Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez called the profits of America’s firearms manufacturers the “one thing more important to lobbyists and the gun industry than children and houses of faith” in searing comments made during Wednesday’s hearing of the House Oversight Committee.
Ms Ocasio-Cortez asked several questions of witnesses including Rebecca Pringle, president of the National Education Assocation, before asserting that major manufacturers of guns in America were making “blood money” off of the deaths of school children and other victims of gun violence.
“In your view, are you seeing a correlation between gun profits and gun deaths in the United States?” the congresswoman asked Nick Suplina of Everytown for Gun Safety.
“Yes,” he replied.
“This is about blood money,” the congresswoman then responded.
Wednesday’s hearing largely rocked back and forth between Democrats calling for action on gun violence that included restrictions on firearm ownership, including bans on AR-15s, and Republicans who insisted that a response to massacres in Uvalde, Texas and Buffalo, New York remain centered on arming teachers and school staff, hardening security at schools, and addressing the availability of mental healthcare in America.
The Democratic-controlled House has passed a handful of bills related to gun restrictions and school safety in recent months but all are stalled in the evenly-divided Senate. Members of the upper chamber are now meeting to craft compromise legislation that will likely not include a ban on assault weapons but could include some concessions from Republicans.
Ms Ocasio-Cortez was withering in her criticism of the firearms industry and Republicans on Wednesday and has echoed similar sentiments in other recent statements.
“Politicians insisting you ‘not politicize’ mass shootings enabled by horrifying policies THEY take [money] to uphold are really just telling you to accept them. But it’s not acceptable. And they are the ones politicizing by opposing common sense laws widely agreed upon by the public,” she tweeted in late May after the Uvalde shooting.
Media reports have revealed in years past how gun sales typically spike after mass shootings, with gun store owners telling journalists that sales are often driven by fears of Democratic-led efforts, even if usually imaginary, to confiscate weapons. AR-15 sales in particular spiked after the Sandy Hook shooting in 2012 when calls grew for the assault weapons ban that expired in 2004 to be reinstated.
