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A recent op-ed at the New York Times explores the marketing of firearms. The Gray Lady is horrified that the firearms industry works to “target buyers with rhetoric of fear, machismo and defiance.” As the three-man team who braved the wilds of the internet to report the terrifying details have uncovered . . .

Gun companies have spent the last two decades scrutinizing their market and refocusing their message away from hunting toward selling handguns for personal safety, as well as military-style weapons attractive to mostly young men. The sales pitch — rooted in self-defense, machismo and an overarching sense of fear — has been remarkably successful.

O.M.G.

The authors have also uncovered sales pitches that appeal to women and minorities (which kind of erodes the article’s earlier warnings about mucho macho masculine marketing. But the authors’ use of anti-gun groups as sources of “research” supporting their narrative tends to blow any pretense of objectivity out of the water.

Josh Sugarmann, founder of the Violence Policy Center, a gun control group that tracks firearms advertising and marketing, said the firearms industry became adept at exploiting disquieting developments to spur sales.

“If you look back, it hasn’t just revolved around mass shootings. They tailored their marketing to Katrina, Y2K, 9/11, pretty much everything,” he said. “Their goal is basically to induce a Pavlovian response: ‘If there’s a crisis, you must go get a gun.’”

We’ll get back to that quote in a minute, but there are a couple of aspects of selling firearms that the article fails to address. Like most great lies, it’s not a matter of saying things that are untrue, as much as not putting actual truths in context.

First, let’s talk about marketing. Every product that companies want to sell has to be marketed to the pool of potential buyers. Many dollars and a lot of effort go into figuring out who a company’s target market is, what motivates potential customers to lay down their cash.

Some automakers focus on safety and practicality. Others focus on a fun driving experience. Some even portray their cars as being about love and social consciousness.

Home security system makers use hefty amounts of fear to sell their products. Fast food chains employ amazing photography that shows you a hamburger you’ll almost certainly never actually get from the drive-thru window.

But, when firearms manufacturers, gun shops, and instructors offer their perfectly legal products and services that alleviate public fears, and mention those concerns in their marketing materials, we’re apparently supposed to conclude that it’s a deeply deceptive, offensive, and possibly even evil business practice.

And it’s not just gun sellers that are offending the delicate sensibilities of the Times and their readers. They’re not happy about how gun rights advocates are crafting their messaging either.

The aggressive messaging around fear has also helped define a newer crop of gun rights groups that increasingly overshadow the more deep-pocketed, but troubled, N.R.A. These groups, supported by the industry, have adopted a raw, in-your-face advocacy of near limitless freedom to own and carry firearms. Gun Owners of America, which lists more than 30 gun-related companies as “partners,” proudly calls itself the “only no compromise gun lobby in Washington.”

Their tone has grown more extreme along with the public discourse around guns in general. The Firearms Policy Coalition, which has launched numerous court challenges to gun laws around the country, used to sell T-shirts and bumper stickers with anodyne pro-gun mottos such as “Shall Not Be Infringed.”

But today, its online store has gear emblazoned with barbs like – “Abolish the ATF” and “Go and Print It,” a reference to using 3-D printers at home to make untraceable ghost guns. On social media, the coalition whips up members with warnings of an “impending GUNPOCALYPSE” wrought by weak or corrupt Washington politicians.

Oh, the humanity.

What really has the Times in a tizzy, though, is how effective all of this pro-gun messaging has been.

In pressing the two-pronged campaign to sell more guns and weaken restrictions, the industry and activists have been informed by marketing research that shows an increasingly diverse pool of customers. Timothy Schmidt, president of the United States Concealed Carry Association, said the new generation of gun buyers encompasses city dwellers, suburbanites and those in rural areas.

“It’s not just the angry white male anymore,” he said “You’re seeing rising gun ownership among Blacks, among women. It’s really a different thing.”

Let’s get back to that quote from Josh Sugarman. When anti-gun groups and politicians use fear to market their “products,” somehow we don’t hear a peep about it from the likes of the New York Times or their media pals. Is screaming about “assault weapons”  and “ghost guns” intended to inform the public…or scare the hell out of them and drive more donations?

Firearms makers’ campaigns may very well play up events like 9/11, Katrina, or the Y2K bug, but gun control industry marketing — and fund-raising — always kicks into overdrive whenever there’s a mass casualty event.

Politicians and the Civilian Disarmament Industrial Complex always shifts into high gear in a mad rush to pass gun control laws (marketed as “gun safety,” of course) as quickly as possible following a high profile shooting. The strategy is to act while the fear and hysteria are at their peak and before public attention inevitably fades.

Will we see reporting by the Times calling out these groups and politicians as vultures, deriding them for feeding on the still-warm bodies of supermarket shoppers and schoolchildren? Don’t hold your breath.

As for gun makers, in times of soaring crime, political violence, defunded and understaffed police departments, increased 911 response times, zero bail policies, and prosecutors who don’t prosecute, is it any wonder that firearm sellers gear their pitches toward people who are concerned about self-defense and protecting their families?

