Selling a New Generation on Guns

[DonViejo]

This article is in and from today's NYT but has also been published in the Tampa Bay Times...no pay wall

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New York Times
In Print: Sunday, January 27, 2013

Threatened by long-term declining participation in shooting sports, the firearms industry has poured millions of dollars into a broad campaign to ensure its future by getting guns into the hands of more, and younger, children.

The industry's strategies include giving firearms, ammunition and cash to youth groups; weakening state restrictions on hunting by young children; marketing an affordable military-style rifle for "junior shooters" and sponsoring semiautomatic-handgun competitions for youths; and developing a target-shooting video game that promotes brand-name weapons, with links to the websites of their makers.

The pages of Junior Shooters, an industry-supported magazine that seeks to get children involved in the recreational use of firearms, once featured a smiling 15-year-old girl clutching a semiautomatic rifle. At the end of an accompanying article that extolled target shooting with a Bushmaster AR-15, the author encouraged youngsters to share the article with a parent.

"Who knows?" it said. "Maybe you'll find a Bushmaster AR-15 under your tree some frosty Christmas morning!"

-snip-

No pay wall--
http://www.tampabay.com/incoming/selling-a-new-generation-on-guns/1272492

[cantbeserious]

1. The Truth Prevails - Gun Sales Are About Gun Profits - Gun Violence Be Damned

eom

[Pholus]

2. Just like any group of dealers -- get 'em hooked, rake in the dough.

I would love to find the actual numbers about declining participation in shooting sports though!

[sheshe2]

3. These People need to be Stopped!

Still, some experts in child psychiatry say that encouraging youthful exposure to guns is asking for trouble. Dr. Jess Shatkin, the director of undergraduate studies in child and adolescent mental health at New York University, said that young people are naturally impulsive and that their brains "are engineered to take risks," making them ill suited for handling guns.

"There are lots of ways to teach responsibility to a kid," Shatkin said. "You don't need a gun to do it."

[Recursion]

18. OTOH learning what drudgery taking care of guns actually is might turn some off

Rather than being the mysterious forbidden fruit, if a gun is "that damn thing I spent two hours cleaning last week"? *shrug*

[CBHagman]

4. Is there a single issue where the profit motive doesn't figure?

Think about it: So-called "right to work" laws. Deregulation. Access to health care. Education.

[Junkdrawer]

5. A frightened woman enters the gun culture, and, following what seems to her sensible advice....

encourages her troubled son to take up target shooting as a therapeutic measure.

Result: Sandy Hook

[Flatulo]

8. Exactly. Worst idea ever.

[wtmusic]

12. +1. Recipe for disaster. nt

[onehandle]

6. Gun Industry = Domestic Terrorist Pushers. nt

[Flatulo]

7. I think the kids of two generations ago were much more trustworthy with firearms.

Nowadays, not so much. What's changed?

Instant-gratification culture

Parents using the Internet as a babysitter

24/7/365 bombardment with violence (did you see the title of Stallone's latest film? 'Bullet to the Head'. Man, that's just fucking sick)

Lack of interaction with real people (texting, FB, Twitter, first-person shooter video games)

I had a .22 rifle when I was 18 (I bought it myself). It never, ever occurred to me to shoot anyone with it. We plinked at cans and the occasional unlucky squirrel.

Until we can sort this all out, I think it's best to separate kids from guns. We should ban all such advertising. It's working with cigarettes.

[Demo_Chris]

9. Yeah, except violent crime is down, so that kinds kills that idea

[Flatulo]

13. Sure, violent crime is down, but these spectacular mass murders are so traumatic, like a plane

crash, that they scar the nation's psyche. They're like mini-911s.

The question is why the fuck are they happening now, and with such frequency?

[hack89]

15. They are not increasing in frequency -

Myth: Mass shootings are on the rise.

Reality: Over the past three decades, there has been an average of 20 mass shootings a year in the United States, each with at least four victims killed by gunfire. Occasionally, and mostly by sheer coincidence, several episodes have been clustered closely in time. Over all, however, there has not been an upward trajectory. To the contrary, the real growth has been in the style and pervasiveness of news-media coverage, thanks in large part to technological advances in reporting.

http://boston.com/community/blogs/crime_punishment/2012/12/top_10_myths_about_mass_shooti.html?camp=obinsite

James Alan Fox is a professor of criminology at Northeastern University in Boston, Massachusetts, in the United States. He is the Lipman Family Professor of Criminal Justice and former dean at Northeastern University.[1] He has published 15 books and dozens of journal and magazine articles and newspaper columns.[2][3] Fox holds a bachelor's degree in sociology (1972), a master's degree in criminology (1974), a master's degree in statistics (1975), and a Ph.D. in sociology (1976), all from the University of Pennsylvania.[4]

Fox is known as "The Dean of Death," for his research on mass murders.[5] USA Today says that "Fox is arguably the nation's leading criminologist." As an authority on homicide, he appears regularly on national television and radio programs,[6] including the Today Show, Meet the Press, Dateline, 20/20, and 48 Hours. He has been a guest numerous times on Oprah.[7]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Alan_Fox

[Flatulo]

16. I'm glad that it just appears to be on the rise. The 24/7 coverage of these acts is

a bit perverse. I wonder if it plays a part in motivating other marginal people to try to beat the high score?

