[ED: Former gun industry executive Ryan Busse has created a lucrative new niche for himself preaching against the industry in which he worked for decades. He’s now making good money and gaining fame as a professional apostate, painting himself as a brave truth-teller who’s escaped the clutches of the gun business to spread the word of its long hidden corruption and perfidy. It’s a narrative that’s simply too good for the gun control industry or the media to pass up. As a result, he’s found plenty of outlets for his deep thoughts including a recently published book and, we can only assume, some day a screenplay and Matt Damonesque movie about Busse’s Damascene conversion and brave efforts to expose the real truth and save lives. Meanwhile each new tweet and op-ed gets even more lurid and sensational than the last.]
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. …
Companies such as the European American Armory, an importer of cheap, mostly Eastern European guns, that used cheesy ads—like this one from 2008—to sell imported guns were a rarity. Little did I realize that those tacky exceptions were the gun industry’s future.
Those ads, designed to appeal to young men who knew no better, were the starting point for marketing that would create a new customer base and change our country forever.
This transformation received its first boost in the mid-aughts when President George W. Bush allowed the assault-weapons ban to sunset and then signed a bill that gave broad protection from liability to gunmakers. Combined, those moves reduced the social stigma and potential legal penalties for edgy marketing of military-style rifles. Over time, larger, more mainstream gunmakers began to experiment with marketing messages previously relegated to the disfavored fringe of the business.
Young men were the target. They had disposable income, a long customer life, and a readily exploited fascination with guns. The push to access these new customers took off in 2010 when the AR-15 maker Bushmaster launched its “Man Card” advertising campaign.
The ads, which ran in several gun-industry publications, on websites, and in Maxim magazine, were controversial and gained national attention. More important, they showed the rest of the industry the power of an appeal based on masculinity to the 18–35 male demographic, at a time when images from America’s foreign wars were airing constantly on the evening news. …
As for the once-anomalous practice in the industry of using sex to sell products to young men, this is now ubiquitous among the hundreds of companies that sell tactical gear such as helmets, bulletproof vests, and “Contractor AF” (as fuck) pants.
One could be forgiven for wondering how the gun industry could possibly make things worse, now that so many troubled adolescent males have had their “Man Cards” issued, but I’ve learned that it can. After Kyle Rittenhouse, a new industry mascot is coming into view: the tactical toddler set to become the new gun-marketing trend. …
Through bitter experience, we know what today’s typical mass shooter looks like and where he’s taking his cultural cues from. Now the industry is giving us a glimpse of its next customer: the American child soldier.
— Ryan Busse in The Gun Industry Created a New Consumer. Now It’s Killing Us.
wrong
hollywood
and the gaming industry
and the pharmaceutical industry
and democrat policies have
Missed the “if it bleeds it leads” news but otherwise covered the bigger contributors. I hope I live long enough to see studies on SSRI’s re violent impulses.
Finger pointing benedict busse needs to stfu and cite the firearm ad that inspired the Uvalde school shooter to murder children. And busse can show the firearm ad that led hunter biden and his deceased brother’s wife to throw a handgun in a dumpster, etc.
benedict busse’s time would be better spent removing criminal magnet Gun Free Zone ads.
The phenomenon known as media contagion is clearly documented by the APA yet the media does nothing.
How many mass shooters have ever written anything about a gun ad motivating them vs wanting to shoot somewhere up to make them or their cause famous?
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Wrong, wrong, wrong! Mass shootings became more frequent when “GUN-FREE ZONES” were established. Nothing is more inviting to a mass shooter than a gun-free zone. Growing up in the 1940s and 1950s I knew that there were many guns out there in this country. I never ever saw any signs banning guns from any establishment. I often wondered what would happen if someone were to break into an occupied home. I guessed that this someone would get his ass shot. People in those days didn’t even lock their doors, even at night while they were asleep. Then after the Kennedy assassination, guns started to become a boogy man. Every year after that with the killing of Martin Luther King, limiting guns and infringing on legal gun owners’ rights became politically possible. Mass shootings and copy-cat mass shootings only increased with every new restriction on gun owners’ rights.
“Mass shootings became more frequent when “GUN-FREE ZONES” were established“
An interesting idea.
So you are suggesting the mass killers were always out there in the population, but they did not feel empowered to act until the proliferation of gun free zones?
Statistically, there used to be way more killers aggregate. It’s this specific *type* of killer that can be easily packaged and proliferated on the news that has been turned into the new national menace since violence in general has significantly subsided from 1970s peaks.
