Gun profits and deaths in the United States

                                                                      

                                                          Karen Cronick

Again, there have been gun deaths in the United States, again they were produced by lone individuals with their own weapons. Just this year there have been more than 200 mass shootings. “There have been two in Texas in the last week - five killed at a home in Cleveland, and north of Houston, and eight dead at a shopping mall in Allen, near Dallas.” (BBC, 2023).

It is remarkable that profits from domestic gun sales are more important to the weapons companies –and many US lawmakers- than people´s lives. Data is scattered but revealing. For Smith & Wesson, 91.2 % of its sales (in 2017) was to the domestic market. Remington Outdoor "produced 1.47 million guns for the U.S. market in 2014". For Strum, Ruger & Co. 96% of its firearms sales was for the US market in 2014. In 2015 Sig Sauer sold "nearly half-million guns domestically” (Kari, 2018).

That represents a broad economic committment to domestic guns sales for these companies. It is not surprising that they invest in securing lawmakers' support. As of March 2023, the National Rifle Association donated $27,413,008 to individuals in the national legislature or to their campaign funds (Wikipedia, 2023).

References

BBC (2023). How many US mass shootings have there been in 2023? Available at: https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-41488081

Huns, Kari, Feb 27, 2018. The biggest gun companies in the U.S. Available at: https://www.moneytalksnews.com/slideshows/the-biggest-gun-companies-in-the-u-s-market/

Wikipedia (2023). List of congressional candidates who received campaign money from the National Rifle Association. Available at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_congressional_candidates_who_received_campaign_money_from_the_National_Rifle_Association#:~:text=When%20Congress%20people%20are%20beholden,elect%20these%20individuals%20was%20%2427%2C413%2C008.