Congress Grills Assault Weapon Makers; Reveals Gun Sale Revenues

ACROSS AMERICA — The top manufacturers of AR-15-style assault rifles used in a spate of mass shootings raked in millions of dollars over the past decade through marketing campaigns often aimed at young, insecure men, a new report from Congress shows.

The five manufacturers of military-style assault weapons — Bushmaster, Daniel Defense, Sig Sauer, Smith & Wesson, and Sturm, Ruger & Company — made more than $1 billion in 10 years, according to the report from the House Committee on Oversight and Reform, which questioned representatives of those companies Wednesday in a hearing on their role in gun violence.

The committee opened its investigation after the deadly shooting at a Buffalo, New York, supermarket that officials said was racially motivated, and the Uvalde, Texas, school shooting, where 19 elementary school children and two teachers were killed.

In testimony Wednesday, Marty Daniels, the CEO of Daniel Defense, the company that sold the weapon used in Uvalde, said mass shootings are “pure evil,” but “local problems that have to be solved locally.”

“The cruelty of the murderers who committed these acts is unfathomable and deeply disturbs me, my family, my employees and millions of Americans across this country,” he said.

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The hearings come as Congress pushes for an assault weapons ban similar to one in effect from 1994-2004. The legislation cleared the House Judiciary Committee, but it hasn’t been scheduled for a floor vote as Democrats rally their caucus to get the votes needed to pass it.

There have been 15 mass killings this year, according to the Associated Press/USA Today/Northeastern University Mass Killing Database. According to that research, those incidents have left 86 dead and 63 injured. Guns were used in all of them, and in at least seven instances they were AR-15-style weapons. Mass killings are defined as incidents where at least four people are killed.

Here are five things to know from the report:

How Much Did Each Manufacturer Make?

According to the report, Daniels Defense’s AR-15-style rifle sales tripled over two years, from $40 million in 2019 to more than $120 million in 2021.

Ruger’s also saw gross earnings triple over the period, from $39 million in 2019 to more than $103 million in 2021.

Smith & Wesson reported its revenue from all long guns, which include AR-15- style rifles, more than doubled between 2019 and 2021, from $108 million to $253 million.

Bushmaster and Sig Sauer did not report sales.

AR-15-Style Weapons Used In Mass Shootings

The AR-style rifle used by the gunman in the Uvalde, Texas, school shooting was manufactured by Daniel Defense.

Four AR-15-style rifles manufactured by Daniel Defense were found in the arsenal of the shooter in the 2017 Las Vegas shooting, the nation’s deadliest mass shooting, where 59 people were killed and nearly 500 others were injured.

Three of the weapons in the Las Vegas gunman’s arsenal were manufactured by Bushmaster, according to the report.

That company also manufactured the assault weapon used in the 2012 Sandy Hook Elementary School massacre, where 20 children and six adults were killed, and the rifle used in the Buffalo supermarket shooting. Of the 10 people shot and three others who were injured in Buffalo, 11 victims are Black.

A Bushmaster AR-15-style rifle was also used in sniper attacks in Washington, D.C., in 2002, the report said.

The assault-style rifle used in the 2016 Pulse nightclub shooting that left 50 people dead in Orlando, Florida, was manufactured by Sig Sauer.

The assault weapons used in the 4th of July parade massacre in Highland Park, Illinois, were sold by Smith & Wesson, the second-largest U.S. gun manufacturer in 2020, the report said.

That company also manufactured the assault weapon used in Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School massacre in Parkland, Florida, where 17 people were killed. Smith & Wesson also made the weapons used in the 2015 San Bernardino, California, shooting.

Ruger’s AR-15-style rifle and pistol variants were used by shooters in Sutherland Springs, Texas, church massacre in 2017, and in the Boulder, Colorado, supermarket shooting in 2021. Ruger is the largest maker of rifles of all types in the United States, the report said.

Who Gun Retailers Target For Sales

The committee said gun manufacturers “used disturbing sales tactics,” including marketing campaigns featuring the weapons as “a way for young men to prove their manliness.”

“The firearm industry has been marketing directly and indirectly to white supremacist and extremist organizations for years, playing on fears of government repression against gun owners and fomenting racial tensions,” the report said. “The increase in racially motivated violence has also led to rising rates of gun ownership among Black Americans, allowing the industry to profit from both white supremacists and their targets.”

Among the examples cited:

Palmetto State Armory, a firearms company based in Columbia, South Carolina, featured a “Big Igloo Aloha” AK-47-style rifle whose name references the “Boogaloo Movement,” a group of anti-government extremists who believe a civil or race war is imminent. The movement has been involved in the murder of two law enforcement and security officers in California and linked to a plot in 2020 to kidnap Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer and violently overthrow the state government. At least two of the men accused in the plot in Michigan were acquitted while two others were ordered to stand for retrial. Two others accused in the plot pleaded guilty.

After Kyle Rittenhouse was acquitted of murder and other charges in the shooting in Kenosha, Wisconsin, gun retailer Big Daddy Unlimited in Gainesville, Florida, posted on social media an image of Rittenhouse with its products, along with the caption, “Be a Man Among Men.”

A Bushmaster ad featuring an AR-15 included the caption, “Consider your man card reissued.” Another of its ads said that after buying an AR-15, “your status at the top of the testosterone food chain is now irrevocable.”

Gun Manufacturers Don’t Track Crimes

The five gun manufacturers under review are included in the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives tracing process. When police seize a gun at a crime scene, it’s reported to the ATF’s National Tracing Center to track the firearm from the manufacturer, through dealers and retailers, and into the hands of the most recent buyer.

Yet none of the five has a process to track crimes committed with their products, nor the number of deaths and injuries associated with their use, whether from assaults, accidental discharge or product malfunction.

Despite their involvement in this tracing process, each company claimed that they do not monitor or track this information.

Bushmaster said it has no formal process to monitor or track deaths and injuries, and also asserted there have been no deaths associated with its products — even though, the committee noted, one of the company’s assault weapons was used in the Buffalo supermarket shooting.

Ruger said it becomes aware of deaths, injuries and crimes associated with its products through its “customer service department, through media reports, or occasionally in connection with actual or potential litigation.”

Sig Sauer said it doesn’t “have the means” to track those incidents, and Daniel Defense and Smith & Wesson said they do “not monitor or track this information.”

It’s Your 2nd Amendment Right, But …

The Second Amendment, which protects the right to bear arms, does not give manufacturers “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 committee concluded in its report.

The committee said it’s time for Congress to “rein in the irresponsible business practices of the gun industry, prohibit the sale of dangerous weapons of war to civilians, and reassess the liability protections that prevent the American people from accessing the courts to hold gun manufacturers accountable for the deadly effects of their business decisions.”

Additionally, the committee said, Congress should require the gun industry to abide by the same reporting requirements of other industries, and consider“reasonable regulations” on how the gun industry advertises its products.

The Associated Press contributed reporting.