Connecticut company built gun that killed journalist Shireen Abu Akleh

Update: Since this article was published, Al Jazeera has reported that the round that killed Shireen Abu Akleh was fired by an M4 rifle (made in America, not by Ruger). The Palestinian Attorney General earlier asserted the bullet was fired by a Ruger Mini-14, but it is not clear that that particular Ruger is in Israel’s arsenal. We will continue to track developments in the story.

Al Jazeera and Reuters report that the Palestinian Attorney General has concluded that Shireen Abu Akleh, the reporter who was killed on May 11, 2022 in Jenin on Palestine’s West Bank, was killed with a bullet from a Mini Ruger gun. Palestinian Attorney General Akram Al-Khatib said tests showed that the bullet that killed Abu Akleh was a 5.56 mm round fired from a Ruger Mini-14 semiautomatic rifle, which is used by the Israeli military.  The Mini Ruger is produced by Sturm Ruger and Company whose headquarters is in Southport (Fairfield), Connecticut.

Abu Akleh was a prominent Arab journalist, known all over the Middle East, who worked for Al Jazeera for 25 years.  CNN described her  as “a household name across the Arab world for her coverage of Israel and the Palestinian territories.”  The Palestinian foreign minister announced that the Palestinian Authority had formally asked the International Criminal Court to investigate Abu Akleh’s killing. 

Stanley Heller, head of the Middle East Crisis Committee, said, “For years we’ve been calling attention to sales of Ruger guns and ammunition to the Israeli military which is a serial human rights violator. We’re part of a coalition called “No Rugers to Israel” (website NoRugers2Israel.org ).  We can document over 200 Palestinians killed or injured by Rugers though we believe the true number to be far higher.

“Now Ruger has got its most infamous kill, a reporter doing her job, well-known by the Israeli military, shot while wearing an outfit clearly marked ‘Press’.  We repeat again, Sturm Ruger should not be selling its weapons or ammunition to the Israeli government.

“Sturm Ruger, the U.S.’ largest firearms company, is known to have given millions of dollars to the National Rifle Association, which after the Uvalde Massacre has itself has come under harsh criticism for its rejection of gun control measures and its promotions of gun sales.

“We’ve written to town officials of Fairfield calling on the Board of Selectmen to ‘call on Sturm Ruger to break all ties with the National Rifle Association, to stop selling its products to Israel and to make a full public accounting of how its weapons were used by Israel and the times its weapons were used deliberately to kill innocent people in the United States.’”