New York Representative Carolyn Maloney has invited executives from three major gun manufacturers to testify before the House Oversight Committee and detail their company’s role in the current gun violence.
The Chief Executive Officers of Daniel Defense, Smith & Wesson Brands, and Strum, Ruger, and Company received a letter from Maloney, the committee’s chairwoman, notifying them of the hearing which is scheduled for July 20. The House Oversight Committee began investigating gun manufacturers after mass shootings at an elementary school in Uvalde, Texas and a grocery store in Buffalo, New York.
“As the chief executive officer of a major firearms manufacturer that sells millions of assault weapons, your testimony is crucial to understand why your company continues to sell and market these weapons to civilians, what steps your company plans to take to protect the public, and what additional reforms are needed to prevent further deaths from your products,” Maloney wrote in the letters, per NBC News.
Maloney said the executive will be asked about “the sale and marketing of assault weapons and the broad civil immunity that has been unfairly granted to manufacturers.”
She wrote that the panel has become increasingly concerned “that your company is continuing to profit from the sale and marketing of weapons of war to civilians despite the harm these weapons cause, is failing to track instances or patterns where your products are used in crimes, and is failing to take other reasonable precautions to limit injuries and deaths caused by your firearms.”
The gun manufacturing executives have been asked to confirm if they will attend the hearing by July 8.
Maloney is currently leading Democratic Representative Jerry Nadler in a contentious race for New York’s newly redrawn 12th district.
“Nader has called Maloney an ‘anti-vaxxer’ and amplified her far-left record. In contrast, Maloney has accused him of sexism for initially asking her to switch congressional districts and run somewhere else,” per Breitbart.
Maloney, who has been in office since 1992, has been an active advocate for gun regulations. In February, she introduced five bills that would have expanded rules regarding the sale, creation, and acquisition of guns. Among the policy was the Gun Trafficking Prevention Act which called for buying a gun from an ineligible person a felony.
Additionally, the legislative package included the “Firearm Risks Protection Act, which would require gun owners to purchase liability insurance” and the “Gunshow Loop Hole Act to require people who buy guns at gun shows to undergo background checks,” per The Hill.
“Our nation is in the midst of a gun epidemic that has destroyed too many communities, ended too many lives, and puts millions of Americans in danger. I have had enough,” Maloney said in a Feb. 11 statement regarding the policies.