Yet that’s always treated as somehow beyond the pale. Evil merchants of death playing on stupid, gullible consumers’ worst instincts. At the same time gun control advocacy orgs use the same events to convince a different segment of the public that the only answer is to give up more of their rights.

It’s almost as of the media operates using a blatant double standard that supports their own particular editorial stances. But, as anyone on the side of the right to keep and bear arms can tell you, being subjected to double standards is nothing new.

RELATED ARTICLESMORE FROM AUTHOR

100 COMMENTS

  1. This just in: there are bad people in this world who if given the chance will try to harm you.

    • “This just in: there are bad people in this world who if given the chance will try to harm you“

      Yes, and the Republican politicians are leading the charge to use fear and violence to injure and kill those with whom they disagree:

      “Less than 24 hours later, Eric Greitens, a leading contender for the Republican Senate nomination in Missouri, released a new video in which he is depicted as hunting RINOs (Republicans in Name Only).
      “I’m Eric Greitens, Navy SEAL, and today we’re going RINO hunting.” Greitens says as he walks down a sidewalk with a gun in hand.
      The video cuts to a house where Greitens, surrounded by what looks like a tactical unit, waits by the door. “The RINO feeds on corruption and is marked by the stripes of cowardice,” says Greitens. The unit smashes the door down and throws what looks like a smoke grenade. Greitens strides through the door. “Join the MAGA crew,” he says. “Get a RINO hunting permit. There’s no bagging limit, no tagging limit and it doesn’t expire until we save our country.”

      https://www.cnn.com/2022/06/20/politics/eric-greitens-senate-rino-ad/index.html

      Republican, thy name is hypocrisy.

      • Yep eBiL republicans are the woes of all the world! I actually heard once that republicans actually built a secret underwater fortress of doom in the ocean that makes HURRICANES and they build these hurricane and hurl them at the US specifically to kill BLACK PEOPKE!!! I also heard THEY were the ones that built the DRILL in Antarctica that was used to drill through the OZONE layer so they could KILL INNOCENT WHALES. Then! I once heard also that HITLER was actually a republicans and HE was only following the orders given to him by BUSH sr snd TRUMP sr. This is why everyone must vote democrat soon or the world will be DOOMED!!!

        • Thank god a voice of reason here. We have only 674 days until earth will suddenly turn into Venus and the only way to stop it is vote democrat people.

        • “republicans actually built a secret underwater fortress of doom in the ocean that makes HURRICANES“

          Don’t worry, the Jewish space lasers can easily deal with any fortress.

      • What? No mention of Democrats hunting conservative Supreme Court justices?

        It seems to me that there aren’t nearly enough RINO hunters out there!

        Miner49er . . . does that mean you get 49 cents for every shill post you make?

      • In most oif the CIVILISED world this guy ERIC GREITENS would be in jail for incitement to commit a crime and in this case blatant MURDER. No wonder the USA Special Forces are becoming buggered up when they allow guys like this in their ranks if indeed he WAS. or IS a memberof the SEALS, .
        There IS a difference between free speech and incitment to crime. Ih his entry he even hinted that he was still a serving member. In the UK even if a serving member os the Special Forces mentioined to anybody that he was a serving member or had his pic taken that showed him [or now her] as identifiably a member his, or her, career would be down the pits and he would be incarcerated in a MILITARY PENITENTIARY. Believe he or she would not escape either!

        • So, the Queens Guard have had their careers flushed down the toilet? A lot of pictures of them have been published. Along with the Guards at Buckingham Palace.
          I also have several photo’s of SAS personnel from my time in 7thSF. We trained together many times. We used to go kick the crap out of Royal Marines.
          I also seem to remember some rather vile comments coming from the back benches in the house of commons directed at both party leaders and your PM. No arrests were made. Of course the last British PM I had any respect for was Mrs Thatcher.

        • Do you advocate that Charles Schumer, Senate Leader, should be imprisoned?? After all, someone actually took his threats against the Supreme Court to heart, right?
          Semper fi

      • While I would agree with you that depiction is inappropriate let me give you some on the other side. Simply search for videos of Democrats promoting violence and you will see Pelosi, Harris and Waters, among others urging people to violence. It cuts both ways so next time you post include the other side as well. Few people really like extremists at either end of the spectrum.

        • The incidents you speak of are general comments about the struggle against their political opponents, and none of them waved guns and spoke specifically of hunting other humans.

          Totally false equivalence, and you know it.

        • Chucky Schumer was pretty good about putting a target on the backs of SCOTUS members as well.

        • False equivalence, thy name is Miner.
          False dichotomy, thy name is Miner.
          Red herring, thy name is Miner.
          Non Sequitur, thy name is Miner.
          Masked Man fallacy, thy name is Miner.
          Existential fallacy, thy name is Miner.
          Scum of the Earth, thy name is Miner.

