4 ms·

Bad firearms marketing has given the U.S. a national nightmare

15 points by samizdis 4y ago

refurb 4y ago
Is this guy for real? Who ever sees firearm ads unless you buy firearm or hunting magazines? And I love how he ignores the fact that gun control laws have only gotten more strict since the 60’s, yet gun deaths have increased.
- jnovek 4y ago
  Do you shoot? I do a bit of target shooting here and there. I think it’s reasonable to claim that firearm marketing has increasingly pushed “bigger” and “more” over the last decade. It’s also made a fashion (“tacticool”) out of firearm ownership. Whether these are good or bad things can be discussed, but I don’t think the authors claims should be blown off.
  - slowhand09 4y ago
    I shoot a bit and I think Busse is a bit of a sensationalist. After all, he writes for the Atlantic. Not typically a supporter of the group the left sterotypes so heavily. https://ryanbusseauthor.com/category/articles/ https://ryanbusseauthor.com/category/articles/
  - yellowapple 4y ago
    Sure, but that's all a moot point when the marketing in question will largely only find its way to people who are already interested in firearms. The marketing is catering to demand, not magically creating it.
- EricE 4y ago
  Yup - blaming the guns was always stupid. It's the evil people holding the guns that need to be the focus. His arguments are further blown apart with the contrast of the recent tragic events in Indiana vs. Texas.
- gvhst 4y ago
  I think the point isn't so much that gun advertising is expanding and increasing demand of weapons, more that the style has changed and has impacted the culture and aesthetic within the firearms enthusiast community.
  - flyingfences 4y ago
    > impacted the culture and aesthetic within the firearms enthusiast community. And then he makes the leap of presuming that an aesthetic within the enthusiast community is driving a surge in mass murder. Frankly, the opposite seems more likely to me: that the shift in manufacturer focus is meeting a rising demand created by a fracturing society.
programmer_dude 4y ago
https://web.archive.org/web/20220725143622/https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2022/07/firearms-industry-marketing-mass-shooter/670621/ https://web.archive.org/web/20220725143622/https://www.theat...
achenatx 4y ago
the 24/7 news coverage is causing mass shootings. It is well established that coverage of suicides leads to more suicides. When you look at murder rates, they are concentrated in certain demographic groups and certain areas of the country. There are plenty of areas awash in guns that dont have high murder rates. Obviously more guns will lead to more murders (or suicides) via guns. But they are not a cause of the murders. Illegal drugs, poverty, messages of hopelessness are the cause of high murder rates. Sensationalized coverage of school shootings and untreated mental illness are likely the cause of school shootings.
yellowapple 4y ago
Surprised the author didn't sprain something with all that reaching. Firearms marketing is basically only visible to anyone who already is sufficiently interested in firearms (or activities pertaining to them) to seek it out in magazines or on the walls of gun stores. To assert that the sorts of marketing materials the author describes is somehow a cause of gun violence to any significant degree (at all, let alone moreso than socioeconomic factors like financial hardship and mental health issues) is a pretty blatant inversion of causality for that reason. The one exception might be video games, and that's still a stretch when you consider how far removed the in-game performance of "real world" weapons tends to be from reality (and is pretty squarely debunked when you remember that all those attempts to link video games with violence have been pretty thoroughly refuted when examined with even the slightest bit of scientific rigor). No, socioeconomic inequality and the ownership class' success in convincing the working class to take it out on themselves has given the US a national nightmare. And don't even get me started on the conflation of "likes guns" with "right wing". There are leftist gun owners, contrary to what the author wants to portray.

15 points by samizdis 4y ago

Is this guy for real? Who ever sees firearm ads unless you buy firearm or hunting magazines? And I love how he ignores the fact that gun control laws have only gotten more strict since the 60’s, yet gun deaths have increased.

jnovek 4y ago
Do you shoot? I do a bit of target shooting here and there. I think it’s reasonable to claim that firearm marketing has increasingly pushed “bigger” and “more” over the last decade. It’s also made a fashion (“tacticool”) out of firearm ownership. Whether these are good or bad things can be discussed, but I don’t think the authors claims should be blown off.
- slowhand09 4y ago
  I shoot a bit and I think Busse is a bit of a sensationalist. After all, he writes for the Atlantic. Not typically a supporter of the group the left sterotypes so heavily. https://ryanbusseauthor.com/category/articles/ https://ryanbusseauthor.com/category/articles/
- yellowapple 4y ago
  Sure, but that's all a moot point when the marketing in question will largely only find its way to people who are already interested in firearms. The marketing is catering to demand, not magically creating it.
EricE 4y ago
Yup - blaming the guns was always stupid. It's the evil people holding the guns that need to be the focus. His arguments are further blown apart with the contrast of the recent tragic events in Indiana vs. Texas.
gvhst 4y ago
I think the point isn't so much that gun advertising is expanding and increasing demand of weapons, more that the style has changed and has impacted the culture and aesthetic within the firearms enthusiast community.
- flyingfences 4y ago
  > impacted the culture and aesthetic within the firearms enthusiast community. And then he makes the leap of presuming that an aesthetic within the enthusiast community is driving a surge in mass murder. Frankly, the opposite seems more likely to me: that the shift in manufacturer focus is meeting a rising demand created by a fracturing society.

programmer_dude 4y ago

https://web.archive.org/web/20220725143622/https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2022/07/firearms-industry-marketing-mass-shooter/670621/ https://web.archive.org/web/20220725143622/https://www.theat...

achenatx 4y ago

the 24/7 news coverage is causing mass shootings. It is well established that coverage of suicides leads to more suicides. When you look at murder rates, they are concentrated in certain demographic groups and certain areas of the country. There are plenty of areas awash in guns that dont have high murder rates. Obviously more guns will lead to more murders (or suicides) via guns. But they are not a cause of the murders. Illegal drugs, poverty, messages of hopelessness are the cause of high murder rates. Sensationalized coverage of school shootings and untreated mental illness are likely the cause of school shootings.

yellowapple 4y ago

Surprised the author didn't sprain something with all that reaching. Firearms marketing is basically only visible to anyone who already is sufficiently interested in firearms (or activities pertaining to them) to seek it out in magazines or on the walls of gun stores. To assert that the sorts of marketing materials the author describes is somehow a cause of gun violence to any significant degree (at all, let alone moreso than socioeconomic factors like financial hardship and mental health issues) is a pretty blatant inversion of causality for that reason. The one exception might be video games, and that's still a stretch when you consider how far removed the in-game performance of "real world" weapons tends to be from reality (and is pretty squarely debunked when you remember that all those attempts to link video games with violence have been pretty thoroughly refuted when examined with even the slightest bit of scientific rigor). No, socioeconomic inequality and the ownership class' success in convincing the working class to take it out on themselves has given the US a national nightmare. And don't even get me started on the conflation of "likes guns" with "right wing". There are leftist gun owners, contrary to what the author wants to portray.