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It's Your Week. Could gun ads be regulated like cigarettes?

Sallee Ann Harrison   | Paste BN

Stats show guns don't make you safer. Firearm marketing says otherwise. Could the FTC crack down on gun ads as they did with cigarettes?

👋 Sallee Ann here. Back in action with Your Week, our newsletter exclusively for Paste BN subscribers (that's you!).

Thanks to Nicole Fallert for filling in for me last week. Her edition was SO GOOD, here's a link if you missed it. 

I didn't travel anywhere, just staycationed on my time off — a pro tip I use to avoid burnout at all costs. Speaking of burnout, a big talker this week was a story on "quiet quitting," which isn't really quitting, but just not going above and beyond your job requirements.

As one subscriber noted in our texting group (which you should join if you haven't already), "Let's rebrand 'quietly quitting' as 'having a healthy work-life balance and not working for free.'"

I hope you're having a relaxing weekend and are ready to dive in to some big projects we worked on this week at Paste BN – projects you made possible with your subscription.

What gun advertisements are promoting

The Federal Trade Commission intervened when vaping products and various purported COVID-19 remedies have not accurately conveyed public health risks. Are gun manufacturers the next target?

Investigative reporter Nick Penzenstadler is a gun owner. He grew up shooting guns and hunting in Wisconsin. Part of his beat now at Paste BN is to cover gun violence and gun policy.

"I’ve become much more interested in groups like the National Shooting Sports Foundation, an industry lobby group and their influence on policy," Penzenstadler said. "They arguably hold more sway in this space than National Rifle Association, which represents gun owners. That’s why we’re so interested in the trajectory of gun ads – which have been challenged by prominent gun safety groups as 'toxic' and are the subject of petitions to the Federal Trade Commission for regulation."

A review of thousands of gun company magazine advertisements spanning decades shows a gradual marketing shift from guns as tools for hunting to guns as necessities to protect your home and your family.

When did the pivot to self-defense take place? Researchers say about 2011, two years after President Barack Obama took office with a platform that included gun control.

"This project sent my colleague Amritpal Kaur Sandhu-Longoria to the Violence Policy Center to research hundreds of archived gun magazines. That perspective lets you see the gradual shift from hunting and target shooting to self-defense and home protection," Penzenstadler said. "I focused on 155 issues of NRA’s more recent American Rifleman issues that are available online, using a computer program to analyze words in articles and ads."

What did they find? The word “defense” appeared in ads and stories an average of 21 times in the magazines, about as often as “tactical.” By comparison, “hunt” and “shooting sports” averaged 11 and nine mentions per edition respectively.

"I’m not surprised by these ads, but people who aren’t routinely exposed to guns or their marketing might be," Penzenstadler said. "The appearance of children holding guns in ads in the wake of the Uvalde shooting, for instance, enraged many. That company, Daniel Defense, removed the ad and was called before Congress to defend itself."

You can take a look at the ads here, and let Nick know what you think ("I love hearing from readers," he said) via email npenz@usatoday.com or text or Signal: 720-507-5273.

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  • The US is investing millions to stop gun deaths. Is it going to the right communities? The Biden administration claims to have secured at least $300 million for community violence prevention and intervention programs through the 2021 American Rescue Plan Act and 2022 Bipartisan Safer Communities Act. In late July, Biden announced his "Safer America Plan" would contribute $5 billion more to such interventions over 10 years. Here's how your taxpayer dollars are being used.

  • Shots fired in US schools spiked dramatically last year, gun violence report finds. “We don’t have to live this way, our children and educators sure as hell shouldn’t die this way," said Shannon Watts, founder of Moms Demand Action,part of Everytown For Gun Safety, which published the report.

Unrelated stories for when you need a breather

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See you next week, same time, same place!

-SA

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