      • MINOR Miner49er What the Republicans are claiming is accurate. What you Leftist anti-gun radicals are saying, posting, etc, is NOT.

      • The only thing funnier than that ad is the knee-jerk reaction of humorless Leftists like yourself!

      • MajorStupidity,

        Let me guess . . . your sneaky uncle that used to visit you in your bedroom late at night was a Republican, amirite???

        No, the bad Republicans under your bed are not going to get you when you sleep, you partisan hack – although the Leftist/fascists, like yourself, dacian the stupid, Bernie “I own three mansions” Sanders, Nancy “Insider trading” Pelosi, Alexandra Occasional-Cortex, et al. are certainly targeting ME, and my fellow white, cis-gender, Christian (*gasp!!!!*) males (given the whole “cis-gender” part, you’re safe).

        Get another meme, MajorStupidity . . . that expired equine you flog on the daily?? He died almost two years ago, champ. Grow the f*** up.

    • using a kid in an ad holding an AR-15 like it was a new firetruck is pushing the limits and just begging for a response….

      • “just begging for a response…. “

        It would seem to be some sort of self-victimization neurosis, but when you add lethal weapons it seems to be more of a sociopathic or even psychopathic undercurrent.

        It’s easy to understand why Normies are troubled by this sort of advertisements, it gives a startling window into the internal thought processes of POTG.

        • MINOR Miner49er What is the fricking problem with a child holding a gun under adult supervision? I expect an answer although I doubt I will get one.

  2. In another life I’ve sold health and life insurance. Also security & medical alarms(I’ve fallen and I can’t get up!). Getting older & having a surge in crime led me to becoming a gun owner in my 50’s. Fear of loss rules the world. Deal with it Leftard Dims.

    • “Fear of loss rules the world“

      Only in the world of Republicans and used car salesmen.

      • sooo, I don’t want to get robbed, shot, knifed, or beat up/put in hospital from younger and/or multiple assailants.
        I can’t run very fast anymore, too old to fight well and too many health issues that preclude me from winning a confrontation.

        Miner49, Please explain how I, or anyone can stop these things once they start happening.

        • There’s nothing wrong with owning a gun for home defense.

          And there’s nothing wrong with carrying a gun in public spaces, once an individual has received the necessary instruction on the rights and obligations of carrying a firearm in public spaces, as well as demonstrated their skills on a live fire range sufficient to assure folks that they are aware of the law and capable of using their weapon competently.

          And please, don’t sell firearms to obviously deranged people, such as an 18-year-old with knife scars on his face and a disheveled appearance.

          Do what we always did at our LGS, just tell them the background check is slow and come back in five days. If they do come back, tell them they were denied.

        • Manse, Minor doesn’t have any answers to the questions you asked. He just regurgitated the drivel he’s been spoon fed. He’s really kind of sad, if you think about it.

        • Miner49er said, “There’s nothing wrong with owning a gun for home defense.”

          Tell us Miner – is it also alright to be white?

        • The fact is except in some limited incidences of HOME defence the fact that you are armed isa MORE likely, statistically. to get YOU killed than it is to save your life. FACT. Unless that is LIKE A PROFESSIONAL you are prepared to carry, locked-and -loaded -in-hand and ACT LIKE A PROFESSIONAL. At FIFTY years that is unlikly to happen is it? Most real ‘pros’ are fast approaching retirement at your age.
          Also remember that YOU are responsible for any collateral damage, injury or death cause by your over-powerful hand gun and you will be charged with PERSONAL injury or manslaughter. This would not be allowed on any street in the USA in any case and if you carried a handgun in the home locked loared and at readiness just in case you would be open to manslaughter charges at the very least and even maybe murder with, ‘malice aforthought’ You thoughless. illiterate and immature POLITICAL stance will not make any bloody difference to the outcome.
          Just a thought here. the UVALDE incident, only one of around THIRTY mass shootings in the USA [ I take over 3 victims to be a mass shooting] the FIRST RESPONDER had driven over 40 miles, which would have take at least a probable 3/4 hour. NOE W statistically withing 5/10 minutes there MUST statistically and gib ven the wideapread gun owner ship inn the US literally DOZENS of would be Rambos and supposed FIRST RESPONDERS armed to the bloody teeth within a ten minute radius. SO WHERE THE FLUKE were they? If a guy can drive 40 miles and dive in why could not those make-believe Rambos with their no douby 357 Magnums and semi-Auto-rifles ? And do not FLUKING tell me that the lacked training.
          They complained about the slow police response but each one of those make-believe Rambos and imaginery heros had the RIGHT OF CITIZENS ARREST using appropriate and proportional force. Why the fluck did ntheu not use it and had to wait for a guy to drive 40 miles. What a fluking load of PUSSY CATS.

          Meanwhile in a TERRORIST hostage taking incidence in KENYA SINGLE member of the UK Special Forces borrowed a firearm from the Local Police which he was helping train and took out an entire Terrorist Group and released ALL hostages that were still alive. when he happened upon the incident accidentally.

