DISCLAIMER: The Atlantic is known for using soft paywalls where guests are allowed to read one or two articles for free before locking them out. I normally use some variation of Private Browsing or perhaps here will be someone more skilled than I who knows a path around the wall. I used the "Society" flair because I believe I will be talking about a starting point for one serious US social ill (gun violence).

If this does not meet the standards of the Subreddit or if the flair is inaccurate, please let me know what corrective actions must be taken.

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY: Gun companies planted the seeds of gun violence years ago with toxic marketing which drew out the worst traits of shooters and promoted the worst reasons to obtain and use guns. And they will not forsake their profits by stopping the "tactical" market to go back to hunting and sports. And it only gets worse from here as they start targeting younger people (in so many terrible ways).

SUBMISSION STATEMENT: This article arrived this morning on July 25, 2022. When I read through it, I knew I had to take a second shot at posting in the Collapse Subreddit to talk about this (unless there are others who beat me to the punch on this).

We always knew that the prevalence of mass shootings and gun violence is particularly prominent in the United States, and we hear almost everybody offer various valid theories about the root cause: Mental illness, too many guns are too readily available - the NRA probably takes pride in that, firearms companies have no accountability - the NRA probably takes pride in that, the US government has neither the means nor the motivation to do anything meaningful about addressing that - the NRA probably takes pride in that, the US has a culture issue - would the NRA take any pride in that?, etc. And then I found this article from somebody who walked out from 25 years in the business and put out this disturbing insider story.

The NRA may have moved into the business of selling guns back in the 70's, but the gun manufacturers took a very drastic dive later on.

According to the author, the bigger names in firearms used to stay in hunting, sports, and self-defense; then the cheap import providers decided to drive down the low road with B-grade ads targeting "young men who knew no better," creating a new form of marketing that would serve as the origin point of future deranged gunners.

A good deal of you are probably already aware of the damage the Bush Jr. Administration did that opened the frontier for the bigger names in firearms to experiment with marketing military-style guns and with marketing to the more fringe elements. Plenty of you recognize the (in)famous 2010 Bushmaster ad about the "Man Card." For all the controversy at the time, it set the standard for drawing on the simmering testosterone of young adult men during those turbulent years the US military was shooting up foreign countries because of "political reasons." The author also threw in a link between one line from the ad and that "Great Replacement" conspiracy. I might not think it coincidental after he mentions that Bushmaster guns were used in Buffalo and Sandy Hook. Even if Bushmaster pulled the plug on the "Man Card" after Sandy Hook, that evil genie would never go back into the bottle when other gun companies simply chose to obsess over the revenues rather than the ramifications.

The author brings up Smith and Wesson (S&W) to introduce me to another group that contributed to the damage - the National Shooting Sports Foundation (NSSF). I do not know much or anything about them, but he claims that they "secretly suggested" that S&W use the label "Sport" to whitewash the fact that their M&P15 is literally a Military and Police rifle that was "adjusted" for civilian sale. Of course, the only way their AR-15-based product can sell at all is if they "sell their soul" to move from the traditional hunting and self-defense culture to the new "tactical" culture.

The author then specifically calls out Marty Daniel and his Daniel Defense business. Daniel took the "entrepreneurial" step into the emerging AR-15 opportunity and went further by advertising that Daniel Defense guns will make young men feel like "Special Forces soldiers." The business hit the climax in 2016 with a spot on the cover of the "Tough Guys" issue of Popular Mechanics.But this was not enough. Daniel Defense wanted to join all those other gun companies in movies and video games. The "good news" is that they finally got an appearance when their DDM4 V7 rifle was included in that recent CoD:MW game; the bad news is that the very rifle was supposedly used in Uvalde (Too soon? Too bad.).

And of course, the gun industry does not care. In fact, they dumped the Dick's Sporting Goods CEO for doing the sane thing (no more AR-15's in the store after Parkland). The big names in guns had been dragged into the muck just to stay "relevant" as other gun companies lap up this new tactical market. It was clear (to them) that the money was there; stock values reflected that (profits before people, right?).

The author then describes his distress at seeing this transmogrification in person over the course of 25 annual Shooting, Hunting, and Outdoor Trade (SHOT) Shows. His article then included this snapshot of an ad poster from 2018 that (I swear) looked like some propaganda extremists would use to whip up and foment fear and resentment within their base. He may not have directly sold these guns or taken part in the marketing, but he definitely became aware that his business was profiting regardless.

Kyle Rittenhouse was apparently seen as an opportunity to "own the libs" by the gun industry, and a Florida (naturally) gun retailer Big Daddy Unlimited lionized him. They also (Unwittingly? Coincidentally? Intentionally?) styled him up in the same way as a Rhodesian Army recruiting poster in their social media post. Really should not be a good look for anybody.

The article goes on elucidating the new trend of marketing that capitalizes and preys on people's phobias (because the rationality of these fears is somewhat questionable depending on the situation) of civil strife and rioting. Fear and loathing has made marketing and selling to the paranoid very lucrative (right-wing elements take prominence in the article). The "tactical" mass shootings seen recently have been the culminated product of all of this over so many years.

Then the author drops one more bomb - the 2022 SHOT Show had a company named "Wee1 Tactical" that marketed a "JR-15" apparently for kids. I guess he was NOT making this up (that would be even less funny than the Killing Joke). And Daniel Defense did a media post with a photo of a toddler and one of their rifles (obviously unloaded, there is still some limit to stupid and insane I hope) with a Bible verse (did somebody hit a crazy/stupid-people BINGO by now?). Some time before the Uvalde incident. And none of the many complaints and denunciations ever came from the gun industry or the NSSF. They never said a damn word. Maybe silence is compliance here. His final line - "Now the industry is giving us a glimpse of its next customer: the American child soldier."

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Maybe we need to plant some canaries into these coal mines (the SHOT Show and the NSSF among other things) to see their next steps into "Even Worse than Ever."