米銃器大手、ＡＲ１５型小銃だけで１０年間に１３００億円売り上げ

【ＡＦＰ＝時事】米下院の監視・改正委員会は２７日、銃乱射事件が相次いだことを受けて米銃器大手の幹部らを呼んで公聴会を開き、大手５社がこの１０年間に売り上げたＡＲ１５型半自動小銃の総額は１０億ドル（約１３６０億円）を超えると報告した。（写真は公聴会に出席したユバルディ乱射事件の被害者遺族）
　キャロリン・マロニー委員長（民主党）は、銃器業界が米社会に殺傷能力の高い武器を氾濫させることで金をもうけ、多くの死者が出ているのに「自社製品による死傷者数を監視する基本的な手順さえ踏んでいない」のは「無責任極まりない」と非難した。
　報告によると、テキサス州ユバルディの小学校で児童１９人と教師２人が死亡した乱射事件で使われたＡＲ１５型ライフルの製造元ダニエルディフェンスでは、２０１９年に４０００万ドル（約５４億円）だった同銃の売上高が、２０２１年には３倍の１億２０００万ドル（約１６２億円）以上に増えた。
　同期間に、スターム・ルガーはＡＲ１５型の売上高を３９００万ドル（約５３億円）から１億３００万ドル（約１４０億円）に伸ばした。
　スミス・アンド・ウェッソンは、ＡＲ１５型を含む銃身の長い銃の売上高が２倍以上増加し、１億８００万ドル（約１４６億円）から２億５３００万ドル（約３４３億円）になった。
　民主党が多数派の下院では、特定の半自動小銃の販売、輸入、製造、譲渡を禁じる法案を推進しているが、上院で否決される見通しだ。上院（定数１００）は民主・共和両党で５０議席ずつ分け合っており、法案可決には共和党議員１０人の賛成が必要となる。【翻訳編集ＡＦＰＢＢＮｅｗｓ】
〔ＡＦＰ＝時事〕（2022/07/29-12:58）

US gun makers earned more than $1 billion from the sale of AR-15-style semiautomatic weapons over the last decade, a House committee said Wednesday as lawmakers grilled manufacturers following a series of grim mass shootings.
The gun industry has flooded our neighborhoods, our schools and even our churches and synagogues with these deadly weapons and has gotten rich doing it, Democratic Representative Carolyn Maloney said.
Even as guns kill more Americans than ever, none of those companies take even basic steps to monitor the deaths and injuries caused by their products, the New York lawmaker said. This is beyond irresponsible.
Marty Daniel, chief executive officer of Daniel Defense -- maker of the gun used by a young man to kill 19 school children and two teachers in Uvalde, Texas -- defended his company's practices.
The stated implied purpose of this hearing is to vilify, blame and try to ban over 24 million sporting rifles already in circulation that are lawfully possessed and commonly used by millions of Americans to protect their homes and loved ones, Daniel said.
I believe our nation's response needs to focus not on the type of gun but on the types of persons who are likely to commit mass shootings, he said.
Christopher Killoy, president and CEO of Sturm, Ruger & Co., said it would be wrong to deprive citizens of their constitutional right to purchase a lawful firearm.
Republican lawmakers on the committee pushed back against their Democratic colleagues.
Gun manufacturers do not cause violent crime, said Representative James Comer of Kentucky. Criminals cause violent crime.
We'll continue to protect the rights of all law-abiding gun owners who safely use, store and carry firearms including the AR-15, Comer said.
- Bill to ban assault weapons -
According to a report by the House Oversight and Reform Committee, five major gun manufacturers reaped more than one billion dollars from the sale of assault rifles over the last decade.
Daniel Defense's revenue from AR-15-style rifles tripled from $40 million in 2019 to more than $120 million in 2021, the report said.
Ruger's earnings from AR-15-style rifles rose from $39 million to $103 million during the period while Smith & Wesson's revenue from long guns, including AR-15-style rifles, doubled, from $108 million to $253 million.
The Democratic-controlled House is moving forward for the first time in nearly 20 years with a bill that would ban the sale, import, manufacture or transfer of certain types of semi-automatic weapons.
The Assault Weapons Ban of 2021 would be likely doomed to fail in the Senate, however.
Democrats have 50 seats in the 100-member Senate and 10 Republican votes would be needed to bring the measure to the floor.
Congress passed a 10-year ban on assault rifles and certain high-capacity magazines in 1994.
But lawmakers let it expire in 2004, and sales of those weapons have soared since then.
After the Uvalde massacre, President Joe Biden appealed to lawmakers to again ban assault rifles or at least raise the minimum age for buying them from 18 to 21.
But Republican lawmakers, who see such a restriction as going against the constitutional right to bear arms, have refused to go along with Biden's proposal.