          That’s real and anything BUT bloody Rambo. By the way some of the terrorists apparently tried to throw in the towel -they got shot anyway.

      • Will you be so generous in handing over your property in the name of fairness and equity? Or will you make others hand over their things on your behalf?

      • Jeebus, MajorStupidity, you can’t even trash-talk worth a damn, can you??

        No, you mentally-incompetent, soi-swilling Leftist/fascist idiot, “fear of loss”, or, more accurately, “aversion to ANY degree of risk” is the exclusive province of the COVID-fearing, gun-fearing, testosterone-fearing inhabitants of the fascist Left. And we mock you for it.

        I’m sure you cheered when they started installing tampon dispensers in the men’s room.

    • blaming rising gun sales on covid is a deflection from the real cause…all the civil unrest that occurred in 2020 is much closer to the truth, yet they refuse to admit it…

  3. More yada, yada, yada Gun Control from the likes of josh sugarman pervert extraordinaire…No matter what the SHOUTING drama queens of Gun Control say or do…At the end of the day History Confirms Gun Control remains rooted in racism and genocide.

  4. This just in: suspect at Tysons Corner mall shooting 48 hours ago is apparently a well known rapper. No one has turned him in yet. Everyone wants a safer neighborhood but they won’t turn in the person that placed hundreds of lives in danger. Also has record of previous gun charges.

    Those firearm laws are really working well, aren’t they? And Happy Juneteenth!

    DC rapper ‘No Savage’ identified as suspect in Tysons Corner Center shooting: Police

    https://wjla.com/news/local/dc-rapper-no-savage-suspect-tysons-corner-center-shooting-mall-virginia-fairfax-county-police-washington-shooting-dispute-firearm-fired-multiple-rounds-gunshots-gun-violence-shoppers-employees-chaotic-scene-running-out-stores-spotify-videos-social-media

    • WE have the same sort of problem with KNIFE CRIME in the UK. Knife crime is pretty much 100% restricted to certain ethnic and/or criminal groups and mainly centred around the DRUGS TRADE or over gang-based TERRITORIAL DISPUTES. Most of the victims and the perpetrators are well known within their own Communities and even admired. Those communities will not turn them in either. Though they are mostly known to the Police there is a world of difference between ‘knowing’ and having the nessessary evidence to arrest, charge and get a conviction.
      Policing in a DEMOCRACY is, or bloody well should d be, by consent and if that public does NOT give consent there cannot be effective Policing. Until the public involved are willing do their bit I’m afraid that they get what they mostly deserve.

      There is a very old adage about GOOD MEN standing by and DOING NOTHING whilst EVIL SURROUNDS THEM !!

      • B B B B B b b butt, you lot over other side the Puddle have DEALT with the “edged tools” issue by simply banning sales of them. Cooks cannot go out and purchase a chef knife, Even if they re a professiional chef. SO since NO ONE can go out and acquire one, they cannot be the tool of choice in the violence you describe above. Perhaps you lot should institute background checks for anyone seeking to acquire a KNIFE of ny sort. Same as for a handgun. Oh, wit, Brits are too incompetent and/or lacking in skill to allow them to be trusted with knives… not to mention FIREarms……

      • They are tolerated because they supply The Establishment with their recreational pharmaceuticals.

        The unwashed masses of dirty proles are only fit for serfdom.

      • So be the Good Man, Albert. Do something. Get a gun. Be the change. But no, instead you choose to be the compliant, parroting idiot. Baaa. Baaa. Mooo. Mooo. May your chains rest lightly, hand licker.

      • No, Albert the Subject, when faced with the tyranny of Mad King George, the “good men” of the American colonies did THE RIGHT THING, and kicked your sorry asses to the curb. THEN we had to haul our asses BACK across the Atlantic to save YOUR sorry asses twice more, in the first half of the 20th Century. But that’s OK, your Queen tells you she loves you, and tells you what to think, so all is good in “subject world”, innit, Albert the Subject??

        That the VIOLENCE problem (violence is a thing, “gun violence” or “knife violence” is not) is largely related to OTHER criminal activities. And, yes, has a distinct and document “ethnic” component to it. But you lot have been trying to do the same thing with knives that you DIDN’T succeed in doing with guns for years, now, and knife crime in the UK keeps rising. Almost as if all those laws don’t accomplish squat, isn’t it?

        Albert the Idiot, you are simply too stupid (or to subjugated) to insult. Go ask your queen to make it all better for you, and she’ll wave her magic sceptre and the UK will be powered by magic unicorn farts and all violence will go away (and take all those nasty, smelly Muslims as it leaves), and you can go back to your tea and crumpets, child.

        By the way, you are absolutely ignorant of actual gun use and statistics in the US (and probably in the UK, as well, since subjects never think for themselves). Pro tip: Google up the last MAJOR study in the US on defensive gun use, conducted by the US government. What was the LOW END of the estimate for annual (successful, by the way) defensive gun uses, you ignorant Limey subject?? You really still claim you were a firearms instructor in “Her Majesty’s military”, you lying sack of male bovine excrement???? It is to laugh.

