Seven U.S. senators are renewing calls for the Federal Trade Commission to open an investigation into the marketing of assault-style rifles after the unveiling of the JR-15, a long rifle the manufacturer advertises as a smaller AR-15 geared towards younger users.
Illinois-based 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. The website for WEE1 Tactical advertises the gun as an ideal weapon to "teach a younger enthusiast."
After originally writing a letter to the FTC in May 2022, a group of Senators held a press conference Thursday doubling down on their demand for intervention from the FTC.
"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-N.Y., said at the press conference.
An AR-15 is a type of semi-automatic rifle, Variants of the weapon have been linked to several high-profile mass shootings, including the recent massacres in Buffalo, New York, and Uvalde, Texas.
"What we have here is a scaled-down 20% scaled down 22 long rifle that looks and feels and operates just like mom or dad's gun," said Eric Schmid, the owner of Schmid Tool & Eng. Corp, the manufacturer of the JR-15, in an interview with organizers of The Shooting, Hunting, Outdoor Trade Show in 2022.
The ammunition and safety features of the JR-15 also differ from the AR-15. While the AR-15 generally uses .223...
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