AR rifle maker tied to Texas school shooting facing scrutiny, possible future lawsuits

Nick Penzenstadler, USA TODAY | 28 May 2022

The gunman in the Texas school shooting this week flaunted his recent purchases of AR-15 style weapons on social media. One of those has been identified as a high-end rifle fitted with an expensive optic sight produced in Georgia.

The $1,870 Daniel Defense DDM4 V7 rifle is legally sold to anyone over 18 who passes a background check at a gun shop, which the shooter did shortly after his birthday, according to law enforcement.

But the gun company with ties to military production is facing a raft of unwanted public attention and could soon face years of costly litigation.

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The alleged shooter in the Uvalde elementary school posted his receipt from Daniel Defense last week, according to images obtained by The Daily Dot. He also recently purchased 375 rounds of the 5.56 ammunition for the rifles and carried seven 30-round magazines into Monday’s shooting along with the Daniel Defense rifle, according to law enforcement officials.

After founding Daniel Defense in 2001, CEO Marty Daniel got his big break in 2002 when he caught the attention of a U.S. Special Forces and received a $20 million contract for specialized hand rails for M4 rifles used in combat.

Since then, Daniel Defense has grown into one of the largest privately held gun manufacturers in the U.S. with sales nearing $100 million, according to Forbes. The company had at least $3 million in government contracts in recent years, according to federal records. It held contracts with the United Kingdom’s military as well as many domestic law enforcement agencies.

The CEO told Forbes in 2017 in an interview that sales spiked after the Sandy Hook massacre where 26 were killed including 20 students. So far in Uvalde, 19 students and two teachers have died.

“The mass shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary in 2012 drove a lot of sales,” Daniel told Forbes. “That was a horrible event and we don’t use those kinds of terrible things to drive sales but when people see politicians start talking about gun control, they have this fear and they go out and buy guns.”

On Wednesday, in the wake of the shooting, the company was flooded with social media criticism and restricted some of its accounts. Critics seized on a now-deleted May 16 Twitter post featuring a young boy holding a Daniel Defense firearm.

A now-deleted Twitter post from Daniel Defense on May 16.
© Twitter

Daniel Defense’s name no longer appears on a list of exhibitors at the annual NRA convention this week in Houston. Steve Reed, the company's vice president of marketing, issued a statement to USA TODAY Wednesday afternoon saying that the company would cooperate with federal, state and local law enforcement.

“We are deeply saddened by the tragic events in Texas this week,” Reed wrote. “Our thoughts and prayers go out to the families and community devastated by this evil act.”

Earlier in the day, Ryan Busse, a former gun executive at Kimber who wrote a book about what he calls a “radicalized gun industry,” said Daniel Defense would soon have decisions to make about whether the company will speak out about the shooting or continue advocating for AR- 15 sales.

“As every mass shooting happens, within a company, anyone with a heart hopes it’s not their gun, then when it is, the only way to get around it is to rationalize it,” Busse said Wednesday. “You have to say: It’s nothing we did, We did everything we could legally and this just happens because there are bad people out there. You have to tell yourself that because it’s all you can say.”

Poster Comment:

I gun is a tool that can be used for good or evil purposes.