        • Lamp, and before that there was the Magna Carta. How things have changed in merry old England.

  5. Teen killed, officer, 2 others shot during ‘unpermitted’ Moechella event in Northwest DC

    Contee said police units responded to 14th and U streets, Northwest around 9:30 p.m. An unpermitted Moechella event with Go-Go bands celebrating Juneteenth was going on when the shooting broke out.

    Authorities said a 15-year-old boy was killed, a D.C. police officer, and two adults were shot. The officer was reportedly shot in the leg, police said.

    Data reported by MPD shows that crime continues to increase this year. Homicides are up 13% over last year’s alarming 14% increase, amounting to the highest homicide rate in 19 years, according to the department’s statistics.

    Too bad the criminal didn’t submit to a background check when he bought his weapon.
    He also my have violated safe storage laws. Happy Juneteenth!

    https://wjla.com/news/local/dc-police-officer-2-others-shot-at-14th-u-street-nw

  6. Tell that to car companies. The way Subaru tells it if I don’t put my kid in one best case scenario I don’t love him and worst case scenario he will die.

    Fear and/or sex sell literally everything. An argument can be made that promises of profit sell certain products but isn’t that just fear of poverty and we all know profit=wealth=sex.

  7. There are really people that don’t understand advertising? Are these the same people that need directions on a shampoo bottle?

    • I quit buying shampoo, how many times can I lather rinse repeat until I’m out of shampoo and out of money?

        • Just following instructions. Lather rinse repeat. So I lathered rinsed and repeated until I had no more in the bottle.
          Blinded by Science

      • possum,

        How do you keep MinorIQ and dacian the stupid busy all day??

        Put them in a round room, and tell them to go stand in the corner.

  8. Well,
    I can’t speak for others.

    I do know that I got into this out of personal interest and desire for learning. They did not make me. I came into this on my own. They can have all that craziness.

  9. Being a person who completely ignores gun advertising, unless it is giving me the gun specs and price or a review, I really do not know what they are talking about. On the other hand, I can’t avoid their gun banning fear rhetoric telling me that if I don’t give up my guns, there will be blood in the streets.

    • Apparently, some gun manufacturers use children, Bible verses and the resurrected Prince of Peace to sell guns.

      “Maker of rifle used in Texas shooting faces outrage over ad featuring child
      Georgia-based Daniel Defense posted an ad on 16 May showing a toddler holding a rifle
      Gloria Oladipo
      @gaoladipo
      Fri 27 May 2022 11.30 EDT
      Share on FacebookShare on TwitterShare via Email
      The maker of the rifle used in the Texas elementary school shooting is facing fresh outrage over an advertisement featuring a young child posted days before the killings.
      Georgia-based Daniel Defense, which manufacturers the gun used in the Uvalde mass shooting where 21 people died, posted an ad on Twitter on 16 May showing a toddler holding a rifle, with the caption: “Train up a child in the way he should go, and when he is old, he will not depart from it.”
      How lawmakers in thrall to the NRA stifle gun safety laws
      The child, wearing a shirt reading “Rascal”, sits cross-legged with the rifle in both hands as a partially visible adult points at him.
      Daniel Defense is one of the largest privately owned rifle manufacturers in the US. Founded by Marty Daniel, it was already known for controversial ads that have broken with industry standards.
      One ad from 2014 involved a fictional Marine talking about defending his wife and baby using Daniel Defense products. It was rejected for a televised slot during the Super Bowl.
      The company’s social media ads often blend Bible verses with images of their guns. In an Easter-themed post on 17 April of this year, the caption “He is Risen!” ran underneath an image of a cross, atop a rifle, lying on an open Bible.“

      https://amp.theguardian.com/us-news/2022/may/27/texas-shooting-rifle-maker-ad-child-daniel-defense

      • And homosexuals use public schools and libraries to groom children. Which is worse, I wonder??

      • And certain demographics use public schools and libraries to groom children. Which is worse, I wonder??

      • One always needs to be careful about taking one instance or one company and pointing out the negatives with the assumption others are like that as well. The fact that there is almost always someone in any grouping that has to do something different and not necessarily good is a given. It happens in every phase of life.
        Additionally, we are all exposed daily to things that we question or disagree with and that is why we were given a brain and free will to decide what works for us and what doesn’t. If we are right so much the better and if we are wrong and learn from our mistake we don’t repeat that behavior again.

        • “One always needs to be careful about taking one instance or one company“

          In this case I am speaking specifically of the company that produced the weapon used in the terrible mass murder in Uvalde and their advertising campaigns.

          But they aren’t the only one, bushmaster and their ‘man card’ is another example of inappropriate advertising.

