WASHINGTON, D.C. -(Ammoland.com)- The House Oversight Committee has served Smith & Wesson with a subpoena requesting records surrounding the company’s popular M&P15 rifle.
The subpoena comes after the CEO of Smith & Wesson refused to participate in a gun control hearing in which CEO Marty Daniel of Daniel Defense and CEO Christopher Killoy of Sturm, Ruger & Co. testified via Zoom last month. Committee Democrats complained that the gun company did not submit enough documents for their liking. The Democrats claim that the information the Connecticut-based company provided was incomplete and left out key metrics around its sale of AR-15 style rifles.
“While your company refused to provide information specific to AR-15-style rifles, the limited information provided shows that your company brought in at least $125 million from AR-15 style rifles in 2021 alone,” the Committee’s chairwoman, Rep. Carolyn B. Maloney (D-N.Y.) wrote in the subpoena.
The Committee is investigating the top five leading sellers of AR-15 style rifles.
It says those companies have made $1 billion of revenue from selling AR-15s which might hamper Democrats’ attempt to ban the firearm. The hearing itself proved that the AR-15 is the most popular rifle in the country. According to the Supreme Court Heller decision, guns in common use are protected under the Second Amendment. That stat means if the AR-15 is not considered in common use, then no other rifle could be regarded as in common use.
The Committee accused firearms sellers of marketing toward children. The Democrat members showed an ad for the JR-15 rifle. The rifle was marketed as a smaller version of the AR-15 rifle. The gun fired a .22LR caliber round. It was sold as a safer way for children to learn how to handle a rifle properly. Democrats also harped on children’s gun safety, insinuating that the firearms industry was using gun safety campaigns to indoctrinate youths.
The gun industry insists that gun safety for children will reduce firearms accidents by teaching proper handling of guns. The Democrat members of the Committee were not impressed. They view anything involving firearms and kids as some type of gateway drug. Democrats even accused video games with guns as some type of gateway to gun culture.
During the hearing, Democrats asked Mr. Daniel about the M&P-15 rifle. They focused on the letters and standing for military and police. Although the “M” does stand for military, the actual military doesn’t use the rifle. They then asked Mr. Daniel about the naming of the gun. Daniel reminded the Committee that Daniel Defense is not the maker of the rifle. The Committee harped on Smith & Wesson not showing up.
Democrats are demanding Smith & Wesson turn over documents about the sale and marketing of the semi-automatic rifle.
Democrats also want to know if Smith & Wesson tracks the use of its products in crimes. The same question was asked to the companies that did show up, and the companies informed Congress that there is no way to track those stats.
Congress wants to know how the company prevents its products from going to problematic dealers. President Joe Biden, in recent months, demanded that the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) crackdown on “rogue dealers.” Since then, license revocations have been up by 500%. Both companies stated that they sell to distributors and not directly to gun shops.
Smith & Wesson has not responded to the subpoena as of this writing.
About John Crump
John is a NRA instructor and a constitutional activist. John has written about firearms, interviewed people of all walks of life, and on the Constitution. John lives in Northern Virginia with his wife and sons and can be followed on Twitter at @crumpyss, or at www.crumpy.com.
Contempt for Congress is not a criminal offense, but a civic duty. That has not changed since at least “Mark Twain’s” time.
Only ignorant people in government would question a company’s success and making it a talking point. Not once have we heard that it’s the criminals responsibility for the carnage they inflect.
Politicians pick and choose who’s to blame whether or not they are.
“They view anything involving firearms and kids as some type of gateway drug.”
They apparently feel the same way about “Drag Queen” shows.
But in their books one kind of grooming is OK and the other is not?
These co-called politicians should have to know how the product is made, how it works, and why it’s the best selling rifle on the market before they ask their stupid questions of the manufacturers.
Instead they know nothing about ar-15s other than the scary liberal slanted news stories they have read about.
Congress is full of very stupid people.
I would like to know where this deranged woman is getting her numbers. I’ve been looking and looking and cannot find any facts to back up her highly skewed statistics. She demands accountability, what about her accountability. She’s responsible for more deaths than those who actually did the killing by forcing nonsense, uneffective, unconstitutional gun regulation that does nothing more than embolden criminals to kill more innocents. And when was the last time anyone here heard that any of those companies sold AR-15’s to the military? Or full auto weapons to the public? Never, because it doesn’t, and can’t happen.… Read more »
“The gun industry insists that gun safety for children will reduce firearms accidents by teaching proper handling of guns. The Democrat members of the Committee were not impressed. They view anything involving firearms and kids as some type of gateway drug. Democrats even accused video games with guns as some type of gateway to gun culture.” So if you teach a young person how to be safe with a firearm, and how to use it *properly for self defense”, you are “indoctrinating the child to an equivalent of a”gateway drug” ? But it’s AOK for Democrats to indoctrinate your children… Read more »
“Democrats also harped on children’s gun safety, insinuating that the firearms industry was using gun safety campaigns to indoctrinate youths.”
If anyone should understand indoctrinating children, it’s the Democrats.
Gun manufacturers should stop supplying the us military then demand payment for services rendered immediately. SW & gun manufacturers should have questions of their own for congress to answer requiring proof of their erroneous statements. Democrats can not prove their argument on firearm safety grandstanding will prove that the democrats are on a fool’s errand. How Sig Sauer Became the Largest U.S. Firearms Exporter in 2021 International deals, including a $72 million contract with the Indian military in 2019 for some 72,400 rifles, along with dozens of other police and military contracts, have allowed the company to grow and become… Read more »
WE are using gun safety to EDUCATE youth. NRA and the International Hunter Education Association (IHEA) are the most powerful forces in firearms safety education in the world. Education is the key to firearms safety. Start with children and you will never have to worry about them. But the Progressive New Left is not about education. I present the current disastrous state of the Education-Industrial Complex as Exhibit A in my case. The Progressive New Left is about indoctrination. Case in point: I teach Hunter Education in a couple of states. I just resigned from California’s program because the California… Read more »
CON gress the vast majority should be in orange jump suits