Democrats Subpoena Smith & Wesson CEO to Push Gun Control

House Oversight and Reform Committee Democrats subpoenaed Smith & Wesson as part of their mission to advance gun control.

Oversight and Reform Committee Chairwoman Carolyn Maloney (D-NY) issued on August 1 a subpoena to Smith & Wesson CEO Mark Smith relating to the committee’s investigation into the firearms industry and the relationship between “assault weapons” and mass shootings.

The Hill and the Washington Post reported on Maloney’s subpoena but did not include additional context about Smith & Wesson’s willingness to cooperate with the Oversight Committee.

Showing her partisan leanings, Maloney wrote, “Your company collects hundreds of millions of dollars selling assault weapons that are used in mass shootings, including the horrific murder of seven Americans and the wounding of dozens more during a Fourth of July parade in Highland Park, Illinois.” The Democrat said it was necessary to subpoena Smith after he allegedly did not comply with the committee’s investigation, even though letters between the two parties obtained by Breitbart News show evidence to the contrary. In fact, the documents show that Maloney refused to work in earnest with Smith & Wesson on a date suitable to hold a hearing with Smith, and that the firearms manufacturer provided many documents the committee requested.

In a June 7 letter to Maloney, Mark Paoletta, an attorney representing Smith & Wesson, noted that the committee gave his client fewer than five business days to identify and produce the information ahead of its planned June 8 hearing on gun violence.

In response to Maloney’s request for information and documents, Paoletta detailed how the company does not disclose what percentage of their total sales are modern sporting rifles (MSRs), or as the left mistakenly calls them, “assault rifles”; however, he said that MSRs comprise a majority of the company’s firearms annual net sales.

The company also said that they believe that likely less than 10 percent of its advertising relates to MSRs.

Smith & Wesson also noted that it does not track deaths or injuries, crimes attempted or carried out with semiautomatic rifles.

On July 8, Paoletta said that Smith would be willing to testify at a planned July 20 hearing on firearms legislation, believing that other members of the firearms industry would also be testifying alongside him. In a subsequent letter on July 15, Paoletta informed Maloney that Smith would be unwilling to testify, as Smith realized that he would be the only CEO present at the hearing.

Paoletta also noted that Maloney only reached out to three companies: Sturm, Ruger & Co.; Daniel Defense; and Smith & Wesson, and declined to reach out to the other two firearms companies Maloney originally sent a letter to when she requested information.

He wrote that this is “especially puzzling” given that one of the original recipients, Bushmaster, only makes AR-type firearms, which were the focus of Maloney’s May letter to the firearms industry.

In a letter dated July 18, Paoletta wrote that although the hearing was delayed to July 27, Smith was out of town, and reaffirmed that they never contemplated having Smith testify as the sole representative of the firearms industry. He also said in this letter that the committee allowed Bushmaster and Ruger to decline to appear before the committee due to personal conflicts.

On July 25, Paoletta wrote that Smith was willing to testify generally in “August, September, or October,” but not on July 27.

Now, in the August letter to Smith announcing the subpoena, Maloney said this about his testimony:

… [It] would have shed light on why your company continues to sell and market these weapons to civilians despite recent mass shootings with your products, what steps your company plans to take to protect the public, and what additional reforms are needed to prevent further deaths from your products.

Maloney continued, noting that the gun industry advertises its firearms in a “reckless and dangerous” fashion, despite Paoletta relaying that advertising relating to modern sporting rifles comprises less than ten percent of its advertising budget. 

“Information obtained from Smith & Wesson may inform these and other proposals and help Congress determine how to effectively regulate the powerful and deadly weapons of war being sold by gun manufacturers, examine the effect of immunity statutes on gun industry behavior, and curb irresponsible marketing that appeals to extremists and white supremacists,” Maloney concluded in her letter to Smith & Wesson.

During his opening remarks at the July 27 hearing, Rep. James Comer (R-KY), the ranking member of the House Oversight Committee, disparaged Democrats for attacking American companies:

From the price of gasoline to the surge in violent crime, Democrats are quick to point the finger at American industry.

Their targets today – the American firearm industry.

What did the American firearm industry do wrong? Their customers are allowed to lawfully buy guns.

Their customers are allowed to exercise their Second Amendment right to keep and bear arms for their protection and other lawful purposes.

Gun manufacturers do not cause violent crime – criminals cause violent crime.

As the Democrats continue their obsession with vilifying American companies, they refuse to conduct any oversight over the Biden Administration and the federal government.

“It is not surprising that the Lugar Center, a nonpartisan congressional rating group, has given the Democrats on our committee an F rating for oversight,” Comer added. “Democrats have no problem with subpoenaing oil companies and private citizens. Yet we haven’t heard from a single Biden Administration cabinet secretary this Congress.”