20 states demand White House cease sale of AR-15 ammo from Army plant | EUROtoday

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Military-grade ammunition manufactured at a Missouri facility has been utilized in a minimum of a dozen mass shootings from AR-15-wielding assailants throughout the US throughout the final decade, with its shell casings recovered on the scene of a few of America’s deadliest massacres.

Ammunition from the Lake City Army Ammunition Plant, which has manufactured almost each rifle cartridge utilized by the US navy throughout the final 50 years, can also be one of many largest producers of economic rounds for AR-15-style rifles, the most well-liked firearm within the US.

The facility operates with US Army oversight, with assist from greater than $860m from the federal authorities to enhance manufacturing during the last twenty years.

Twenty states are actually asking the White House to dam the sale of these rounds and the weapons that fireplace them to civilians.

A letter from New York Attorney General Letitia James and 19 different state attorneys normal to the newly created White House Office of Gun Violence Prevention calls for that the workplace examine the “contracting and manufacturing practices that led to so many billions of military-grade rounds being sold into our communities” and to challenge a report on its findings.

“In the long term, we ask the White House to ensure that future production contracts prohibit the sale of military weapons and ammunition to civilians,” they wrote.

While recognising the problem of US navy readiness, “the federal government can and must do more to ensure that weapons made for our military do not take the lives of innocent civilians at home, and that our tax dollars do not subsidize crime and violence or otherwise perpetuate the epidemic of gun violence in America,” in line with the letter.

Last 12 months, President Biden launched the first-ever federal company devoted to combatting gun violence, because the violent American epidemic of mass shootings routinely eclipsed the variety of days in a 12 months.

The first-of-its-kind workplace beneath Vice President Kamala Harris is tasked with increasing efforts to fight the proliferation of high-powered weapons and to stem the tide of gun violence ripping the nation aside, together with providing assist for mass taking pictures survivors and communities acutely impacted by gun violence.

There have been a minimum of 656 mass shootings within the US in 2023, through which 4 or extra folks have been killed or injured, in line with the Gun Violence Archive. At least 42,987 folks within the US have been killed by weapons final 12 months.

Lake City rounds have been used within the mass shootings in Parkland, Florida, the place a gunman killed 17 youngsters and adults; the Robb Elementary School bloodbath in Uvalde, Texas, the place a gunman killed 19 elementary faculty college students and two academics; and on the Tree of Life Synagogue in Pittsburgh, the place a gunman killed 11 folks throughout a Shabbat service.

They are amongst a minimum of a dozen mass shootings throughout the final decade tied to Lake City’s ammunition.

An investigation from The New York Times final 12 months found that the Second World War-era Missouri plant, which operates beneath a personal contractor with Army oversight, has produced a whole bunch of tens of millions of rounds for the industrial market yearly since a minimum of 2011.

Production for retail gross sales in addition to legislation enforcement businesses and overseas governments greater than doubled that for US navy manufacturing by 2021, in line with the report.

Over the final twenty years, the federal authorities has invested $860m into the power for enhancements, an Army spokesperson advised The Times.

“Military-style weapons – and the ammunition specifically manufactured for them – should be limited to military use,” attorneys normal wrote to the White House. “Even if military-grade ammunition were appropriate for the civilian market, its sale to private parties should not be subsidized by taxpayer dollars.”

The Independent has requested remark from the White House and US Army.