U.S. House panel asks gunmakers to testify amid mass shootings

The U.S. Dwelling Oversight Committee has questioned the chief executives of three gunmakers to testify on July 20 as element of its investigation into the firearms market subsequent a wave of higher-profile mass shootings, the panel claimed on Thursday.

The panel termed on the CEOs of Smith & Wesson Manufacturers, Sturm, Ruger & Co., as perfectly as privately held Daniel Protection to seem, in accordance to letters sent to the providers released by the panel.

“I am deeply troubled that gun suppliers continue on to income from the sale of weapons of war, which includes AR-15-model assault rifles,” committee chairwoman Representative Carolyn Maloney, a New York Democrat, wrote.

“Merchandise marketed by your company have been made use of for many years to have out homicides and even mass murders, however your organization has ongoing to industry assault weapons to civilians.”

Associates for the gunmakers did not right away react to requests for comment. Lawmakers gave the CEOs right until Friday to react to the committee.

The panel cited Monday’s mass taking pictures at a Fourth of July parade in Highland Park, Illinois, exactly where a gunman allegedly killed at least seven people today and wounded dozens of others with a large-powered rifle.

Over 200 mass shootings this 12 months

Past thirty day period, the panel read from victims and relatives of recent mass shootings at an elementary faculty in Uvalde, Texas, and a grocery store in Buffalo, New York.

Lawmakers are grappling with a modern spate of deadly attacks throughout the United States, which has seen extra than 200 mass shootings just this 12 months.

A modest bipartisan package of gun reforms was signed into legislation in late June when the U.S. Supreme Court individually expanded gun owners’ legal rights. Some U.S. states have individually moved to act on guns pursuing the top court’s ruling.

The July 20 hearing will glimpse into gun sales and promoting “and the broad civil immunity that has been granted to makers,” wrote Maloney.

“Your testimony is critical to understand why your organization continues to offer and current market these weapons to civilians, what techniques your corporation options to consider to shield the general public, and what additional reforms are required to avert further fatalities from your products and solutions,” Maloney wrote in the letters to the CEOs of gunmakers.