        • face it, niner, if the kid had not been supplied the huge wad of greenbacks that allowed him to afford the DD rifle, he could just as easily have used an AK, Mini 14, BAR, a brace of nine mm semiauto handguns, or stolen a large size pickup and crashed it right through the wall of the building into that room, making sure the forty gallons of petrol being carried in the bed did their part in the mini-Waco ttack.
          Daniel Defense had no more to do with that incident than I did. Or you.

          It is NEVER the hardware that is at fault. It is ALWAYS the software beteen his ears that is malfunctioniing.
          get over it. Seven pounds of steel, lastic, aluminium, copper, brass, lead, did NOT kill those children. The basket case holding them did. Grow up and learn to ethically analise a given scenario.

      • And your point is the exception is actually the rule?

        The role of advertising is to stand out.

      • Geez, kinda brings to mind all those Michelin ads using babies to push their product, doesn’t it miner? Where was your outrage then, miner? I hope you’ve boycotted all Michelin products since, along with Johnston n Johnston products, child safety seats, Colgate, bicycle helmet manufacturers and pablum producers (maybe that explains the shortage). Etc. Troll more harder, Mr righteous.

      • First of all, MajorStupidity, citing the Grauniad for ANYTHING?? Bad look. Bad, BAD look.

        In the second place, I thought YOU were all about teaching safe gun handling early? Or was that just when you were PRETENDING to be a gun owner, and actually know something about guns??

        Jesus is not on my list of gun reviewers I pay attention to. Just like MajorStupidity is not on my list of people I pay attention to about . . . well, about anything, except opportunities to mock.

        Just give it up, child. You are a know-nothing ignoranus, with an obsessive fetish for Leftist authoritarianism. Go practice on dacian the stupid, and leave the adults alone.

    • They could just stop trying to cram gun control down our throats and gun rights orgs would have little to do except some safety and training. And not “I support the second But…” No registration, no bans, no gun public health problem, take silencers and SBR off the NFA registry, repeal Hughes amendment, no one gun a month or micro stamps, no red flag laws, approved pistol lists, no import restrictions, no bump stock/pistol brace bans, no ghost gun bans, remove machine guns from NFA, open carry, reciprocity, campus carry… Yeah imagine if Dems were actually liberal with gun rights? Do all that and fear of losing guns/ammo rights would eventually go away, assuming they would actually prove their support over time. But not if any support or “common sense” is just another attempt at control.

      Gun owners would be happy to just be left alone!

  10. From the tweets above, the stats are clear. Stay away from certain groups and your chance of getting shot goes down considerably.

    • until those “groups” come to you….no downtown is now safe…nor most nightclub districts…

  11. Fear? I feared my peanutz wasn’t big enough so I bought a gunm. That 12gauge double barrel stuck down my pants really gets the looks.

    • You’re fooling no one, possum. Possums don’t wear pants. They keep their gunz in their pouches. Why would you want to post such a blatant lie, knowing how easily you can be proven wrong? Was this some kind of mental comprehension test?

      • Grabbers can’t find what doesn’t exist and may waste a lot of resources figuring it out.

      • “Possums don’t wear pants. They keep their gunz in their pouches. Why would you want to post such a blatant lie, knowing how easily you can be proven wrong?”

        Oh, are you about to be embarrassed.

        Only girl Possums have pouches. Look it up if you don’t believe me… 😉

        • Dammit, you beat me to it, Geoff!!

          ‘Course, with our inimitable possum, ALL things are possible!! (possumible??)

      • No string required, their prehensile tail works just fine… 🙂

      • By the stock I hope, or it’ll fill up with gravel n crap. It’s why cavemen dragged their wimmens around by the hair. Evolution is a thing.

      • Yeah but I wasn’t getting the gals that way.
        A nice pair of pants with a hard iron in them and ,,,,,,,well , yeah.

        • You mean Marty “What hump?” Feldman?

          “Igor, get the bags.” “You get the blonde, I’ll get the one with a turban”… 😉

        • Geoff, ha!, no, I was referring to the song Big Iron on His Hip. Feldman was disturbingly funny though.

  12. As far as I am concerned today no law-abiding gun owner has to apologize, explain, or otherwise feel obligated to justify why they own a firearm. Furthermore, no one needs to acknowledge any laws that are unconstitutional as are Red Flag Laws. You have a Constitutional right to own a firearm without Government permission, the right to privacy, to protect your property, yourself and your family. Any infringement on those rights gives you permission to take whatever action you like to make sure violation of those rights does not occur. If you search the internet for videos of Democrats advocating violence you will find Pelosi, Harris, Waters and a host of others defending violent riots and insurrections since much of that violence was directed by the rioters against police, Federal and local government buildings. This went on for weeks and months in blue cities and not one investigation of Governors or Mayors in blue cities or states was undertaken by Congress.
    So you need to keep in mind is if its OK for Democrats to advocate and incite riots and insurrections it is ok for us to throw them out of office by whatever means we need to do it.
    The Supreme Court not too long ago reaffirmed that law enforcement needs a warrant to enter your home not some judge issuing a Red Flag Order. Democrats often talk about the Constitution but they are the biggest violators of people’s rights and regularly ignore it.
    So its time we on the other side need to consider pushing back the same way they do. Lets go to their houses and demonstrate. Lets harass them when we don’t agree with them. Let publicize their address and phone numbers and distribute them to the public so they can answer constituents questions about energy, economic, foreign affairs, voter fraud, and a host of other issues they conveniently try to defer from dealing with. Perhaps a little get as you give should be in order.

