from sales of AR-15-style guns over the past decade, as hundreds of Americans perished in numerous mass shootings.
The revelation came during during a House committee meeting on Wednesday into the profits and practices of weapons makers.
Carolyn Maloney, the New York Democrat who chairs the committee, said sales tactics employed by the manufacturers were “deeply disturbing, exploitative and reckless.”
Maloney added:
In short, the gun industry is profiting off the blood of innocent Americans.
She said the guns were often marketed to young men as a way to prove their masculinity. The committee found five major gun makers took in more than $1bn in 10 years from the sale of AR-15-style firearms, which have been used in the vast majority of mass shootings.
Smith & Wesson alone brought in more than $125m last year.
The House hearing marked the first time in nearly two decades that CEOs of leading gun manufacturers testified before Congress about their business practices.
But the executives deflected responsibility for the recent spate of mass shootings, instead blaming individual bad actors and policy failures to prevent violent crime.
“These acts are committed by murderers,” said Marty Daniel, chief executive of Daniel Defense. “The murderers are responsible.”
Christopher Killoy, president and CEO of Sturm, Ruger & Company, similarly argued it was wrong to blame the “inanimate object” of a firearm for deaths caused by gun violence.
“I hope the American people are paying attention today,” Maloney said.
“It is clear that gun makers are not going to change unless Congress forces them to finally put people over profits.”
Key events
Biden returns to White House duty after Covid infection
Joe Biden, who this morning tested negative after a five-day Covid-19 isolation, is at the podium of the White House Rose Garden, urging Americans to continue the fight against the pandemic.
Looking, and sounding, much improved after his illness, the 79-year-old president emerged in a suit and wearing trademark aviator sunglasses.
He thanked his doctor and medical team for their care, and urged Americans to get vaccinated and boosted:
Unfortunately, this Covid is still with us. And it has been for two and a half years.
Every person five and over should get a booster shot. If you’re over 50, you should get two. I did.
Biden, who has been working remotely, tested negative last night and again this morning, according to an earlier update from his physician Kevin O’Connor.
The doctor said Biden had completed a five-day course of the antiviral Paxlovid, was no longer taking Tylenol and would wear a mask around others for the next 10 days.
Committee: gun makers earned over $1bn from AR-15s
Joan E Greve
Gun manufacturers made more than $1bn from sales of AR-15-style guns over the past decade, as hundreds of Americans perished in numerous mass shootings.
The revelation came during during a House committee meeting on Wednesday into the profits and practices of weapons makers.
Carolyn Maloney, the New York Democrat who chairs the committee, said sales tactics employed by the manufacturers were “deeply disturbing, exploitative and reckless.”
Maloney added:
In short, the gun industry is profiting off the blood of innocent Americans.
She said the guns were often marketed to young men as a way to prove their masculinity. The committee found five major gun makers took in more than $1bn in 10 years from the sale of AR-15-style firearms, which have been used in the vast majority of mass shootings.
Smith & Wesson alone brought in more than $125m last year.
The House hearing marked the first time in nearly two decades that CEOs of leading gun manufacturers testified before Congress about their business practices.
But the executives deflected responsibility for the recent spate of mass shootings, instead blaming individual bad actors and policy failures to prevent violent crime.
“These acts are committed by murderers,” said Marty Daniel, chief executive of Daniel Defense. “The murderers are responsible.”
Christopher Killoy, president and CEO of Sturm, Ruger & Company, similarly argued it was wrong to blame the “inanimate object” of a firearm for deaths caused by gun violence.
“I hope the American people are paying attention today,” Maloney said.
“It is clear that gun makers are not going to change unless Congress forces them to finally put people over profits.”
Gun company executive backs out of hearing
Joan E Greve
Executives from major gun companies appeared before a House committee Wednesday, facing aggressive questioning from lawmakers about their organizations’ responsibility for recent mass shootings in the US.
The witnesses included Christopher Killoy, president and chief executive of Sturm, Ruger & Company; and Marty Daniel, CEO of Daniel Defense. Mark Smith, president and CEO of Smith & Wesson Brands, refused an invitation to appear.
“Mr Smith promised he would testify but then he went back on his word, perhaps because he did not want to take responsibility for the death and destruction his company has caused,” said Carolyn Maloney, the New York Democrat who chairs the oversight committee.
“But the time for dodging accountability is over.”
Maloney said she would subpoena documents from Smith & Wesson executives to discover more about the gun industry’s business practices.
The committee also played a video of testimonials from families who had been impacted by recent mass shootings, including the massacre at Robb Elementary school in Uvalde, Texas, and the white supremacist attack at a supermarket in Buffalo, New York.
“These people are demanding answers and accountability from the gun industry,” Maloney said. “I intend to get both today.”
It’s a rare day in US politics that doesn’t feature news of Donald Trump in some way or form, and today is no exception: the former president now finds himself at the absolute center of the justice department’s criminal inquiry into his January 6 insurrection, per the Washington Post.
According to the newspaper, quoting four sources it says are “familiar with the matter”, prosecutors are asking witnesses close to Trump directly about actions he took to remain in office following his 2020 election defeat by Joe Biden.
