Industry data shows that in 1990, an estimated 74,000 military-style rifles were manufactured for domestic sale in the U.S. “Their goal is basically to induce a Pavlovian response: ‘If there’s a crisis, you must go get a gun.’” They tailored their marketing to Katrina, Y2K, 9/11, pretty much everything,” he said. “If you look back, it hasn’t just revolved around mass shootings. The company toned down the language but embraced the idea of trafficking in fears of urban crime and mass shootings, the documents showed. The first draft of the new pitch, later obtained by lawyers representing parents of children killed at Sandy Hook, exhorted buyers to use their new rifles to “Clear the Crack House,” “Ice the Perp” and “Save the Hostage.” In 2009, a marketing firm hired by Remington to push its Bushmaster AR-15s settled on an ad campaign targeting civilians who “aspired” to be part of law enforcement. That provided a built-in market among veterans and former police officers, but also kicked off an effort to woo millions of men who liked to buy gear that made them feel like soldiers and the police. This transition was accompanied by a surge in popularity of the Glock semiautomatic handgun and AR-15-type rifle, first widely used by law enforcement and in the military, in its fully automatic version. The study found that “the core emphasis” shifted in the 2000s to “armed self-defense,” and that the percentage of hunting-related ads had dropped to about 10 percent by 2019. Still, hunting accounted for a majority of advertisements in Guns magazine from the 1960s to the late 1990s, according to a survey by Palgrave Communications, an online academic journal. For the better part of the last century, certain gunmakers emphasized self-defense: One of the industry’s most influential campaigns was a 1996 ad in Ladies’ Home Journal that showed a Beretta handgun on a kitchen table, with the words “Homeowner’s Insurance.” Marketing firearms for personal protection is nothing new. “Fear,” said Darrell Miller, co-director of the Duke Center for Firearms Law, “is an incredibly powerful motivator.” Anxiety Sells A rush to buy firearms often coincides with concerns about personal safety or events that could spur legal limits on gun ownership, said Mark Oliva, a spokesman for the National Shooting Sports Foundation, the industry trade group. Gun makers and their supporters argue they are only responding to a public need. Supreme Court will soon rule on a New York case challenging a century-old law that allows local officials great discretion over who can carry a handgun, which is widely expected to turn into another gun rights victory. In states where pro-gun forces do not have the backing of elected officials, they have taken up the fight in other ways. For instance, it soon will be legal to carry a hidden firearm without a permit in half the United States. “Drawing attention to the concern that firearm sales could be further restricted will have a great impact on anxious buyers,” a firearms industry study from 2017 advised.Īt the same time, guns rights groups have pushed an aggressive legislative and court agenda. Since the massacre at Sandy Hook Elementary School a decade ago, gun sales have almost always risen sharply in the aftermath of major shootings, as buyers snap up firearms they worry will disappear from stores. The recurrence of mass shootings has provided reliable opportunities for the industry and its allies. In a paradigm-setting 2012 ad in Maxim magazine, Bushmaster - which manufactured the rifle used in the racist massacre in Buffalo in May - declared, “Consider your man card reissued.” ![]() Using Madison Avenue methods, the firearms industry has sliced and diced consumer attributes to find pressure points - self-esteem, lack of trust in others, fear of losing control - useful in selling more guns. Some of the research is publicly known, but by searching court filings and online archives, The Times gained new insight into how gun companies exploit the anxiety and desires of Americans. ![]() Working together, gun makers, advocates and elected officials have convinced a large swath of Americans that they should have a firearm, and eased the legal path for them to do so. ![]() An examination by The New York Times of firearms marketing research, along with legal and lobbying efforts by gun rights groups, finds that behind the shift in gun culture is an array of interests that share a commercial and political imperative: more guns and freer access to them.
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