[Paladin]

19. "It's All The Media's Fault": Deflection Device By Pro-Gun Activists.

[Flatulo]

20. Ah, so one is not allowed to question the media's role in the cycle of violence? It's only

guns. Guns guns guns. Nothing but the guns. No need to look at the people who are wielding the guns. Or the culture that teaches that violence is the solution to everything.

Gotcha. I'll be more careful in the future.

[Paladin]

21. If I Want To See The Media Blamed, I'll Go Over To Free Republic.

And spare me the "no need to look at the people/culture" thing, alright? I'm going to cut you some slack and credit you with knowing better than that....

[Flatulo]

22. Not blaming any one influence. But only fools would not look at this as a systemic problem.

Certainly the availability of guns is the primary enabler of these mass shootings - that's the easy part.

The hard part is understanding why this is a relatively recent phenomenon. We've undergone an awful lot of change in a very short time. Parents seem to be... Afraid of their children.

[Paladin]

23. In That Case, I'm Not A Fool.

I look upon the easy availability of firearms as the equivalent of dumping gasoline on an already-raging forest fire.....

[Flatulo]

24. Thanks for clarifying that. nt

[Eleanors38]

28. Not when your question is annointed as an "NRA talking point."

[Flatulo]

29. I believe President Obama is making the very same points as I am. We need to look at the

problem as a systemic one, intrinsic to our violent culture. It's not *just* guns.

I don't really care whose talking point it is as long as it's more or less on target.

Even a broken clock is right twice per day.

[Eleanors38]

30. My sarcasm is a little weak. Clinton said as much as well.

[AlbertCat]

11. 24/7/365 bombardment with violence (did you see the title of Stallone's latest film? ...

Yeah but I saw tons of violence when I was a kid. There were protests and riots in the streets right here. And Sam Peckinpah was all the rage as I entered Jr High. We played with realistic metal guns that shot caps and BBs. The Vietnam War was on TV every night...and it was real. The Cold War was on.

But Watergate also toppled a President because of illegal activity. Even Reagan had like 13? 15? of his people get indicted and some go to jail.


And then a President lies us into an unnecessary war after stealing the election and nothing happens. This right after they spent 70 Million going after a blow job! Obviously because of neglect and incompetence, terrorists manage to fly planes into buildings and no one even gets a slap on the wrist. The economy tanks obviously because of bank fraud and no one goes to jail. Might as well be no one...who remembers Enron?

So the "new" message is obviously: "Do what you want. Laws mean nothing. Crime pays. You can do what you want. Everyone else is."

[Flatulo]

25. Our role models do need some self-improvement. Politicians are for sale to the highest

bidders, corporate leaders loot their companies and sell out the middle class to make quick millions. Religious leaders are often pedophiles. Everyone is out to achieve the most gratification in the shortest time. There's no accountability for abhorrent behavior.

Kids absorb this from the news and their parents' grumbling and evolve with no moral compass.

This is how civilizations decline and die. Maybe we're ready to put this experiment (America) o rest and start out anew.

[Paladin]

10. Proof Positive That Gun Programs In Schools Are Industry Propaganda Efforts.

If the NRA's Eddie Eagle program turns up at schools in your community, tell its supporters to fuck off. They're not interested in teaching kids good citizenship---they're interested in selling as many AR-15's as possible.

[Flatulo]

14. Other than advertising revenue for their publications, how does the NRA benefit

from firearms sales? Do you have any proof that they profit directly from the volume of firearms sold? Do gun manufacturers write them checks? I think you underestimate them if you don't acknowledge their 4m+ membership. Only the AARP is larger.

There is a huge, deeply engrained gun culture here.

[Paladin]

17. I'm Certainly Not Going To Argue About An Ingrained Gun Culture.

There is also an ingrained organizational structure that is ultimately dedicated to marketing as many guns as possible in this country. The New York Times article does an excellent job of exposing this situation, and connecting the dots between the gun industry and groups like the NRA.

[Duckhunter935]

26. very scary indeed

http://www.juniorshooters.net/

safety and target shooting too

[Sunlei]

27. NRA could always turn into a video game company and push real guns on 3rd world countries

you know to keep the the stocks afloat and to pay all those washingtondc gun sales lobbyists.