Turtle Talk

Here. An excerpt:

The Navajo Nation’s plan for Remington was novel: It intended to shift the company away from its consumer business, including curtailing the sale of the AR-15-style weapons frequently used in mass shootings, to focus on police and defense contracts.

The tribe planned to use profits from those businesses to invest in research and development of advanced “smart guns” — those with fingerprint or other technology intended to prevent anyone but the gun’s owner from using the weapon. Smart guns have so far failed to make much headway at the major gun manufacturers, which have faced pressure from groups like the National Rifle Association.

It’s not clear that the tribe’s proposal would have worked, of course. But the Navajo Nation would have had an advantage in sales for police and military contracts. Not only must a certain percentage of government business go to minority-owned companies, but the Native American Incentive Act also confers certain other advantages, according to the American Bar Association.

The only guns the Navajo Nation planned to sell to consumers were long guns like rifles and shotguns used by hunters.

“Navajo is a community of veterans and people of the land,” the tribe’s lawyer, Drew Ryce, said in an email. “We are indifferent to the AR-15 and happy to leave that business behind.”