Shooter incident at elementary school in Uvalde, Texas - 19 children and 2 adults dead

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From 1995 to 2020, I worked for the firearms manufacturer Kimber. As the industry began to embrace extremism and conspiracy, I did what I could to fight back from the inside. When industry marketing celebrated armed vigilantism to sell guns, I left.

I’m still a proud gun owner who believes in responsibility. These days I use my platform to advocate for commonsense gun safety measures and call out dangerous and toxic marketing in the industry – which is why I was invited to testify before the US House committee on oversight and reform last week.

Like the others appearing, including two gun company chief executives, I was asked to submit written testimonyfor the official congressional record. I was warned that I would be under oath and prepared for the possibility that the large, high-profile hearing would go for several hours and include direct attacks on me. All of this happened – but that’s not why testifying was so frightening.

The reason I found the hearing so scary was because it made clearer than ever that gun companies and their executives have completely abdicated responsibility and common sense. Their industry is nakedly marketing to – and in the process perhaps even creating – the next generation of mass shooters, all in service of their bottom line.

At the beginning of these sorts of hearings, each witness has time to address the committee. I described how guns like the AR-15 were a pariah before 2008. In the less than 15 years since, however, they’ve become both a powerful authoritarian symbol and also the industry’s bread and butter.

I talked about how there’s no longer a place in the firearms industry for anyone who believes in moderation or responsible regulation. If they did exist, they’ve long been frightened into submission or forced out.

Despite guns being at the center of radicalized domestic terrorism, there has been no industry rebuke of the “come and take it” flags of the January 6 insurrection, of armed men invading the Michigan capital, or of Kyle Rittenhouse killing people at a protest with his Smith & Wesson Military & Police-line rifle.

This is exactly what I witnessed during last week’s five-hour hearing. Alarmingly, but not shockingly, the two gun industry chiefs called as witnesses – Marty Daniel, CEO of Daniel Defense, and Christopher Killoy, president and CEO of Ruger – refused to take any responsibility for the role of guns and industry marketing in our country’s worsening spate of mass shootings and gun violence……..

https://www.theguardian.com/comment...ss-weapons-republicans?CMP=Share_iOSApp_Other