House panel calls on CEOs of gun manufacturers to testify

• As part of the investigation, which opened in late May, Rep. Carolyn Maloney (D-N.Y.), who chairs the committee, sent letters seeking answers to questions from five gun manufacturers: Daniel Defense, Bushmaster, Sig Sauer, Smith &Wesson Brands and Sturm, Ruger & Company.

The big picture: Now the CEOs of three of those companies — Daniel Defense, Smith & Wesson Brands,and Sturm, Ruger & Co. — have been called to appear before the committee on July 20.

• The House Oversight Committee is gathering "financial and marketing information from these companies regarding their sale of weapons of war in the United States — including the assault weapons used in the recent mass murders in Highland Park and Uvalde," per the press release.
• Daniel Defense is the manufacturer of the weapon used in the Uvalde mass shooting that killed 19 children and two teachers, the Washington Post reported.
• The Highland Park shooter used a Smith & Wesson M&P semi-automatic weapon, Maloney wrote in a letter to Smith & Wesson Brands CEO Mark Smith.

What they're saying: "I am deeply troubled that gun manufacturers continue to profit from the sale of weapons of war, including AR-15-style assault rifles that were used by a white supremacist to murder ten people in Buffalo, New York, and in the massacre of 19 children and two teachers in Uvalde, Texas," Maloney wrote in each of the letters.

• "Products sold by your company have been used for decades to carry out homicides and even mass murders, yet your company has continued to market assault weapons to civilians," she added.