(C) Daily Kos
This story was originally published by Daily Kos and is unaltered.
. . . . . . . . . .
GUNS: The American Epidemic, Part III [1]
['This Content Is Not Subject To Review Daily Kos Staff Prior To Publication.']
Date: 2023-07-13
The fourth and final section of the essay tomorrow will focus on possible solutions to curb gun violence deaths.
Mass Shootings
One thing we’ve learned from mass shootings is that no community, no matter how idyllic, is immune from gun violence. From the manicured lawns of Newtown, Connecticut to the ocean breezes of California, this epidemic does not discriminate. We raise our kids, teach them from right and wrong, help with their homework, celebrate accomplishments and birthdays, and send them to school. Every parent’s worst nightmare is burying their child. Too many parents have joined that dark and painful fraternity.
This Memorial Day the country witnessed another mass shooting. This one was in Florida. Just steps off the boardwalk in Hollywood Beach, 9 people were shot, including a 1-year-old infant, as two groups began firing wildly at one another. Two eighteen-year-old men, Morgan Deslouches and Keyshawn Stewart have been arrested and charged as the investigation continues. A lovely day where the nation remembers our service members that gave the ultimate sacrifice was shattered by what else…a mass shooting. This on the heels of Ron DeSantis and the far-right state Republicans enacting legislation to move Florida into the ranks of Constitutional carry states.
There’s much debate as to what constitutes a mass shooting. The agreed upon definition is one in which 4 or more people, not including the shooter, are shot in a single event. 96% of mass shooters are men, more than half are under the age of 40, but we’re witnessing more shooters under the age of 21. Everytown for Gun Safety reports, from 2015-2022 there were 175 incidents where 4 or more people were shot. Although they only made up 5% of all mass shootings, they accounted for 30% of all mass shooting deaths.
Deadliest Mass Shootings Since 1999
Source: Everytown for Gun Safety
Route 91 Harvest Music festival, Las Vegas, October 2, 2017: 60 killed, more than 850 injured . Pulse, Orlando, Fla., June 2016: 49 killed and 53 injured. Virginia Tech, Blacksburg, Va., April 2007: 32 killed and 17 injured on campus. Sandy Hook Elementary School, Newtown, Conn., December 2012: 26 killed. First Baptist Church, Sutherland Springs, Texas, November 2017: 26 killed and 20 injured. Walmart, El Paso, Texas, August 3, 2019: 23 killed, 26 injured. Robb Elementary School, Uvalde, Texas, May 24, 2022: 21 killed. Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, Parkland, Fla., February 2018: 17 killed. Inland Regional Center, San Bernardino, Calif., December 2015: 14 killed. Fort Hood, Fort Hood, Texas, November 2009: 13 killed. Columbine High School, Littleton, Colo., April 1999: 13 killed. Binghamton Civic Association, Binghamton, N.Y., April 2009: 13 killed. Century 16 movie theater, Aurora, Colo., July 2012: 12 killed, 58 wounded. Navy Yard, Washington, D.C., September 2013: 12 killed, 8 wounded. The Borderline Bar & Grill, Thousand Oaks, Calif., November 2018: 12 killed, several wounded.
According to the Gun Violence Archive there have been 374 mass shootings thus far in 193 days in 2023, on pace to challenge the record in 2021 of 690 mass shootings. In total 1,582 victims have been wounded and 429 lives ripped away by gun violence. In 13 of these shootings an assault rifle or machine pistol was used.
The Nashville school shooter used an assault rifle and a machine pistol with a 30-round clip and stabilizing brace. Mass shootings with assault rifles are on the rise in 2023. The numbers are staggering, to say the least. We’ve seen the deadly consequences of domestic violence that escalate but hate and misogyny are deeply rooted in the psyche of mass shooters as well
Misogyny and white supremacy ideologies have motivated numerous mass shootings. In the top ten mass shootings all were committed by men and 3 had a history of domestic violence against their girlfriend, mothers, or another woman in their lives. Two others made public misogynistic statements.
In 2014, Elliot Rodger killed 6 people and injured 14 others in a killing spree near the campus of UC Santa Barbara. He uploaded a video to YouTube titled “Elliot Rodger’s Retribution” in which he outlined his planned attack to seek retribution against women that rejected him. This introduced the Incel Movement into the mainstream consciousness. Incels blame women for their inability to attract a sexual companion and gain support through an online community of like-minded men. They’re typically associated with views that are hostile to women and suffer from severe solipsism. To them, Rodger was their hero.
