The Gun Industry Created a New Consumer. Now It's Killing Us.
"Americans are rightly anguished by gun violence and the question of what’s motivating the young men who have committed a succession of horrific mass murders. We seem to be fumbling around for answers: Is it racism and radicalization, or untreated mental illness, or toxic video games, or too-easy access to guns? All of these may be parts of the problem, but equally none of them makes complete sense outside of the larger context: The gun industry’s modern marketing effort did not just arm these shooters; in a very real sense, it created them.

This is something I know a bit about, as someone who spent a quarter century in the business. Over my years as a rising executive with a successful gun manufacturer, I became more and more disturbed by the sort of firearms the industry was selling, how it was selling them, and to whom. Next week, I am testifying before the House Committee on Oversight and Reform at a hearing that, in the words of its chair, Representative Carolyn B. Maloney, “will examine the role of gun manufacturers in flooding our communities with weapons of war and fueling America’s gun violence crisis.”"

This is an article in the Atlantic that gives an eye-opening view of the change in marketing by gun manufacturers/retailers over the past years. In America, we are raised to buy and consume, then do it all over again, and therefore we are susceptible to the marketing schtick, and the branding. It is especially toxic when companies bring in their consumers by promoting an experience, a lifestyle, one finding "their tribe." More often this is aimed at young and impressionable consumers.

The evolution of our gun promos in America.

1. 1995 Ruger ad
2. 2010 Bushmaster ad
3. Social media post by outdoor retailer Big Daddy Unlimited after the Kyle Rittenhouse verdict