The gun industry goes after some small targets

More than a decade ago, AFJ’s First Monday video, Deadly Business, documented the insidious means used by the gun industry to market its product – including marketing to children:

Now The New York Times has updated the story, with a comprehensive account of those efforts – including efforts to market semiautomatic weapons like the Bushmaster AR-15.  That’s the civilian version of the army’s M-16.  It’s also the one used in the Newtown massacre, among others.  It’s also one of the weapons Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) has proposed banning.

According to the Times, the industry’s marketing efforts have taken on a new urgency, as the percentage of licensed hunters declines. Like the tobacco industry, the gun industry understands that, in the words of one industry publication, “the need for aggressive recruitment is urgent.” So the industry tries to, as one study recommends, “start them young.”

According to the Times: 

The AR-15

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 — an advertisement elsewhere in the magazine directed readers to a coupon for buying one — 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!” …

 Two other items in the Times story were notable:

● Apologists for the gun industry want to divert the discussion to possible causes of gun violence other than guns – things like video games.  But it turns out the industry is in that business, too: 

Military-style firearms are prevalent in a target-shooting video game and mobile app called Point of Impact, which was sponsored by the shooting sports foundation and Guns & Ammo magazine. 

● The gun industry has done everything it can to prevent the federal government from even conducting research on the harm of gun violence.  That’s because, as the Times points out in an editorial, the industry didn’t like the findings: 

…[B]y the early 1990s, … gun research had advanced to the point that it contradicted [National Rifle Association] ideology. Some studies found, for example, that people living in a home with a gun were not safer; they faced a significantly elevated risk of homicide and suicide. 

But research that helps the industry peddle its product is another matter.  According to the Times story: 

The focus on young people has been accompanied by [National Shooting Sports Founation]- sponsored research examining popular attitudes toward hunting and shooting. … Most [of the studies] were prepared by consultants retained by the foundation, and at least one was financed with a grant from the United States Fish and Wildlife Service.

President Obama’s other audience

Will the Supreme Court help America complete its journey

 – or throw obstacles in the way?

When President Obama gave his second inaugural address Monday, it’s estimated that one million people gathered on the National Mall to hear him.  Tens of millions more heard the speech on television, radio or online.

But there also was a much more select audience – an audience of nine, seated just a few feet from the president.  Because several issues the president raised will be profoundly affected by actions of the United States Supreme Court, in some cases, within the next few months.

The president said:

Our journey is not complete until our gay brothers and sisters are treated like anyone else under the law, for if we are truly created equal, then surely the love we commit to one another must be equal, as well.

And, in marking civil rights landmarks, the President pointedly included “Stonewall” along with Seneca Falls and Selma.

The Supreme Court can speed the journey, by voting to strike down the so-called Defense of Marriage Act, and upholding the ruling by the 9^th Circuit Court of Appeals that California’s Proposition 8 is unconstitutional.  Or the court can make it a much longer, more tortuous journey by upholding discrimination.

The president said:

We the people declare today that the most evident of truth that all of us are created equal -- is the star that guides us still; just as it guided our forebears through Seneca Falls and Selma and Stonewall; just as it guided all those men and women, sung and unsung, who left footprints along this great mall, to hear a preacher say that we cannot walk alone; to hear a King proclaim that our individual freedom is inextricably bound to the freedom of every soul on Earth.

And he said:

Our journey is not complete until no citizen is forced to wait for hours to exercise the right to vote.

The famous march from Selma to Montgomery was a march for the right to vote – a right won with passage of the Voting Rights Act of 1965.  But now, a challenge to a key provision of that law could significantly setback the progress won by Dr. King and those who marched with him.

The president said:

Together we discovered that a free market only thrives when there are rules to ensure competition and fair play.

But over and over again, the Supreme Court majority has bent those rules to favor corporate special interests at the expense of the rest of us, something documented in detail in our First Monday documentary, Unequal Justice.

This term, the Court may bend the rules again, when it returns to the issue of forced arbitration in the case of American Express Co. v. Italian Colors Restaurant.

And, of course, the president alluded to the tragedy of gun violence:

Our journey is not complete until all our children, from the streets of Detroit to the hills of Appalachia to the quiet lanes of Newtown, know that they are cared for and cherished and always safe from harm.

The Supreme Court already has made that part of the journey more difficult.  The right-wing activist majority radically reinterpreted the Second Amendment, discovering an individual right to bear arms where none existed before.

Chief Justice John Roberts administers the Oath of Office

--White House photo

But even Justice Antonin Scalia did not close the door to all regulation of guns.  And whatever Congress may do in response to the Newtown tragedy, the Supreme Court may well have the final word.

That’s why something President Obama did not mention is at least as important as all of the subjects he raised in an excellent inaugural address: the need for a progressive judiciary – on our federal district courts, on our circuit courts of appeals and on the United States Supreme Court.