All I’m saying is that with the establishment of gun-free zones and a media that showed the next mass shooter just how easy it is to murder in a gun-free zone, more of these creeps came out from under their rock and did what they never before thought possible.
1966 UT was a gun free zone when Charles Whitman climbed the clock tower and spent 97 minutes killing and wounding WITHOUT benefit of ANY AR or AK style “assault weapons” after STABBING his wife and mother to death. Gun Free Zones have been around for decades and have never been an effective weapon against would-be mass killers around the world dating back to 1907.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_school_massacres_by_death_toll#Rampage_killers
Miner49er – I think he’s saying that mass shooters are cowards and prefer to be somewhere their victims will be unarmed.
Utter hogwash of course. If the gun industry were to be treated like any other where the consequences of using a product irresponsibly were fatal, the gun industry could put a tiny font text on screen during an ad saying something like “obey all laws” and absolve themselves of all responsibility for what third parties do with their products, as has been done with the auto industry advertising driving cars fast (“Professional driver on a closed course. Do not attempt.”) and alcohol industry having a great time without consequences (“Please drink responsibly.”). The auto industry “kills” (by the gun banners’ “logic”) about as many Americans as the gun industry (including suicides and gang homicides), and the alcohol industry 3x as many as guns, each and every year.
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Yeah, the putz Kimber finally cut loose from their employment.
Apologies to all TTAG readers and all Constitutional believers for this schmuck. Those of us in NW Montana feel some responsibility for this colossal egotistical idiot in that he still lives up here spewing his B.S. (Ryan is a male Shannon Watts – a paid media driven attention whore). He is like a viper hiding in the sand waiting to inject his venom into unwary people just passing by.
Honestly I am more pissed that you guys gave Kimber a better deal and they left us for you……………not that I blame them……….or your state really. Couldn’t pay me to give a damn about an attention whore though.
Kimber moved their corporate headquarters from NY to Alabama…not Montana.
You are correct and I lost track of how many gun manufactures left in the last decade here let alone where they ended up so something to read up on thank you.
“Ryan is a male Shannon Watts…”
I dunno- can you identify “male”?
Just cuz he might’ve come with a crank doesn’t mean anything. 10 to 1 says he menstruates every 28 days…
We have a lack of morals in the United States. That is what is causing most of our problems. And no government program is going to fix that. But the secular humanists, the atheists, s0ci@list, will certainly try spending as much taxpayer money as possible, “to fix” that problem.
^^^ THIS!! ^^^
In order for morals to apply to every human being they must have a source that is outside of humanity.* When there is no moral law giver, then there are no moral laws, therefore nothing to break.
For example, can you get a speeding ticket at the White Sands lakebed? No, because there is no speed limit law. Therefore anyone can go as fast as they want there.
We’ve driven objective morality out of our society. Why are we surprised then that people are acting without moral constraints?
* “…the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature’s God entitle them…” and “…all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights,…”
— Declaration of Independence
If any group is going to use “child soldiers” it will be antifa/BLM.
Chris, I can comfortably claim that the Government Programs are the main CAUSE of the lack of morals and concurrent problems in the United States. People whom aren’t responsible for their own welfare from cradle to grave have no reason to differentiate right from wrong.
Chris – add in a complete lack of personal responsibility and accountability for an individuals actions and I think you pretty well summed it up.
BTW they don’t want to ‘fix’ the problem as it all contributes to MORE control by the gubmint.
I think the ads(for the most part) were run in publications that were written for gun owners/hobbyists. The ads showed different products, but the interest was already there. This would be like advertising in a tobacco store, the customer is already there, they are only trying to get you to try their product.
Maybe they should go after video games and paintball. These were developed to get young men to shoot at other and to target human beings. You get do overs. I am sure that certain mentally damaged people went on rampage afterwards(and some are waiting in the wings).
Yeah gun sellers are already pretty limited on where they can even advertise with the “othering” of firearms, certainly you don’t want to even see a picture of a gun in polite society or among women and children. If places like California get their way they will even have less ways to advertise without being punished for “marketing to children.”
