Smith & Wesson CEO faults politicians' soft-on-crime insurance policies for city violence

The CEO of gunmaker Smith & Wesson fired again at politicians who blame gun producers for gun violence, charging that politicians and their insurance policies are accountable for upticks in violent crime.

CEO Mark Smith, who refused to testify earlier than the Home Oversight Committee about whether or not gun producers have culpability for rising crime charges, argued lawmakers push "irresponsible, soft-on-crime insurance policies" that encourage criminals.

IRS STARTING POINT: 4,600 GUNS, 5 MILLION ROUNDS OF AMMUNITION, 'HITMAN SUITS'

"It's no shock that the cities struggling most from violent crime are the exact same cities which have promoted irresponsible, soft-on-crime insurance policies that usually deal with criminals as victims and victims as criminals. Many of those identical cities additionally keep the strictest gun legal guidelines within the nation. However somewhat than confront the failure of their insurance policies, sure politicians have sought extra legal guidelines proscribing the 2nd Modification rights of law-abiding residents, whereas concurrently persevering with to undermine our establishments of regulation and order," Smith stated in an announcement.

Smith additionally stated his firm "will have interaction those that genuinely search productive discussions" and "won't ever again down in our protection of the 2nd Modification."

The Home committee has subpoenaed info from Smith & Wesson, which made the gun used within the Independence Day capturing in Highland Park, as a part of its hearings into weapons and gun violence.

Gun murder charges have elevated, together with an increase from 35% year-to-year from 2019 to 2020, based on the info from the Facilities for Illness Management and Prevention. Smith & Wesson says it doesn't maintain statistics associated to crimes dedicated utilizing weapons manufactured by the corporate.