This week, CNBC aired an hour-long attack on the Remington 700 rifle, rehashing decades-old allegations about the popular rifle's trigger system. (Interestingly, the network's "10-month investigation" aired just a few months after a press release went out from a Kansas City law firm that has sued Remington in the past, seeking plaintiffs for new cases against the gun maker.) While CNBC and plaintiffs' lawyers claim the rifle will fire without the trigger being pulled, Remington says that neither the company nor the plaintiffs' expert witnesses have ever been able to cause such a discharge in a properly maintained, unaltered rifle.
The program also repeated the gun ban lobby's longstanding complaint that the Consumer Product Safety Commission doesn't have the power to order recalls of firearms and ammunition. Congress's wisdom in refusing to give CPSC that power was proven in the 1990s, when CPSC staff told the Clinton White House the agency “would love to get into the gun regulation business" and anti-gun Sen. Howard Metzenbaum (D-Ohio) introduced legislation to remove the restriction.
The NRA is second to no one in supporting and promoting firearm safety, and NRA publications have regularly published announcements of voluntary recalls by gun and ammunition manufacturers. Yet since long before "Dateline NBC" used rocket motors to blow up pickup trucks in staged collisions, gun owners have rightly been skeptical of the mainstream media's ability to report fairly and accurately on firearms issues. These attacks on Remington are far from over, and NRA members who want to hear the company's side of the story can visit Remington's new website on the issue at www.remington700.tv.
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