| THE GUN INDUSTRY
The gun industry is often overlooked in the liberal vs conservative "gun control" debates, where the focus is usually on the various damages caused by guns vs the individual right to own firearms. The discussion below is based partly on the book Making a Killing: The Business of Guns in America by Tom Diaz, NY:The New Press, 1999. There are a lot of parallels between the "social problems" posed by cigarettes and guns. For decades millions of Americans smoked cigarettes despite health warnings, legal restrictions, and other "tobacco control" measures. For decades, the tobacco industry made hundreds of billions of dollars in profits while several hundred million Americans died each year from the effects of smoking and the public paid for the hundreds of billions of dollars in damages caused by smoking - health costs and deaths, lost productivity at work, fires, car accidents, etc. Smoking finally began to decrease rapidly when the tobacco industry was forced by liability lawsuits to begin paying for part of the damage caused by smoking, and their profits were threatened. Gun control has mostly been as ineffective as early tobacco control was. But it is likely that our gun problems would begin to decrease significantly if the gun industry had to redirect part of their profits to pay for the deaths and injuries, and the billions of dollars in damages, caused by guns. The Gun Industry The gun industry is a multi-billion dollar industry, and it is organized much like any other manufacturing industry, except that it tends to be privately-owned (most are not publicly-held companies). There are four sectors: Manufacture/import, wholesalers, retailers, consumers The industry advertises and promotes their products through the "gun press" (magazines, newsletters, etc.), through professional associations like the NRA (National Rifle Association), through movies and other entertainment industry links, and through the video game and toy industries. The main target market is young males. About 16% of US adults own handguns - the number of owners is decreasing, but the total number of handguns is increasing (there are fewer owners, but on the average each owns more guns). Costs of handgun proliferation (mostly paid by public!) Costs of the gun carnage in America have been estimated at about $112 billion a year, or about $1000 for each American family, paid for by tax money: $60 billion for costs of gun assaults and homicides, $41 billion for costs of gun suicides. $11 billion for costs of gun accidents). Added to this are the non-economic costs of tens of thousands of gun-related deaths and injuries. Most of the costs are paid by local governments: police, hospital trauma centers, medical examiners, etc. The benefits of handgun proliferation are limited to sport shooting and gun collecting by a small minority of Americans and billions of dollars in profits for the gun industry. History/background (Note: US history of widespread handgun ownership is a myth!) > The agricultural/rural background - many (but not most) Americans owned "long guns" (rifles and shotguns) for hunting and protection against predator animals. > With urbanization, ownership of long guns rapidly decreased - they are simply not needed or useful for anything, and are dangerous, in urban areas. > After WW2, the declining gun industry was desperately seeking new markets - long guns and sport shooting were not marketable in urban areas. > With the rise of crime in the 1960s the industry created a new marketing strategy based on fear of crime, and handgun ownership as a sensible response to the rise in crime. Through this marketing strategy and the resulting advertising gimmick, they created a new "traditional" gun culture in order to sell more guns. The new gun culture strategy aimed to make handguns mysterious "tribal totems embodying a complex of values" in order to make them marketable to a public made fearful of crime by politicians and the media. > Fear of crime - the industry, and politicians that they fund through campaign contributions, promotes fear of crime while denying any responsibility for gun crime. > The identification of handguns with "masculinity" - especially targets white males as "besieged" by the Civil Rights and Feminist Movements. > Political links with the far-right and superficial images of "liberty" and self-reliance (promotes guns as the "great equalizer"). > The fantasy of "immediate justice" (shoot the bad guys) and the male "duty" to protect his family, etc. In order to drive sales (mainly to sell more guns to current gun owners) the industry continually develops "better products" - lighter, more concealable handguns, more lethal ammunition, and various "specialty items" like assault weapons. The industry also cultivated links to law enforcement through discount and "trade-in" programs, reinforcing the cultural attachment to guns by American police. There is some irony here since more lethal guns and ammo are the very ones often used to kill police on the streets. The strategy worked well - there are currently more than 200 million guns in the US, a national survey estimated that 80% were acquired since the 1970s, and the biggest growth by far has been ownership of handguns. Like cigarettes, the gun culture has a natural affinity with impulsive/irrational start-ups - so the industry wants to attract potential customers when they are young and impulsive. This leads to targeting younger people (e.g., NRA gun ownership and "gun safety" campaigns for kids, gun-related games like paintball and "cowboy shooting" contests, violent movies and games targeted especially at young males). More recently, the industry has begun targeting "under-represented" groups (women & minorities). For women, the industry promotes fear of rape and the illusion of self-protection with handguns. For minorities, the industry promotes the fear of predatory violence and the illusion of self-protection with handguns. In every category, handgun ownership puts the owner and their family, friends, and acquaintances at higher risk of death and injury. There are two major policy approaches to reducing gun-related problems: (1) government regulation (�gun control�) which is not very effective and (2) Product liability lawsuits, especially at the state and local level, to pay for the economic costs of the gun carnage. These types of lawsuits are what brought down the tobacco industry and led to huge decreases in the number of Americans who smoke cigarettes. The gun industry is currently lobbying for new laws to exempt gun manufacturers from liability lawsuits - under the misleading banner of "tort reform". ********************************** *********************************** A more specific example of the relationship between gun proliferation and gun violence: A 2001 US Dept. of Justice Report described the following trends: huge increases in juvenile homicides from 1983 to 1993. Then a huge drop in the same homicide categories from 1993 to 1999. The overall trend was all firearm related (there was little change in non-firearm homicides). Robbery and weapons offenses followed similar patterns (both usually involve guns). Property offenses and larceny/theft did not follow similar patterns - neither usually involve guns). Male offender homicides drove the trends (there was little change in female offender homicides). There were similar trends for white and minority offender homicides. Most new homicide victims were also young (15-25). The increases were all acquaintance and stranger homicides (little change in family homicides). Summary: From 1983 to 1993 there were huge increases in homicides (and other gun-related offenses) by young males using guns to threaten, injure, or kill young acquaintance/stranger victims. Between 1993 and 1999 there were huge decreases in the same types of offenses. What caused these striking trends? From the mid-1980�s to 1993, a huge flood of very cheap imported guns from China and later Eastern Europe (former Soviet Union) countries poured into the US, at first rifles and handguns, then assault rifles. Guns (especially cheap handguns called "Saturday night specials") became much more available and affordable to juveniles, and as a result juvenile homicides increased. In 1993, Bill Clinton became President and immediately banned the import of cheap firearms from China and Eastern European countries. This was politically viable because it removed a source of competition for the domestic gun industry. After the 1993 import ban, guns became much less available and much less affordable to juveniles - and as a result juvenile homicide rates dropped. Copyright � 2009 Ernie Thomson. All rights reserved. email: [email protected] |