Smith & Wesson Hits Back on Democrats’ Gun Blame

WASHINGTON, DC, Aug 22 — The mainstream media loves it when a miscreant uses a gun to commit a crime so they can “prove” that “guns kill.” The vast majority of politicians who identify as Democrat are also apt to spread the news so they can promote legislation that restricts gun ownership.

But we rarely, if ever, hear about the good guys and gals who successfully used a firearm to defend themselves. Yet, “According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, almost every major study on defensive gun use has found that Americans use their firearms defensively between 500,000 and 3 million times each year. There’s good reason to believe that most defensive gun uses are never reported to law enforcement, much less picked up by local or national media outlets,” says the Heritage Foundation.

The Heritage report also shows that while the great majority of law-abiding gun owners purchased their weapons legally, using their real names, the U.S. Department of Justice tells us that a handful of criminals — just 7% — purchased their guns legally using their real names. Additionally, 56% of them stole their weapons and 43% bought them on the black market.

The illogical “Defund the Police” movement and the pandemic crime wave have prompted more lawful citizens to take defensive measures and FBI statistics show that more and more of us are in the market for guns as a result. Their records show that at the height of the COVID lockdown the FBI was processing record numbers of firearm background checks — the most ever since they’ve been keeping records. For example, in just one week in March of 2021, the FBI was processing some 1,218,002 legitimate background checks.

Apparently, the Democrats who control the House Oversight and Reform Committee could care less, judging from its determination to hold the 170-year-old gun makers, Smith & Wesson, accountable. The Committee has subpoenaed the company allegedly to get more information on its MSR, modern sporting rifle and they want to question CEO Mark Smith.

The summons sounds like an attempted perp-walk that seems to make a not-so-subtle accusation. It prompted Smith to issue a public statement accusing the “politicians and their lobbying partners in the media” of trying to disparage Smith & Wesson. “Some have had the audacity to suggest that after they have vilified, undermined and defunded law enforcement for years, supported prosecutors who refuse to hold criminals accountable for their actions, overseen the decay of our country’s mental health infrastructure, and generally promoted a culture of lawlessness, Smith & Wesson and other firearm manufacturers are somehow responsible for the crime wave that has predictably resulted from these destructive policies. But they are the ones to blame for the surge in violence and lawlessness, and they seek to avoid any responsibility for the crisis of violence they have created by attempting to shift the blame to Smith & Wesson, other firearm manufacturers and law-abiding gun owners.”

It’s worthy to note that hardest hit by the surge in gun crime are those cities under Democratic rule — havens for career criminals, as Smith described them. Meanwhile, he said in his public statement: “To be clear, a Smith & Wesson firearm has never broken into a home; a Smith & Wesson firearm has never assaulted a woman out for a late-night run in the city; a Smith & Wesson firearm has never carjacked an unsuspecting driver stopped at a traffic light. Instead, Smith & Wesson provides these citizens with the means to protect themselves and their families.”