President Obama offers good first steps toward curbing gun violence

UPDATED, 4:00PM: President Obama announced some sound, sensible first steps to control gun violence today.  Groups supporting gun control are enthusiastic about the President's proposals, which now are available, along with background material on the White House website.  This is, of course, an issue AFJ has been concerned about for more than a decade.  We began producing documentaries on the issue in 2000: 

America up in Arms (2000):

Deadly Business (2001):

And since the Newtown tragedy we've been using this Blog to share the views of experts and pull together resources for turning grief into action.  We've grouped those posts here.

There is more perspective from Josh Sugarmann, Executive Director of the Violence Policy Center, an AFJ member.  He writes in The Huffington Post that while we all know about the fanatical behavior of the National Rifle Association, the gun industry's trade association, the National Shooting Sports Foundation also has responded to the Newtown tragedy in a manner best described as appalling.

GUEST BLOG: It’s time for a heart-to-heart discussion about guns

By Cathie Whittenburg, on-line communications consultant, 

States United to Prevent Gun Violence

Let’s have a deep, heart-to-heart discussion about guns.  Let’s not play the game the gun lobby wants to play, the one where they talk about guns as an absolute right and are constantly accusing us of wanting to ban all guns.  Let’s be clear right from the start, there is no organization out there working to ban all guns.  Period.  It doesn’t exist. And while the Supreme Court might have ruled that you have a right to own a handgun in your home for protection, Justice Antonin Scalia also wrote, “like most rights, the Second Amendment right is not unlimited.  It is not a right to keep and carry any weapon whatsoever in any manner whatsoever and for whatever purpose.”

As Americans we deserve the right to be safe and free from gun violence but we have allowed guns to saturate our society and threaten that freedom. One thousand people a day in this country are directly impacted by gun violence.  They are killed by firearms; shot and injured; or find themselves staring down the barrel of a gun, victims of armed robbery and aggravated assault with a gun. One thousand people a day, every day.

There are parts of our country where our children are suffering from clinical depression and have PTSD because of the level of gun violence that surrounds them on a daily basis.  And while, as a nation, we are no more or less violent than other industrialized countries, due to the overwhelming number of guns in this country our homicide rate is by far the highest. 

In 1982, when seven people died after taking Tylenol capsules laced with cyanide, the response was reforms in the packaging of over-the-counter drugs and federal anti-tampering laws. In 2001, a passenger on an airplane flying from Paris to Miami attempted to set off explosives hidden in his shoe.  In response to this incident, passengers at U.S. airports are now required to remove their shoes before proceeding through scanners.  Every year, defective and dangerous products are recalled, engineers study ways to make our roads and bridges better, agencies monitor and regulate the water we drink, the food we eat, the cars we drive, the airplanes we travel in, all in an effort to keep us safe.

Yet when it comes to gun violence, all too often the response from our elected officials is silence and an unwillingness to address the issue. Really?

The time is now to start a serious, national conversation about guns in this country.  Because this is an issue that affects real people and the impact of this discussion will last for a long time.

Yes, it’s important for you to call your Senators and Congressperson and tell them we need stronger gun laws.  But it can’t end there.  Call your state legislators too, call your city councilor, call your religious and business leaders, talk to your neighbors and the person standing behind you in the grocery store line.  Tell them you want to have a real discussion about guns. 

Ask them if they know the true dangers of having a gun in the home.  Tell them that while guns might be used to stop some crimes, they are far more likely to be used to commit crimes.   Mention that guns are the only consumer product not regulated for health and safety and as a result there are guns out there that can discharge just by being dropped.  Point out that if a civilian wanted to purchase a fully automatic AK-47 they would have to apply for a special federal gun license and then register the gun.  Ask why, then, is it OK for someone to buy a semi-automatic version of the exact same gun without so much as a criminal background check.  Ask them why anyone needs to be able to fire 30, 40, 100 rounds before having to reload. Point out that the Second Amendment refers to “arms” not “guns” and the very fact that you can’t go out and buy a nuclear weapon shows that regulation already exists.

STATES UNITED TO PREVENT GUN VIOLENCE CAN HELP

States United to Prevent Gun Violence wants to help you with these conversations.  We want you to feel prepared and excited and to give you information, because information has the power to change the culture.

● Sign-up to receive The GVP Report, our e-magazine for the gun violence prevention movement.  Every other week, we will send you a comprehensive overview of the issue, emerging news and trends, and ways to get involved in the movement.  Presented in an easy to read dashboard format, The GVP Report allows readers to quickly scan the content and link to articles of further interest.  The GVP Report is the only publication that offers a consistent, comprehensive, inclusive look at the gun violence issue in this country.  You can also read it online.

● Visit our website, and see if there is a state member group where you live.  If there is, give them a call and tell them you want to help.

One thousand people a day have their lives taken, injured or threatened with a gun.  When we allow anyone to buy a gun through a private sale at a gun show or over the internet – no matter how dangerous the person, no matter how dangerous the gun – no one is free from the threat of gun violence.  Let’s have a real, heart to heart discussion about how we will work to change this. 

Cathie Whittenburg is on-line communications consultant for States United to Prevent Gun Violence, (www.supgv.org) a member of Alliance for Justice.