U.S. gun executives say criminals, not weapons, liable for mass shootings By Reuters

By Moira Warburton and Rose Horowitch

WASHINGTON (Reuters) -Prime executives at U.S. gunmakers testified on Wednesday that criminals, not their merchandise, have been liable for mass shootings, as they confronted questions from a U.S. Home committee investigating current massacres in Texas and New York.

The chief executives of Sturm, Ruger & Co Inc and Daniel Protection Llc, testified at certainly one of a sequence of hearings being held by the Home of Representatives’ Oversight Committee following mass shootings in Uvalde, Texas; Buffalo, New York; and Highland Park, Illinois.

The shootings simply 10 days aside in Might at a Uvalde elementary faculty and a Buffalo grocery store, together with the Fourth of July rampage at a parade in Highland Park, claimed 38 lives in all — and reignited a decades-long debate over firearms possession.

“The gun business has flooded our neighborhoods, our colleges, even our church buildings and colleges, and gotten wealthy doing it,” Committee Chairwoman Carolyn Maloney mentioned in her opening assertion on Wednesday.

She highlighted the committee’s report, which discovered that 5 main gun producers have remodeled $1 billion from the sale of assault-style rifles previously decade.

Marty Daniel, the chief government of Daniel Protection defended his firm and the firearms business, saying that the semi-automatic assault-style weapons offered right now are “considerably the identical as these manufactured 100 years in the past.”

“Our nation’s response must focus not on the kind of gun however on the kind of particular person prone to commit mass shootings,” he mentioned in his opening assertion.

A semi-automatic rifle made by Daniel Protection was one of many weapons used within the Uvalde taking pictures.

Christopher Killoy, president and CEO of Sturm, Ruger, echoed Daniel.

“A firearm, any firearm, can be utilized for good or evil. The distinction is within the intent of the person possessing it,” Killoy informed committee members.

Mark Smith, president and CEO of Smith & Wesson Manufacturers Inc, had been invited and had initially dedicated to attend however then modified his thoughts, committee Chairwoman Maloney mentioned.

Maloney mentioned she intends to subpoena Smith and different executives at Smith & Wesson to “lastly get solutions about why this firm is promoting assault weapons to mass murderers.”

A Smith & Wesson rifle was used within the Highland Park killings, whereas Bushmaster Firearms Worldwide Llc made the weapon utilized in Buffalo.

The committee sought responses from every of the executives following the Uvalde and Buffalo shootings.