We’ve touched on some root causes of shootings such as domestic violence, racism, misogyny, and mental illness, but what feeds into this problem? Targeted marketing.
Known Weapon Manufacturers Used in Top 10 Mass Shootings
Daniel Defense: Las Vegas and Uvlade Glock: Orlando and Sutherland Springs Ruger: Las Vegas and Southerland Springs Sig Sauer: Orlando Smith and Wesson: Las Vegas, Parkland, and San Bernardino
Source: Everytown for Gun Safety
Marketing the Weapons of War
After the terrorist attacks on 9/11 and the eventual wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, the 24/7 news cycle gave the world real time views of soldiers in combat gear holding M4 and M16 rifles. Doug Painter, the former President of the National Shooting and Sports Foundation referred to these images saying, “there’s never been a better accidental advertising campaign in history.”
The images of the soldiers allowed gun companies to effectively use what’s known as the ‘Halo Effect.’ Oxford Dictionary refers to this as a “positive impression of a person, company, country, brand, or product in one area to positively influence one’s opinion or feelings in the chosen area”. Gun makers used the global war on terror in their marketing to military wannabes, their marketing teams referred to them as “military enthusiasts.”
Gun manufacturers’ long-term goal was to penetrate the consumer market to take advantage of higher prices. The gun companies viewed the military and police markets as less profitable than what they could earn in the consumer market. In 2006 Smith & Wesson marketed their M&P models to take advantage of the halo effect. This fed into the buyer’s desire to use what the professional’s use.
Smith and Wesson’s M&P model was an enormous success after the advertising blitz, taking sales from $12.1 million to $75 million in a 5-year span. The average profit margin on a handgun is $200, but on an assault rifle gun companies earn over $1,000 per unit sold. As further proof that gun sales soared the FBI reported during the years of 2006-2013 background checks doubled from 10 million to 21 million. With advertising executives’ imaginations aside, societal fears and national news play unwitting advertising pawns of the gun market too.
History has taught us the greatest marketing tools gun makers enjoy are nothing borne out of the imagination of board members or advertising executives, but mass shootings and newly elected Democratic presidents. Gun sales soared after the Sandy Hook massacre, and the election wins of Barack Obama and Joe Biden. The intellectual Lilliputians that make up the GOP base and NRA members buy into the narrative that someone is always “coming for their guns.”
Throughout the years gun manufacturers preyed on the fear and insecurities of consumers through marketing for profit and programming susceptible minds. In the early 20th Century Smith & Wesson created an ad depicting a family riding in a wagon that read “protect your family on the trail.” Winchester had an ad targeting young boys turning 12 years old, that read “real boys deserve a real rifle.,” touting the occasion as a rite of passage.
Other ads would suggest a lack of ‘manhood’ unless you subscribed to the ‘real men have guns’ rhetoric. Bushmaster targeted impressionable young men in 2012 with an ad in Maxim Magazine for their AR-15 with a slogan, “Consider Your Man Card Reissued.” They preyed on young men that had deep seeded inferiority complexes and those searching for an identity. That same year Sig Arms, which rebranded itself as Sig Sauer, was on the verge of collapse. Chief Executive Roy Cohen stated that the firm was “about 2 seconds away” from imploding, until the AR-15 saved the company.
By late 2007 the AR style rifle became the stable revenue source of the gun industry. In a 2021 book titled “Gunfight”, author Ryan Busse said the speed in which the AR-15 catapulted from a weapon that was shunned by gun buyers, and held in disdain, to being celebrated, was “mind boggling.”
The marketing didn’t stop at print or social media. Two members of the Freedom Group met with technicians from the video game maker “Call of Duty: Modern Warfare” to improve the realism of the audio. The unnamed Freedom Group representatives had assembled several weapons and fired thousands of rounds, enabling the technicians to create life-like sounds from the report of the rifle, the action of the bolt and the click of inserting a magazine. The alliance improved the game’s sound effects and created another advertising platform for the Freedom Group’s products.