I don’t know, I ran around with friends in our backyards, dressed in camo shooting various cap guns or sticks or whatever, wearing a surplus gas mask, played with GI Joes (Cobra was so much cooler other than Snake Eyes), loved all military weapons and tanks and aircraft and helicopters, played Wolfenstein 3D, rise of the triad, Doom, Unreal, Halo, got older and decided to make guns a hobby, and I do like ARs and mp5s, military style guns are fun to shoot. With true “going postal” type mass shootings still being statistically rare, it’s a jump to say playing war (whether army or knights or cowboys) as kids turns you into a mass killer or we would have millions of mass killers. The vast majority can kill some Nazis in a video game without deciding killing defenseless children would be equally fun, just like I also don’t jump on turtles or break bricks due to playing Mario.
Other than just blaming guns and hyping up fear it doesn’t seem like a lot of other discussion on the type of people committing the crimes happens, though being suicidal seems to be a commonality, as for most people, you want to avoid your own death, pain, and consequences so attacking malls and schools would be negative just weighing risks and rewards, not even looking at it morally.
That is true for the majority of people, but the .001% that are already mentally damaged, the wannabe gangbangers playing cop killing video games, just might give these mental cases ideas(or already have).
I am saying the blame is not on the gun manufacturers. Do they do ads showing people shooting a handgun sideways? or using underwear carry? It is the movies, tv shows, video games that glorify this type of firearm misuse. No on holds handguns in each hand and shoots 180 degrees at the same time(only in Bruce Willis movies). Give me a break and stop giving 13 yo boys ideas about how to take down Leroy Brown.
No idiot…..all your uber violent video games, your disgusting rap, your glorification of thug life! You pander to the unbalanced among us. We appeal to the centered, patriotic “normal” people in the country…..to eventually be forced to defend against the aforementioned groups!!
Several studies in the mid to late ninties showed playing those games provided a means of alleviating stress and anger in the vast majority of people. As in everything there are always outliers though.
It should be obvious to any idiot that movies, music and video games have more an effect than simple one page glossy magazine ads.
However, advertising does work. There are great psychological reasons for this. Unless Busse is willing to support the wholesale tearing down of psychological manipulation from the Weekly Reader to CNN the better question to ask is why are people so malleable and how can we strengthen their minds? But then we don’t actually want people to not be malleable and easily influenced do we? Nobody wants you to not be brainwashed. They just want you brainwashed the “right” way.
Shut down Hollywood. They spend zillions of dollars glamorizing mostly senseless violence. Hollywood would do more to counter the freaks by doing graphic documentaries. Who remembers Kent State? I saw quite graphic video of that incident, when I was still young. And, I remember vividly running to the bathroom to upchuck. That video well and truly affected my attitudes about guns, and violence in general. People need to understand the consequences of their actions, and those actions are far more graphic than Hollywood is ever likely to portray.
“Shut down Hollywood. They spend zillions of dollars glamorizing mostly senseless violence.”
Senseless?
Hollywood shows movies about wrongs being righted, and the guy saving the day and getting the girl.
Besides, China now owns HollyWeird…
TTAG really should rename this feature ‘Bullshit Quote of the Day’.
They’ll be going after Airsoft next, with the bb guns being replicas of “military style” rifles, and the competitions resembling small unit tactics.
Here’s an example …
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lu_jvDyJMYE
Southpark sorta did “go after airsoft” under the guise of teenage angst & idiocy. The young kid’s loved all the fake guns as do most non-sissy males. This traitor needs his comeuppance…
NY is already on the bandwagon for banning anything that’s resembles a gun, from super soakers to paintball guns.
“Busse: Modern Gun Industry Marketing Has Created Today’s Mass Killers”
So the other 140 million gun owners did not become ‘mass shooters’ because of ‘Modern Gun Industry Marketing’.
What about females, they too see the advertisements but for some reason there are very few female ‘mass murders’ ? Oh yeah, that’s right, its more males because of the ‘man card’ thing. Yeah, you can make anything look like anything just by polarizing the narrative with some well placed creative wording like ‘man card’.
What a stupid idea Busse.
Billy the Kid wasn’t all that the written MSM of the time made him out to be. He had a gun too. But MSM of the time made him a legend, and indeed many young boys of the time in the more ‘cosmopolitan’ areas of the country seeing these story’s in the written MSM expressed their desire to adopt the ‘outlaw’ life style of Billy The Kid. Advertising a product did not do that, but publishing the exploits in the MSM of the time did.
Does advertising for cars also cause the over 2,000,000 serious injuries in car accidents annually? I mean, those appeal to all sorts of things from family focused to sports to even being a spy or race car driver. Do those people responding to that advertisement also become ‘mass car accident drivers’ ?
