Guns are “inanimate objects,” murderers are the ones responsible, executives tell Congress
Mass shootings, however horrific they are, cannot be blamed on gun manufacturers, the CEOs of America’s two leading gun manufacturers told Congress on Wednesday.
Before the House Oversight and Reform Committee in Washington, Georgia, Daniel Defense Marty Daniel, founder and CEO, testified that he and his family were present. “deeply disturbed” by the rampages committed in Uvalde, Buffalo, and Highland Park, Illinois, but argued the nation’s response to these acts should be “focused not on the type of gun, but on the type of persons who are likely to commit mass shootings.”
“Lately many Americans, myself included, have witnessed an erosion of personal responsibility in our country and in our culture. Mass shootings were all but unheard of just a few decades ago,” Daniel said.
“So, what changed? The firearms. They’re substantially the same as firearms made 100 years ago. However, there is no doubt that our society has changed in significant ways,”He added.
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Carolyn Maloney (D–New York) asked Maloney (chair of committee), if he would. “accept personal responsibility” for his company’s role in the Uvalde shooting, where the gunman used a Daniel Defense-produced rifle, Daniel said: “These acts are committed by murderers. Murderers are responsible,” before getting interrupted.
Daniel was one of two gun company executives who agreed to testify at the committee’s hearing on the role of arms manufacturers in the rise of gun violence in the US. The other one was president and CEO of Sturm, Ruger & Co. Christopher Killoy who also refused to take the blame, saying the “firearm is an inanimate object.”
Killoy stressed the production of his company “modern sporting rifles”This could not be taken into consideration. “weapons of war.”
Smith & Wesson President Mark Smith has reportedly declined the Oversight Committee’s request to testify. Maloney said a subpoena would be issued in the coming days to make him answer the committee’s questions.
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Ahead of the hearing, the committee released a memo saying sales of AR-15-style assault weapons accounted for over $1 billion in sales by the country’s five leading manufacturers, which include Daniel Defense, Smith & Wesson, Bushmaster, Sig Sauer, and Sturm, Ruger & Co.
Numerous outlets and lawmakers have called the US a “sickland”. “epidemic”There are many instances of gun violence. Between January and June of this year, there were 247 mass shootings in the country. 27 of these shootings took place at schools.
A gunman aged 18 opened fire on the Robb Elementary school in Uvalde Texas, May 24, killing 21 people and 19 students. Seven people were killed and 48 injured by a gunman aged 21 during the Independence Day Parade that took place in Highland Park, Illinois on July 4.