    • THe lAW does NOT give you the right to use whatever action YOU think nessessary under any circumstances and that includes the use of firearms for the supposed purpose of self defence .
      The LEGAL test is PROPORTIONAL RESPONSE and that can only be decided by the law NOT THE POLICE not the STATE, but the iNDEPENDENT JUDICIARY in Open Court – you cannot just shoot somebody who annoys you or threatens or punches you in the face or disagees with you politics, is a COMMIE, a LIBERAL or a DEMOCRAT. Or in fact if somebody enters you home but does NOT threaten you. For instance a legitimate person wearing a COVID mask

      What YOU are advocating is uncontrolled VIGILANTE action, Kangaroo Courts and inevitabley the LYNCH ROPE Though the LYNCH ROPE is likely to be replaced by the GUN.

      • what you describe is precisely what the cprrupt prosecutor in Kenosha tried to prove.. that Mr. R did NOT have the “right” to possess that rifle, nor the right to defend his own live with it as multiple perps made blatantly obvious attempts to KILL him. But the jury saw right through that corrupt prosecutor’s lies and refused to find any wrongdoing on his part.
        I DO have the RIGHT to own, possess, use, carry about, etc, any firearm I decide suits my need or fancy. Yes, there are limits on what I can do with that, just as there are limits what I can do whilst driving my motorcar, using my propane bottle, scarface carpenter’s framing hammer, or fists. WHY do louts of yuor ilk so frquently imagine some bizarre perverted use of something and call that normal, and declare that is how EVERYONE who hs that item wants o]to use it? What kind of perverted MIND do you have? And WHO is pushing you to write this tripe? WHO is paying you to spout this inanity?

      • The legal test in the US is NOT proportional response you Fucking retard. It’s reasonableness. Get it through your thick skull.

        And reasonableness doesn’t mean what you probably think it means.

        You sound like Someone who failed entry to criminal justice.

      • Albert, wake up and have a cup of tea. No one has any right to shoot someone because of the silly reasons you listed. However we, at least in non leftist controlled free states, have the implicit right to defend ourselves from a direct threat of harm in an appropriate manner. Unlike the unfortunate subjects of your country, those rights are guaranteed by our founding documents. As is our right to stand against tyranny of an over bearing, out of control government.

      • How fcking cool, an England guy wanting to change the Constitution of The United States of America.

        • Without, unsurprisingly, even remotely understanding it in the first place. Funny how things seem to always go like that…

      • Once again, Albert the Subject is determined to show his @$$ in public.

        Albert the Subject, tell us you know nothing about US law, without SAYING you know nothing about US law . . . oh, that’s right, you just did. The “standard” for self-defense in the US, Albert the Subject?? Because we have this thing called “federalism”, there are actually 50+ “standards” for self-defense. The phrase “proportional response” appears in few, if any, of them.

        Great, now go look up “Castle doctrine”, “duty to retreat”, “defense of others”, “stand your ground”. Isn’t that INTERESTING???? Different in pretty much every state, you pathetic, gormless, Limey subject. There IS no “standard” in the US, there are different standards in every state for each of those things (and we gun owner/carriers need to keep track of all that . . . but, then, we’re not incompetent Limeys, so we mostly just manage it).

        What we DO understand is that we have certain INHERENT rights, and we are responsible for how we exercise them. But, then, that whole “personal responsibility” thing never caught on in Old Blighty, did it, Albert the Subject. Toddle off, subject, your queen is calling.

  13. “The sales pitch — rooted in self-defense, machismo and an overarching sense of fear — has been remarkably successful.”

    It’s been pretty damn successful with the voters in the vast majority of states as well, what with permitless carry, preemption laws, CCW on demand, and further pushes towards “Stand Your Ground” and “Castle Doctrine”. The NYSRPA-led SCOUUS case may just be the final straw as far as the NYT is concerned.

    One might think that after 80-some years of preaching the same message, and having little to show for it in crime stats, ESPECIALLY now, they might try something new.

  14. If there ever appeared on network tv a commercial for gums I haven’t seen it. I’m sure the networks would never allow that. I can’t imagine trying to shampoo a possum! Have you seen the claws on them suckers?