“One could be forgiven for wondering how the gun industry could possibly make things worse, now that so many troubled adolescent males have had their “Man Cards” issued, but I’ve learned that it can.”
ALL “adolescent males” AND ALL adolescent females are “troubled” in some way, its a normal state of being an adolescent facing the world which is a very confusing place for them until they gain enough experience with it. They too are subjected to much advertisement for everything from apples to zoos. Yet for some reason over all less than .00023% are prone (and most don’t do it actually) to become mass shooters and then its only when their mental health state is such that it starts becoming a ‘trouble of the mind’ mental illness that drives them to murder. Its got nothing to do with a ‘man card’ or advertisement.
What has happened is that you and the MSM and anti-gun have given something to would-be mass shooters that they crave, and that is basically an ‘instruction manual’ for how to be noticed, and also as a side benefit how to achieve a ‘celebrity status’ to make sure they keep being noticed. Every mass shooter wants to be noticed for some reason, for example a cry for help for deep seated mental health issues or maybe a grievance of some sort. Every mass shooter captured and interviewed in the last 30 years has expressed a need to be noticed for some issue, for example, the Buffalo shooter it was racial hatred issues and he wanted to be noticed for that.
Nah, its not the advertisement Busse. Its you and people like you and MSM and anti-gun that simply will not stop talking about basically ‘how to be noticed as a mass shooter and be a celebrity and keep being noticed for years’. You idiots are basically the recruiting and PR agents for mass shooters.
Have an acquaintance that I’ve known since we were preteens. The man has a pill problem, man has an alcohol problem, the man has a steroid problem, the man has a sexual addiction problem. Few years ago he got all that cleaned up and now everywhere he looks everybody else has a problem. He sees problems where there are none and projects as insecurities onto others.
“he got all that cleaned up and now everywhere he looks everybody else has a problem“
Yes, that can be a real issue. Some call it the ‘dry drunk syndrome’ and many of us have friends who are experiencing that condition.
Usually I just put up with their issues, I’m glad they’re not killing themselves or harming those around them due to their addictions.
A big part of the problem is the media itself. Many news programs, even local news will use a backdrop graphic of a firearm when reporting crime or violence. No matter the crime didn’t involve a gun, it is still the backdrop.
Next is the culture of violence promoted by pop culture. Video games, some rap music, movies and television, Shoot ’em ups with no consequence for the shooters. That can be traced all the way back to the Western Serials of the 40’s and 50’s.
Add to that the gang and thug culture at least tolerated if not openly promoted. And don’t forget the media and political hype about the small caliber rifles being so much more powerful than anything else ever invented. How a single round can destroy a city block and a single 20 round magazine could destroy an entire city. Or so the gun banners would like the low info voters and frightened suburbanites to believe.
The main-stream-media does its very best to not only report on mass shootings but also to give these mass shooters a kind of celebrity status. A young pimple-faced teenage boy goes out and murders numerous helpless victims and the MSM now gives him the title of “Gunman.” Other mentally disturbed youths read this and see that they too can become a “man” who can put fear into all who disrespect him. This disturbed individual can become a celebrity overnight. Until the MSM gets its act together and demonizes these mass shooters instead of encouraging more mass shootings, these heinous acts will continue to occur. The MSM actually needs these mass shootings to help their ratings and to sell newspapers.
Ryan Busse is so stupid he makes Joe Biden seem like he’s at the top of his intellectual game.
Maybe that’s the point.
busse and biden 2 of a kind.
The marketing of weapons in violent Hollywood movies, gangsta rap music and videos, and violent video games are the main reason we have the issues we do….People spend hours watching, playing and listening to violence…They all make violence, maiming, murder and lawlessness seem cool and fun…A lot of these young kids and adults are just mentally deranged and turn to violence very easily….Most of them learn this from characters in the violent material…I think its too late to reverse the damage done to a generation of people….
That was said about the first wave of baby boomers that were influenced by Viet Nam. Many came home damaged and their peers tried to understand. Most were able to get back into society and are drawing SS benefits now.
The whole generation was not affected, just a small percentage, like any other.
If there is ANY ‘marketing’ going on, it’s coming fro the left. It comes in through social media, pushed and generated by Washington Democrats, and perpetuated by the mainstream media.
THAT is after going through indoctrination in school removing any trace of hope from a kids’ future.
