(edit) ‘The use of firearms as a tool is in the DNA of most Americans’

[Cerridwen]

I want to make a couple of points before posting a snip and a link.

I'm not sure what type of source the washington times is; reliable? honest? I don't know. < (edit) The wt is a r/w rag. I presume that means beretta would feel comfortable telling the "truth" about his views; talking among friends, as it were.> The author of this piece appears to be a r/wer. Which means, we have a r/wer interviewing an "it's just business, nothing personal" sorry sack of human dna. Now that we've established my views and agenda...

An interview with franco beretta, vp and managing director of beretta in Italy and exec vp of beretta USA, from June 2012.

Franco Beretta is the vice president and managing director of Beretta in Italy, executive vice president of Beretta USA (the manufacturing, distribution and marketing arm of Beretta in the United States) and one of two sons of Ugo Beretta, president of Beretta Holding. He began work in the engineering department of the business while in college more than 25 years ago. The famous firm, with its headquarters nestled in the Alps, dates back almost 500 years when the family produced arms for the doge of Venice. It has been family-run for 16 generations. An official supplier of the U.S. military, more than 600,000 American-made 9 mm Beretta pistols have been delivered to U.S. troops. Today, the company produces approximately 1,500 weapons daily and achieved sales of $600 million in 2011. You can find out more about this historic gunmaker and its firearms at: berettausa.com.

<snip>

Decker: How important is the American market to Beretta and the gun trade in general?

Beretta: It is more than important: It is fundamental. Firearms are part and parcel with the American culture. From the right to self-protect to the culture of harvesting what the land has to offer, the use of firearms as a tool is in the DNA of most Americans. I feel that, today, if a firearms manufacturer is not actively engaged in the American market, it's virtually not in the firearms business. At Beretta, we are present in the U.S. market through products manufactured in Italy, but we have been manufacturing right here in the United States for decades. The decision to manufacture in the USA was in response to legislative limitations which prohibited the importation of certain products, but it was also an acknowledgement of the fact that there are brilliant resources for development and manufacturing in America, and not taking advantage of them would have been short-changing our ability to sustain growth. The ability to tap into the experience of people whose culture is so deeply entwined with the world of firearms becomes, in certain cases, essential.

<snip>

Beretta: I think that - after the many political changes that have occurred around the world in the past 15 years - world markets have reached a stabilization point. After the fall of the Berlin Wall and the disintegration of the Soviet bloc - which opened new, large hunting markets for us, like Russia and Kazakhstan - many world markets have reached a point of maturity. Beretta continues to cater to them through new products and technologies that serve their specific needs. While certain markets continue to be completely closed to us, our ears are constantly to the ground. One of the keys to longevity is the ability to understand the markets we serve, and even anticipate their needs. A global reach makes this task more challenging but also substantially more rewarding.

<snip> to more at link (emphasis added)

The US; we are a "market". "It's nothing personal; just business."

[Spider Jerusalem]

1. The Washington Times is an extreme right wing source formerly owned by the Unification Church

[Cerridwen]

2. (edited) Thank you. Then I can trust beretta felt

comfortable being honest?

edited: I'll update my OP to reflect that.

[Spider Jerusalem]

3. Sure, but he's a businessman selling a legal product

talk to someone from British-American Tobacco about new markets opening up after the fall of the Berlin Wall and they'd say much the same thing. (The USA's lax gun laws make it a more lucrative market for firearms manufacturers generally because handguns aren't restricted to military and police; Beretta make shotguns and rifles as well, but their products are largely aimed at the high end of the sporting market.)

[Cerridwen]

7. And that is twisted and disgusting beyond belief.

I think I conveyed some of my disgust in the "it's just business; nothing personal" quote I posted.

[Cerridwen]

4. Kick for edit and...

Kick for edit and because I don't much like being nothing more than a "consumer" in a "market" to sell a product that has such devastating consequences.

The profit motive needs to be drown in a bathtub.

[Hoyt]

5. Profiteering from lethal weapons is too. Time to change the "economics" and rewards

for these worthless souls.

[Cerridwen]

8. I agree.

There is something inherently un-sane with profiting from others' misery, pain, illness, and death. Whether war or violence or death by spread sheet.

[CreekDog]

6. and most of us don't own guns, especially women and especially minorities

a subculture that is mostly white and male has dictated that their hobby is the rest of our culture, even though we don't share in it.

[Cerridwen]

9. Which is then promoted as "the law of the jungle", i.e.

Which is then promoted as "the law of the jungle", i.e. somehow biologically and evolutionarily "determined" in spite of the fact that the majority of us aren't so "determined."

[Cerridwen]

10. Nope. Not going away.

Nope. Not going away.

"Americans" are nothing more than a market for "businessmen" who can profit from our collective status as "useful idiots."

"The Love of Money is the root of all evil."

We prove it every day.

[Cerridwen]

11. Kick. n/t

[Egalitarian Thug]

12. It is more than important: It is fundamental. Firearms are part and parcel with the American culture

And there it is. This is the same reason that so much that is wrong in America does not change.

Profits are not only more important than lives here, lives are not even a consideration.

Thanks for putting this up.

[Cerridwen]

13. "Profits...more important...lives are not even a consideration."

"Profits are not only more important than lives here, lives are not even a consideration."

And that's it; "lives are not even a consideration." It's all about the profits; "It's just business; nothing personal." That set of "values" throughout human history, has made possible the world in which we live in which "lives are not even a consideration."

Thanks for pointing that out so succinctly.

[Egalitarian Thug]

14. Sorry to oblige. n/t

[a la izquierda]

15. Well call me unAmerican.

I have never touched a gun in my life and have no desire to, especially now. I grew up in a house in which my dad had hunting rifles.

But maybe it's not in my DNA because my family's only been here for two generations. I guess I'm not American enough.

[Cerridwen]

16. Take it up with the beretta family scion

who, if these are his honest "values", sees Americans as chumps to exploit for a buck, or a euro, or whatever.

eta: I cannot believe I used an apostrophe for a plural.

[a la izquierda]

17. Sorry, i hope you didn't think my comment was directed at you.

It was a commentary on the article, not you or your posting of it.

[Cerridwen]

18. No problem. :)

I think we're all a bit "punchy" right now. I didn't want you to think that I was promoting this guy's views as mine. his family has obviously found a nice "cash cow" in this country. I'd like my fellow "cash cows" to understand how it works for them.

[a la izquierda]

19. Totally didn't think you supported this.

I've read enough of your stuff to know that's not the case.
Have a lovely day!

[octoberlib]

20. I was born here and it's not in my DNA either.

I wasn't raised around guns and have no use for them.