Smith & Wesson continued its halo effect advertising with a photo of a SWAT officer in tactical gear, holding an assault rifle, with the caption “The Chosen One.” Another ad under consideration for publication displayed select Smith & Wesson handguns with corresponding bullets and magazines, which read “Fine Tuned Machines.” The SWAT ad was the consensus among S&W executives. Remington got into the marketing craze too with an ad showing a combat shotgun and the slogan, “For when knock-knock won’t do.” The corrupting of susceptible minds allowed to fester.
Daniel Defense, the maker of the weapon used in the Uvlade massacre, produced an ad showing soldiers in full combat gear with the caption “Use What They Use.” These ads furthered the fetishization of guns, military, and law enforcement use, and were successful in driving sales. These ads were written toward self-defense, home defense and a level of masculinity that the affected were enamored with. Ads targeting white men in the 35–55-year-old range, centered on defending the family and other aggressive tactics thrived in attracting their target audience.
Daniel Defense, created by Marty Daniel in 2001 began as a military contractor, in 2012 80% of its sales were to the military. As the wars in the middle east wound down and sales to the military decreased, DD shifted its concentration to the civilian market. After the 2012 massacre at Sandy Hook and the fear of Obama gun legislation, DD adapted their marketing to self-defense and personal liberty narratives. Campaigns using slogans such as “Protecting Your Freedom” manipulated “gun enthusiasts” to stockpile weapons, in particular assault rifles. Daniel Defense civilian sales rose to 90% of its portfolio.
By August of 2013, their sales skyrocketed from $31.7 million to $110 million by 2014, by using these marketing stunts, preying on societal fears, and falsely claiming “the left is coming for your guns” Daniel Defense production and sales soared from 2,413 rifles in 2010 to 29,180 in 2020. The fastest growing segment of those buying these rifles were referred to as “Urban Defenders,” protection was the greatest motivator in driving sales. One ad depicted a man in his pajamas holding a rifle with the slogan…” whether you’re on the battlefield or protecting your family in the middle of the night.
Daniel Defense saved their most despicable ad for May 16, 2022, when it posted a picture of a toddler holding an assault rifle, like the rifle used 8 days later in the Robb elementary massacre. The slogan was taken from Proverbs 22:6, “Train up a child in the way he should go, and when he is old, he will not depart from it.” Eight days later a Texas teenager would murder 19 children and two teachers. Daniel Defense founder Marty Daniel has long held a reputation of being “edgy” in the marketing choices of his company. Others prefer to call it indoctrination and incendiary.
Daniel Defense and other gun makers claim to be supporters of the Gospel and God fearing. Daniel was named by Donald Trump Jr. to his Second Amendment coalition. Daniel once said that he believes the right to bear arms was granted by God. He told Breitbart in a 2017 interview, “We have those Second Amendment rights because God gives them to us, but also the Gospel.”
Gun makers, right wing politicians and their sycophants continually inject “God” into the equation. God didn’t create the Constitution of the United States, or any other legislation. They conveniently forget about separation of church and state. The Founding Fathers tried to build a wall between government and religion. Modern day religious fanatics have been chipping away at that wall for decades.
These faux Christians would be more believable if they would just admit this was about making money and nothing as noble as patriotism or Godly. According to Public Religion Research, evangelicals have the highest rate of gun ownership than any other religion. Armed fanaticism is a scary thought…the American version of the Taliban comes to mind.
With ads such as these, and many others, black rifles went from unwanted guns relegated to the back rooms at gun shows to being the darling of the show everywhere. As gun shows doubled in size to 500,000 square feet of space, assault rifles continue to occupy half of the gun show floor.
The rapid rise of the ugly black rifle to “America’s Gun,” as Republican politicians refer to it, grows in popularity, even as it mows down the nation’s children. These same politicians won’t discuss how these weapons of war tear through the flesh of children causing catastrophic damage and carnage, destroying families, and mutilating nine-year old children. These ads are nothing short of evil and should be legislated in the same manner as tobacco ads are.
[END]
---
[1] Url:
https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2023/7/13/2180934/-GUNS-The-American-Epidemic-Part-III
Published and (C) by Daily Kos
Content appears here under this condition or license: Site content may be used for any purpose without permission unless otherwise specified.
via Magical.Fish Gopher News Feeds:
gopher://magical.fish/1/feeds/news/dailykos/