Busse headed Kimber’s sales and marketing team. He has a very high opinion of those disciplines’ abilities and the scope of their effect: He believes his profession to be omnipotent. For example, here he says the wrong sort of marketing ruined the country.
So of course he interprets media events (e. g. the Kenosha show-trial) through the lens of how people like him exploit those events. And that’s how Busse is useful: another viewpoint to understand the methods and motivations of his (new?) fellow-travellers.
Indeed, worth watching.
That EAA ad certainly radicalized me. Now I have even more contempt for the candy-arse left!
Seriously, what’s not to like about that ad? So, your kid sister bought herself a semi-auto pistol? OK, so it’s a cheapy, but a cheap gun can defend her almost as well as a high quality gun. 90% of the time, all she has to do is show a potential attacker that she’s armed, and he’ll run crying to Mommy. The other 10% of the time, drawing blood is sufficient. If he survives, he has learned a valuable lesson.
Come on, America, I love it that more women are arming themselves! EAA was ahead of the curve, that’s all.
Cause? Media. Done.
THe fact is that FIREARM AVAILABILITY and control measures do have a directly proportional effect on gun crime and the resulting death rates. No other civilised nation has anything remotely like the Firearmr availabiity as the USA and neither does it have anything remotely like the death rate associated with CIVILIAN HELD.
Anybody at the click of a mouse can see the figures. Those nations with the least firearms availability, especially the availability of handguns and Semi-Automatic rifles and the most Draconian control measures have the least victims of Gun crime and the least number of suicides where firearms are involved. I would have though that that was glaringly oibvious. Even in the USA where California in particular has taken steps to do exactly those things the effects of tougher measure can be seen [and by the way the measures taken by California do not contravene the provisions of the American Constitution and have NOT been challenged with successat Federal Level ]
Why do the immature fools, the vast majorityn of whom are men as the opening commentpoints out, who need an otherwise useless semi-auto rifle that has but one purpose and that’s to kill people as quickly and in as many numbers as possible in the shortest possible time to prove what a tough guyn he is?? And yes I know women buy guns but the vast majority are men.
Here in the UK we have a similar problem with the carrying of knives but bthe knife control measure regarding knives are almost as tough as those for fireearms. It does not stop the carrying of knives but carrying one will get you into deep,deep troubles that can last a lifetime . There will always be violent young men and 99% od knife carriers are youg men and mostly with mental problems, chips-on-shoulders and social insecurities especially wher women and girls are concerned – Does that sound familiar??
Enough of your nonsense. Stand and defend what you have said or shut up.
He doesn’t discuss, only preaches.
He has no useful solutions to propose and defend. He just wants to grab the guns. His snobbery concerning the supposed superiority of his homeland is off-putting. And he’s an out-and-out liar.
Does that sound familiar?
The cesspool he claims to be of is irremeably gone so feels the need to lecture his betters in the colonies.
“He doesn’t discuss, only preaches. He has no useful solutions to propose and defend. He just wants to grab the guns. His snobbery concerning the (his) supposed superiority…
And he’s an out-and-out liar.“
Yes, that is a succinct description of Donald Trump.
Especially the “grab the guns” part.
“So, you could do exactly what you said but take the guns first, go through due process second.”
-President Donald J. Trump, February 28, 2018
https://www.c-span.org/video/?c4716589/user-clip-trump-take-guns-first-due-process-second
I have one word for your essay…Switzerland.
Albert the P***y Subject,
Liar, liar, skirt on fire.
The US probably does have the highest availability of firearms among developed nations (although, look at Pakistan and various other “third world” countries that have active “cottage industry” firearms manufacturing DESPITE their “gun laws”). The US DOES NOT have anything like the highest death rate per 100,000 by guns (and WE count suicides; many countries (intelligently) do not). Quit lying, you Limey ponce.
He continues to run with the dacian/miner “FACTS” even though you can type in two words in any search engine and find out the US is nowhere near the top of the list in homicides OR gun related deaths per 100,000… I pointed this out, but the TROLL is going to do what the TROLL is going to do.
Lamp – true – IIRC the USA doesn’t even make the top 20 for homicide rates and if you take out a few select cities from the mix (usually shy town, body more, nawlens and perhaps a couple of others – all run by dems and all having very strict ‘gun control’ laws) we drop down to something like 189 out of about 200 (+ or -). Oh and that is from UN statistics.