Trump’s scheming, including a plan to substitute fake electors to falsely certify he won key states, was examined closely in recent public hearings by the House panel looking into the insurrection.
But, the Post says, “the degree of prosecutors’ interest in Trump’s actions has not been previously reported, nor has the review of senior Trump aides’ phone records.”
Equally worrying for the twice-impeached, one-term former president are comments by attorney general Merrick Garland on NBC last night promising “justice without fear or favor” for anybody interfering with the peaceful transition of power from one administration to another.
Trump returned to Washington DC yesterday for the first time since leaving office last year (you can read my colleague David Smith’s sketch on Trump’s irony-free address to a conservative summit here).
Read the full story:
Biden negative for Covid-19, returns to in-person working
Joe Biden has emerged from his five-day isolation after testing negative for Covid-19 early on Wednesday, the White House has announced.
He is scheduled to speak from the Rose Garden at 11.30am.
According to an update from physician Kevin O’Connor, the president’s “symptoms have been steadily improving, and are almost completely resolved.”
The update notes:
President Biden completed his five-day course of [the antiviral] Paxlovid 36 hours ago. As of this morning, he has completed five full days of isolation. He remains fever-free and he has discontinued any use of Tylenol.
Yesterday evening, and then again, this morning, he tested negative for the Sars-CoV2 virus by antigen testing.
Given these reassuring factors, the president will discontinue his strict isolation measures.
The memo notes he will continue to wear a well-fitting mask for the next 10 days when he is around others.
Biden tested positive for the virus last Thursday, and continued to work in isolation with his dog, Commander, for company.
On Monday, he hosted a virtual roundtable with leaders of the US semiconductor industry, at which he said he was feeling much better, but apologized for coughing and having a raspy voice.
You can read Dr O’Connor’s update here.
Democrats clash over gun reforms, police funding
Democratic leaders in the House are facing resistance from progressive members over efforts to push through gun reforms before the chamber takes off for its six-week August break. But it’s not what it seems.
A hearing of the oversight committee this morning, at which gun industry executives will testify about their policies and huge profits, has brought the dispute into better focus.
According to Punchbowl News, Democratic leadership’s attempt to package gun controls, including an assault weapons ban and bill authored by California congressman Adam Schiff to eliminate civil liability protections for manufacturers, with police funding measures, has upset members of both the Black and progressive congressional caucuses.
It’s not that they don’t want more rigid gun laws in the wake of recent massacres in New York, Texas and elsewhere. They do. But Punchbowl says the fact that some of the police funding proposals haven’t been worked through committee is causing “uproar”, and raising doubts that anything will get passed.
Here’s what Washington congresswoman and progressive caucus chair Pramila Jayapal told Punchbowl:
We want to act on public safety bills that unify the caucus and would like to move forward on the bills that have broad support in the Dem caucus… For the other bills to move forward, people feel strongly that there needs to be strong accountability language before [members] would look at them.
There is some time to figure those things out, but for now, we are supportive of moving the assault weapons ban and the Schiff bill separately, and any bills that have broad support of the entire caucus.
Joe Biden had been poised last week to ask Congress to support his $37bn crime prevention plan, including funding to help US police departments hire and train an additional 100,000 officers, but the announcement was shelved by the US president’s Covid-19 diagnosis.
The House Democratic caucus is meeting this morning, Punchbowl says, in an attempt to salvage the situation, while the rules committee sits this afternoon to discuss Schiff’s bill, and the assault weapons proposal authored by David Cicilline of Rhode Island.
Meanwhile, my colleague Joan E Greve will take a look at this morning’s oversight committee hearing, entitled Examining the Practices and Profits of Gun Manufacturers, shortly.
Good morning, and welcome to the midweek edition of the US politics blog. Guns, and the huge profits made by weapons manufacturers, are up for discussion in the House this morning when the oversight committee hears testimony from industry executives.
It’s part of the Democratic majority’s push for tighter gun laws, including an assault weapons ban in the wake of recent massacres in New York and Texas, but it appears to be running into trouble with progressive members.
They’re for more rigid restrictions, but upset that leadership is attempting to package gun control bills with police funding proposals, some of which haven’t gone through committee.
We’ll have more on that coming up, plus coverage from the hearing.
Here’s what else we’re watching today:
- There’s more focus on the justice department’s criminal inquiry into the January 6 insurrection, with the overnight revelation by the Washington Post that the investigation is now directly targeting former president Donald Trump’s actions as he tried to cling on to power.
- The Federal Reserve is expected to announce at lunchtime it’s hiking interest rates by up to 0.75%, an attempt to cool raging inflation by making borrowing more expensive.
- The Chips bill, providing about $52bn for the beleaguered semiconductors industry in the US, is set for final approval in a bipartisan Senate vote, a big win for Joe Biden and Democratic majority leader Chuck Schumer.
- Biden has a light schedule with no public appearances. On his to-do list: a Covid-19 test that, if negative, will see the president return to work in-person after contracting the virus last week.
- White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre will give her daily press briefing at 3pm.