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After yet another mass shooting over the holiday weekend, Georgia gun maker Daniel Defense has been requested to testify in front of a congressional committee later this month.
In a letter sent July 6, the bipartisan U.S. House Committee on Oversight and Reform called on Marty Daniel, the CEO of Daniel Defense, to testify during the committee’s ongoing investigation into the gun industry.
Lawmakers in May ramped up a probe into the use of military-styled semi-automatic rifles that have become commonplace in mass shootings and how gun makers manufacture and advertise the firearms.
A DDM4 rifle made by Daniel Defense was used to kill 19 children and two adults in the harrowing mass shooting at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas.
“I am deeply troubled that gun manufacturers continue to profit from the sale of weapons of war, including AR-15-style assault rifles,” Chairwoman Carolyn Maloney, a New York Democrat, wrote in her most recent correspondence with Daniel.
In a letter sent May 26, the committee requested Daniel Defense and two other gun makers outline company information on the manufacturing, marketing and sale of semi-automatic rifles — citing concern that the companies are profiting off of mass shootings.
The committee requested information like the companies’ annual profits from semi-automatic rifle sales and annual expenditures on advertising and marketing of such weapons. They also requested information on the companies’ state and federal political lobbying dollars and funds contributed to the National Rifle Association.
Daniel Defense did not respond to multiple requests for comment on whether or not they complied with the committee’s earlier request, however the most recent letter indicates that the committee received some materials from the Georgia gun maker.
“The information that you provided has heightened the Committee’s concern 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,” Maloney wrote.
GPB News has reached out again to the Black Creek firearm manufacturer for information on whether or not Marty Daniel will attend the next hearing set for July 20.
The Gun Violence Archive has recorded more than 300 mass shootings — defined as those in which at least four people were killed or injured — so far in 2022.
The movement in the House committee investigation comes after another mass shooting in Highland Park, Ill., where a shooter used a semi-automatic rifle to kill at least seven people and wound dozens of others at a July Fourth parade.
The first hearing held by lawmakers featured emotional testimony from a young student who survived the May 24 mass shooting at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde and from parents of a student who lost their life.
Witnesses also included individuals affected by the Buffalo supermarket mass shooting just 10 days before.
Miah Cerrillo, a fourth grader at the school in Uvalde, described the gunman shooting her teacher in the head after telling her, “good night.” Cerrillo said she survived the attack by smearing a classmate’s blood on herself and remaining quiet.
Nineteen children and two teachers died in the attack by a lone gunman who brandished two military-style rifles — one firearm manufactured by Daniel Defense.
Not long after, Congress made history by passing bipartisan gun legislation for the first time in nearly three decades. The Bipartisan Safer Communities Act expands background checks for some buyers, incentivizes states to enact “red-flag” laws and pours funding into mental health supports and school security efforts.
This story comes to Reporter Newspapers / Atlanta Intown through a reporting partnership with GPB News, a non-profit newsroom covering the state of Georgia.
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