REALLY? Is there nothing that you are not willing to expose your blatant ignorance about? However, I’m beginning to question if it truly IS ignorance or are you just stupid? Worse yet, you are probably just another braindead troll crying out for attention no matter what it is.
and neither does it have anything remotely like the death rate associated with CIVILIAN HELD.
Okay, it’s stupidity, case closed…
I assume the next step is to drag Big Tech executives in to Congress and ask them why they aren’t censoring firearm companies.
He’s so full of garbage.. fatherless homes, participation trophies, no discipline, violent vide games, democrat policies and liberal disease is responsible.. guns have been around since the beginning of the US it’s gotten worse with each messed up generation that is being raised.
Help! Someone call the popo!! My firearms have teamed up with an ad from a 2008 Maxim magazine and are holding me hostage.
They will not let me and my gf go until I remit unto them 69 mans’ cards!
As much as I disagree with Busse’s attempt to blame the gun industry, I have to say that the example ad linked from this article is hardly the only or even the worst example of the sort of ad that is more useful for the anti-gun side to use in manipulating the public and the courts against us.
At least every week, I see ads that are inappropriate — and I’m not talking about the scantily clad ‘ladies’ that have become an essential part of most American advertising — I’m talking about ads that are 100% designed for tactikool mall ninjas and ones that even blatantly call the gun a ‘killing machine’!
Everyone shopping for a gun already knows guns are deadly — so why do advertisers need to compete to see who can proclaim the loudest that their guns are “deadly”.
Who is EOTECH trying to reach with their “ADVANTAGE: YOU” ad showing a helicopter full of soldiers in full battle gear? Hint: the military has already chosen it’s next optic and its not your Vudu.
What is Kimber’s message in their ad for the Rapide that literally screams “HEART RACING. JAW DROPPING, HARD HITTING — JUST WAIT ‘TIL YOU SHOOT ONE”
Who are the tactical operators that Springfield Armory is trying to reach with their “THE PERFECT BALANCE” ad for the Helcat?
Compare any of those ads to the Colt “OUR HISTORY, YOUR LEGACY” ad for the Gold Cup series 1911 showing a competitive shooter. Which of the ads is meant to appeal to responsible shooters?
It’s not even just the advertising. Wright Leather Works runs a tasteful ad for their pancake holster — nothing to misinterpret about the photo or “Proudly Made In USA” text — but what is the rationale for naming the holster “The Predator”? Aren’t predators the opposite of what we consider ourselves?
By the way, I didn’t go out of my way to cherry-pick the ads I mentioned here. There are a lot of worse ads online and in emails from smaller companies that can’t afford to advertise in major print magazines. All the ads I just mentioned came from one issue of one major magazine (the August 2022 issue of Shooting Illustrated, “Official Journal of the NRA”)
Gun ads in a gun mag?
Welllllll, otay …
There are certainly better ways to advertise things but that isn’t my profession so much of it is difficult for me to comment on. But there are quite a few things that manufacturers do that falls between inapropriate and just plain silly. So often though, people see an ad about teaching children about guns at an early enough age and get confused thinking it’s advertising to kids. It does get ridiculous. But children cannot buy guns (legally). so all the advertising in the world wont matter one way or the other. Hornady with their ‘zombie’ ammo is something I found to be pretty stupid. Atleast a pink tipped pork dipped projectile made some kind of sense. Kel-Tec has an ad with woman that looks to me like one of those crazed lunatics that most reasonable men would prefer to avoid when the beer goggles come off. To be honest though, I’m not too keen on most Kel-Tec ads. Their idiotic decision to send sub-2000’s to Ukraine was all the advertising I needed to finally decide to buy anything from them. Then there is the so called “Survival Rifle” AR7 nonsense. But regardless of anything people might feel about Springfield, I just cannot see myself owning ANY firearm that goes by the name “Rapide”. The name “helcat” is bad enough. Atleast Walther could put some level of possitive connotation to the name “Creed”.
Very few ads for ANYTHING mean much to me personally outside of something to avoid. Most of it becomes a complete waste. Which in itself is actually kinda humorous considering how much time and money gets spent on it.
Growing up in the 1940s and 1950s, every boy had toy guns. The more real looking they were, the better. Every boy played cops and robbers games and cowboy and Indian games. Yet there weren’t any mass shootings. Why is that? Playing these games, every boy imagined he was killing his enemies. Yet there were no mass shootings. Something in our culture has changed. Fewer people believing in God and His Son “Jesus Christ” may be a big part of what is wrong. A morally corrupt society and a breakdown of the typical American Family are the results of that. Fatherless boys who have no male influence in their lives other than bad influences are looking to gain manhood in abnormal ways. Some turn to drugs. Some turn to crime. Some turn to sexual extremes. Some turn to violence and some turn to a combination of these immoral activities. With no man around to keep them in check, they are easily influenced by the morally corrupt society around them. I may be wrong, but I don’t think so.
