WASHINGTON (Reuters) -The U.S. House of Representatives’ oversight panel called on five gunmakers to hand over details on the manufacturing, marketing and sales of firearms used in mass shootings, the committee’s chairwoman said on Friday following recent attacks.
House Oversight Committee Chairwoman Carolyn Maloney requested the data in letters sent Thursday to Daniel Defense, Bushmaster, Sig Sauer, Smith & Wesson Brands Inc and Sturm, Ruger & Company Inc, she said in a statement.
“I am deeply concerned that gun manufacturers continue to profit from the sale of weapons of war,” congresswoman Maloney wrote, citing the AR-15 semi-automatic rifles used in this week’s shooting at an elementary school in Uvalde, Texas, and at a grocery store in Buffalo, New York, 10 days earlier.
Representatives for the five gunmakers could not be immediately reached for comment on the congressional request.
An 18-year-old gunman killed 19 children and two teachers at the school on Tuesday. Ten people were gunned down by a white supremacist at the supermarket a predominantly Black neighborhood in the city in western New York on May 14.
Polling shows a majority of Americans support moderate or strong regulation of gun ownership, but some lawmakers have suggested they would not back any legislative fixes.
Gun safety advocates are pushing Democratic President Joe Biden to take stronger action on his own to curb gun violence following the deadliest school shooting in nearly a decade, but the White House has said Congress must pass laws to have more impact.
(Reporting by Susan Heavey; Editing by Tim Ahmann and Jonathan Oatis)