  15. This stuff has been going on as long as humans have existed. It’s only more evident and more widespread now because of the internet and technology in general. “Man” was always going to be the destruction of humankind. It’s just more evident now and closer than it’s ever been because the technology exists to actually make it happen. Before, it was “small scale” genocide and war. Now the threats that exist can wipe out every living organism on earth quicker than you can blink. Disarming a populace might seem like a generally “good” concept, but in fact, you are just enabling more control and more chaos. Those in power will wield this power without remorse, without consequence, and those brainwashed will worship them like gods. This is nothing new – but it’s the biggest threat to humanity currently because of technology. Most people cannot even begin to comprehend that disarming a populace is the start of controlling a society. But again, here we are, armed and controlled. At least some of understand that and we refuse to comply to this manipulation any further. In history, there has always been a breaking point. America has seen it a couple times on small scale, but this next time – could easily be the destruction of the earth. And that truly does go for any nation that wields this technology against it’s own populace. So when people say “come and take them” – it’s not even about guns. It’s about control. Literally the only hope we have is to fight back, and good luck fighting back such tyranny without guns in this current world. Addiction to “information” is what we are seeing. And it’s been perfected on a mass scale to a point where we are all – gun owners and non gun owners – a subject of this control and a tool for those in power. 2020/2021 was just a small taste. TBH though, the most alarming thing was our current election. Disregard who you voted for or your party affiliation for a second and simply realize what happened. You are now under the illusion that your vote matters and it’s very obvious, it doesn’t.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=09maaUaRT4M

    • Here’s a little quote from yours truly from a pamphlet I wrote years ago: “without that first pointy stick, that first sharpened flake of stone, that first jawbone used as a club, without these weapons we would all, every last one of us, still be running, naked and screaming for the nearest tree, desperately hoping that the predator chasing us cannot climb as high or as fast as we can. Without these weapons there would exist no dwellings made from dimensional lumber or concrete, no electricity, no computers, no phones, no vehicles, no hot and cold running water, no shoes or clothing nor even pen nor paper. To be Human is to be armed. To be armed is to be Human”. I wanna hear again from these pampered and coddled fucks how we do not naturally and inherently possess the Right to Keep and Bear Arms.

  16. self-defense is legal here…but not in many other places…that’s what separates us from them..

  17. Give me a break.
    The gun industry did not have to do a dang thing to increase gun sales.
    Obama was one of the greatest gun sales men of all time, only to have Biden surpass him.
    Not lost on me Hunter did not need to see a gun manufactures ad to buy (illegally) a revolver.
    Looking at the 2020 protests and riots, that was the motivation of a lot of new, first time buyers who more than a few were minorities and women. IIRC they made up like 40% of gun sales.
    Heck, Hollyweird is one of the biggest advertisements for the firearms industry.

  18. Klamath Falls Herald and News: Saturday, May 28th, 2022/Letters To The Editor

    Media pushes ‘anti-gun’ agenda

    Wednesday’s Herald & News front page article: “Texas school shooting kills 18 children, 3 adults: The 18-year-old shooter, a student at the high school, was shot dead by police,” deserves scrutiny. I refer back to my own Oct. 22, 2017, Herald & News letter: “Gun Violence,” a term that means nothing. A bumper sticker with this caption states it best: “Guns Cause Crime Like Matches Cause Arson.”

    Naturally, the establishment news media predictably exploits criminal violence involving firearms to pontificate, push, and prostitute their deceitful “anti-gun” subversive socialist agenda by blaming the NRA, our Second Amendment, innocent American gun owners, gun manufacturers, and others for the atrocities of depraved evil psychopaths and sociopaths!

    John Swinton (1829-1901), journalist, publisher and New York Times editorial writer, stated it best well over a century ago: “The business of the journalist (newspaper editors) is to destroy the truth, to lie outright, to pervert, to vilify, to fawn at the feet of Mammon, to sell the country for his daily bread. You know it and I know it and what folly is this toasting an independent press. We are the tools and vassals of the rich men behind the scenes. We are the jumping jacks, they pull the strings and we dance. Our talents, our possibilities and our lives are all the property of other men. We are intellectual prostitutes.”

    I rightly despise, detest, and resist this elitist “LBJ/KGB” style anti-gun class warfare, moral and intellectual dishonesty, political deceit, by rebuking and calling it out in the public forum!

    James A. Farmer
    Klamath Falls, Oregon

    Two non NRA affiliated pro-gun/Second Amendment institutions include on the net:

    JPFO, Inc. at http://www.jpfo.org. JPFO, Inc. is “America’s Aggressive Civil Rights Organization”.
    The John Birch Society in Appleton, Wisconsin at http://www.jbs.org and http://www.thenewamerican.com, respectively.

  19. The Grey Lady, aka The New York Times has yet to miss the opportunity to toss the anti gun/anti gun rights spear, truth of the matter being damned. While I departed NYC many years ago, 1967 to be exact, I grew up, and lived there for many years.

  20. Josh Sugarmann pushed the “assault weapons” ban in the 1990’s and admitted the general public would confuse them for machine guns. If a position is based on knowingly trying to trick the public, that person doesn’t have a factual argument. Josh’s despicable ways haven’t changed in the last 30 years. He managed to get a 10 year ban on cosmetic features of a gun, which was proven to have no effect on reducing crime.

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