Cuz if they advertise their products by saying, ” It’ll get the job done adequately about the same as every other manufacturer,” they wouldn’t sell very many of them!
If I ‘just wanted to get the job done’, I’d be buying something else. Something cheaper.
I’d like to get the job done the next time it comes up and do it without breaking in half for my efforts.
Ads in a gun mag are just preaching to the choir. The people that buy those mags are usually shopping for firearms, want to read about others’ opinions. These ads are not going into children’s comic books or being placed in the Wall Street Journal or woman’s mags.
I personally see no point in that anymore. Magazines of any kind just collect dust and take up space. Same thing with sales ads I get in the mail. It’s just another aspect of waste.
“I’m talking about ads that are 100% designed for tactikool mall ninjas and ones that even blatantly call the gun a ‘killing machine’!“
Correct, the firearms profiteers know their sales will increase by appealing to the insecure young males who are not confident with their masculinity.
They intentionally use emotional language to reach into the unconscious needs of their target market.
“HEART RACING. JAW DROPPING, HARD HITTING… “
Their advertisements use emotional descriptions that are synonymous with orgasm, intentionally appealing to insecure incel wannabe operators.
If Shannon Watts could grow a hip “wanna be an operator” beard and shaved her head, would have Busse. All estrogen/no testosterone, an innie/no outtie and all.
So irreverent he doesn’t even rate a wikipedia entry.
50 years of Democrat soft on crime policies, 50 years of Democrat policies that putt the mentally ill on the streets, 50 years of Democrat policies that turned the inner cities into dystopias.
Control Democrats, not guns.
FJB
“put”…I hate not having an edit feature on this site…
There is an edit feature. You have to put a check mark in the save my name and notify me blocks below your email in order to be able to edit.
Ryan Busse is a one trick pony that has out stayed his notoriety.
This guy’s wife’s boyfriend must be so proud of him.
Maybe his boyfriend’s boyfriend…
The answer to this nonsense is to show the percentage of young men who go on a shooting rampage to the entire population of gun owners. It is a very small percentage, thus demonstrating the absence of a logical link between advertising and mass shooting events. Moreover, since when does a “man card” imply that shooting children is an appropriate activity? That there is no apparent logical connections is patent.
The only reason we have all of this pontificating is that some layers have glomed onto advertising as an exception to PLCAA.
If I was a gun company where someone was coming after me in violation of the PLCAA I would countersue the parties and countersue the lawyers and the firm that they belong to for harassment. And I do it for more money than they’re asking for in damges. Once a gun manufacturer does that everybody else will straighten up.
“since when does a “man card” imply that shooting children is an appropriate activity?“
The problem is that the idea of buying a ‘man card’ plays to the masculine insecurities of the market.
“You are incomplete as a man until you purchase this modern sporting rifle! Others view you as weak and effeminate unless you own this killing machine, giving your otherwise drab life an exciting flavor!
No one will ever bully you again!”
“All you need is several hundred dollars cash, and you can be a real man, no need for experience or training!”
You are incomplete as a man until you purchase this modern sporting rifle! Others view you as weak and effeminate unless you own this killing machine,
Somehow, I’ve managed to miss those ads AND people who think that way. I guess your ability to insert hidden meanings into text and the obvious problem with the people you apparently hang out with (if they think that way) could explain your warped outlook on the world.
When you sell yourself to the highest bidder, nobody will trust you because there’s always somebody willing to pay a bit more. Traitors suffer an ignominious existence and a lonely end.
How many 18 year olds see advertisements for guns unless they go looking for them?
Yes, I’m sure every mass killer got his desire to murder from reading “Maxim”
ffs
yes, the desire to murder pooja hegde’s pooja.
and maybe drown j. mccarthy in, um, mustard.
Busse is a RECTAL ORIFICE !! In his picture, he looks the part, too.
Sometimes I think people like this write this junk just to troll the public.
The problem, statistically…GANGS! But we can’t talk about that, can we.
