Sen. Schumer demands investigation into rifle marketed to kids

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer said Thursday he and seven other Democratic senators would double down on the Federal Trade Commission to investigate the marketing of a "JR-15" rifle to kids, which Schumer called a "disgusting and morally bankrupt new low" in light of recent mass shootings impacting children.

Illinois-based gun manufacturer WEE 1 Tactical unveiled the JR-15 in early 2022, advertising the weapon as a .22 caliber long rifle with the look and feel of an AR-15 in a "child-sized version," which they call a way parents can pass down the tradition of hunting and shooting sports to their children. The website for WEE1 Tactical states the gun is an ideal weapon to "teach a younger enthusiast."

"I’m talking about a weapon currently for sale that is actually being marketed by one gunmaker to children, and it has a disgusting, horrified name: the JR-15," Schumer, D-N.Y., said on the Senate floor. 

"That’s a code for young children," Schumer said. "So later today, I and a group of my colleagues will ask the FTC to investigate the company that makes and advertises the JR-15."

The group of Senators also held a press conference Thursday, drawing attention to their demand for intervention from the FTC. The presser took place just days after seven people were killed in a shooting in Half Moon Bay, California, and 12 more were murdered days earlier at Monterey Park in California. 

"The last thing we need to be doing is shrinking deadly weapons of war and marketing them to young children," Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-NY, said at the press conference.

Recent shootings spark renew calls for new gun control measures

Thursday's briefing was a follow-up to an initial letter penned by a group of Democratic senators in May 2022 to Lina Khan, the chair of the Federal Trade Commission. The letter requested the commission open an investigation into “the marketing of highly lethal firearms, including assault-style rifles, to impressionable young people.”

In their letter, the senators accused WEE1 Tactical of being “just a single actor in a long line of unscrupulous gun manufacturers that have worked for years to market their products to a young audience.” They asked the FTC to take action against WEE1’s “unfair” marketing that could result in injury or death.

Following the California shootings, calls from Democrats to impose new gun control measures have been renewed. Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., reintroduced legislation this week to ban "assault weapons," which would raise the age requirement for the purchase of some firearms.

AR-15s, a type of semi-automatic rifle, have been used in a slew of recent US mass shootings, including massacres in Buffalo, New York, and Uvalde, Texas.