An American rifle for “small size enthusiasts” has caused a reaction among Democratic senators, outraged by this product a few days after an accident involving a 6-year-old child in a school.
A semi-automatic rifle designed especially for children: Democratic senators strongly denounced Thursday the commercial practices of an American manufacturer of small, light and lethal weapons.
The JR-15, modeled after a model assault rifle used in several deadly shootings, is “absolutely sickening,” condemned Senate Democrat Leader Chuck Schumer.
“The last thing we should be doing is downsizing these weapons of war and marketing them to children,” he said, urging the US Consumer Protection Agency (FTC) to open up an investigation of its manufacturer.
For “small lovers”
The rifle, which weighs barely a kilo, fires live ammunition well. Supplied with one, five or ten 22 caliber long rifle cartridge magazines, it was first marketed last January, at a price of 389 dollars.
The company WEE1 Tactical, which sells this weapon, describes it as “a piece of American freedom” intended “for amateurs of small stature”.
On her website, she depicts a young blond girl, looking through the sight of one of these rifles under the snow.
Asked by AFP, the company defended the marketing of its weapon, which according to it has “a safety mechanism” present on no other rifle.
A specific case this month
“Faced with the epidemic of armed violence among young people and shootings”, a weapon like this “simply should not exist” hammered Chuck Schumer.
He took as an example the case of a 6-year-old child who shot and wounded his teacher earlier this month in a school in Virginia.
Shootings are a recurring scourge in the United States where the right to own weapons is guaranteed by the Constitution.
On Thursday, President Joe Biden again urged lawmakers to ban assault rifles as a matter of urgency. But attempts to regulate their sale are often blocked in the US Congress, where gun lobbies wield strong influence.