I bet EVERY 18–35-year-old male in country reads Maxim magazine, I have personally never seen one and in fact the only gun ads I do see are in the two magazines that I receive by my request. This dumbass missed the whole point, there has been a continuing breakdown of the family structure and respect for the law since the 60s and combined with laws that made it more and more difficult to discipline a kid (without being reported for child abuse) and schools turning into indoctrination centers teaching kids to defy their parents’ authority and convincing them that they are smarter and more attuned to the world is exactly what has caused both the increase in suicides and in the willingness among those kids to kill.
The guns are marketed by the Democrats in government.
Every time they hold an AR up in front of a room and proclaim:
1. High power
2. Designed to kill as many people as possible
3. Weapons of war
4. Claims about the damage caused by its rounds
5. Easy to buy
6. Should be banned
7. Should be banned
8. Should be banned
That’s impactful marketing that nobody else can match! Not Hollywood, not video games, not Super Bowl advertising, not anywhere.
That’s the marketing, particularly the last three, that turned these guns into the most popular rifle in the country.
Attention Mr. Busse:
Everybody wants to point their finger at the #1 singular cause for mass shootings and I have news for you – the marketing done by firearms manufacturers is not the primary or singular cause of mass shootings in this country. It’s a much more complicated situation encompassing many issues. Let’s take a look at the rise of Hip-Hop music and how the “gangsta” culture/lifestyle and the movie “Scarface” have become immortalized in our culture and ingrained on the minds of young people as something to look up to. Did gun manufacturers create Hip-Hop music and the movie “Scarface”? No. I’ve been a gun owner for exactly one-year now. Before that, I never held a gun in my hand ever. I can assure you – a magazine or TV ad from a gun manufacture did not make me feel like I could be more of a man if bought one of their guns. That’s just a cop-out for the real causes behind the issue – societal norms and mores encouraged by “the arts”, violent online gaming, the slow demise of the political landscape in this country and the ease at which someone can walk into a gun shop/pawn store, go through a quick 5-minute background check, and walk out with a firearm. It is NOT the total fault of gun manufacturers. Last time I checked, they’re in the business to make money – just like McDonalds is in the business to sell hamburgers and french fries. It’s called “Capitalism”. Embrace it, for better or worse…
Is Ryan Busse really bald? Or does he shave his head? Or did the DIGESTIVE JUICES in his LOWER BOWELS DISSOLVE HIS HAIR?
Asking for a friend.
“Weapons of war” is literally the whole point of the 2nd Amdt . . . Get over it already !
WHEW PRO’S AND CON’S TO THE COMMENTS .
GUNS , BULLETS, DON’T KILL PEOPLE , PEOPLE KILL PEOPLE .
ALSO USE CARS , KNIVES , WHATEVER .
GOD BLESS AMERICA AND OUR BELOVED CONSITITUTION , PROTECT IT , ALL OF IT .
THANK MANCHIN ON RECONCILIATION PACKAGE , MOTHER EARTH NEEDS HELPING HAND , SOME HUMANS , DON’T LISTEN TO SCIENCE . CLIMATE CRISIS MAYBE WE WON’T KILL OURSELVES OFF .. OR ~ YEAA WE DID IT DESTROYED PLANET EARTH .
Almost all mass shooters are young men who come from single-parent families. I am old school. I am 80 years old so I know how things used to be before this age of mass shooters. My father taught me and my younger brother how to safely handle and shoot guns at a very young age. We learned so well that he eventually left us unsupervised to target practice in our backyard when we lived on a farm. Now my father was very strict when it came to handling firearms. We knew enough not to do something stupid that would break his trust in us. When I reached my teenage rebellious age in high school, my father knew just how to handle me. Since I was too old for spankings, he told me one day when I had acted in a very disrespectful way, “So you think you’re man enough to defy me? Put up your dukes and let us see what you’ve got.” He proceeded to out-box me and give me a bloody nose. I never forgot that and I never disrespected him again, especially when I grew older and bigger and could maybe beat him in a fist fight. Fathers are a big influence in a boy’s life. This example of my father’s influence on my life is just a very small part of what he meant to me. He’s gone now and he still influences me and what kind of father I have become. I was lucky to be blessed with daughters. They are much easier to raise than boys.
One could be forgiven for wondering how the gun industry could possibly make things worse, now that so many troubled adolescent males have had their “Man Cards” issued, but I’ve learned that it can. After Kyle Rittenhouse, a new industry mascot is coming into view: the tactical toddler set to become the new gun-marketing trend.
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