A string of mass shootings in America has once again
reignited the gun control debate.
Most of the debate tends to focus on firearm production,
distribution and consumerism as avenues for
intervention. But what about marketing?
You won't typically see gun commercials or gun
billboards or even gun advertisements on the web.
Although there is no federal regulation on how
guns are advertised, many top media companies have
strict policies against ads that promote or sell
weapons. Yet firearm companies and influencers
are able to post content across social media.
According to a 2022 ProPublica analysis, 15 of
the nation's largest firearm companies used
loopholes to display millions of ads across
Google systems.
Some believe limiting the marketing of assault weapons
could translate to fewer gun related deaths.
Those sorts of marketing campaigns, they work or the
companies would not be spending money on them.
It seems like guns are a no brainer when we talk about
dangerous substances.
Some gun advocates believe firearm advertising is just
a tiny piece of the pie.
The gun industry advertising out there barely, can't even
stand up to what's happening in the video game
industry or the Hollywood industry as far as
portraying firearms in a positive or a negative
light.
In May of 2022, the Committee on Oversight and
Reform launched an investigation into gun
manufacturers, seeking information on the sales and
marketing of their assault rifles.
So just how significant are gun advertisements and
should the U.S. take a bigger stance on regulating
them? Firearm influencing and
marketing can be traced back to exhibition shooters
in the late 1800s.
Annie Oakley, for instance, she was very famous
traveling with Buffalo Bill Cody's Wild West Show.
You had the couple known as the fabulous Topper Wines.
They were a husband and wife shooting team back in
the 1930s and forties and fifties.
They were sponsored by a number of firearm
manufacturers.
Throughout much of the 20th century, gun advertisements
used to circulate in major U.S.
papers and magazines.
You had firearms advertising literally in regular
publications, newspapers across the country.
You had exhibition shooters traveling the country.
And some of these events were were hugely popular to
where you had actors and actresses that would
competitively shoot. You had professional athletes
that would professionally shoot.
Following the Cleveland school massacre in 1989 and
other similar acts, the 1994 Assault Weapons Ban was
enacted. Production of assault rifles, like the
AR-15, surged in the months leading up to the ban and
then stopped completely.
Ryan Busse worked in gun sales for 25 years.
In 2021, he published his book Gunfight: My Battle
Against the Industry That Radicalized America.
20 years ago, the industry did not allow in its own
industry trade shows, tactical gear to be
displayed or advertised like that has been worn by
the Uvaldi and Buffalo shooters and has influenced
firearms marketing. It's now very aggressively
marketed. The industry did not allow tactical gear to
be marketed. Only a couple manufacturers as late as
2004 or 2005 produced AR-15s.
So they were a fringe sort of military police thing.
When the ban expired in 2004, most assault weapons
were back on shelves.
Now they're the very center of firearms industry
marketing, and they're wrapped up in political
identity and radicalization and extremism.
So it's changed.
With no laws prohibiting gun advertisements in the U.S.,
in 2001, gun control activists launched the
National Campaign to Close the Newspaper Loophole,
urging publications to stop the sale of illegal firearms
through classified ads.
By 2005, 33 newspapers changed their policies to
prohibit classified gun ads from unlicensed dealers.
In 2013, Comcast, NBC, Time Warner Cable, Fox and
ESPN banned firearm and ammunition advertising in
most of its channels.
Today, gun manufacturers and vendors turn to digital
marketing to promote their products.
Many of these ad campaigns still depict sporting,
hunting and military themes, but some of the more
controversial ones use fear, sex and
hypermasculinity in order to influence consumers.
Platforms like YouTube allow for content surrounding
safety and education.
Lucas Botkin is the founder of a firearm defense
manufacturing company and an influencer with over 1
million subscribers on YouTube.
I stick to teaching shooting, how to handle
firearms in a safe and effective way.
And then in addition to that, teaching people how
different equipment works, what firearms are good, how
different pieces of equipment work with those
firearms, what they should buy.
The biggest question people ask these days is, What do I
buy or When do I buy it?
The gun industry in America is a $36 billion business
and it's rapidly expanding.
U.S. firearm manufacturers produced 11.1 million guns
in 2020, up from 5.4 million in 2015.
In addition to TV and print, major events that
generate large crowds like the Super Bowl and NASCAR
prohibit firearm advertisements.
Many of these companies have turned to the internet.
They're now using social media for advertising.
You have different firearm trainers that want to
promote proper firearms handling, that want to put
that they put on classes.
Hey, this is how you properly carry a firearm.
This is how you properly use a firearm.
Without federal legislation banning gun advertisements,
restrictions are imposed by individual companies and
platforms. Activists have urged the FCC to impose
restrictions on gun ads similar to that of
substances like tobacco.
They say the research is comparable.
That research truly demonstrates that the more
ads that students see, whether it's on social media
or the internet, the more likely they are to begin
smoking and to continue smoking.
And we don't have that same level of information
collected on firearms, adoption and use, but we can
draw some connection there that viewing, witnessing and
learning more about firearms makes one more
likely to choose to own and use and explore
firearms as a consumer product.
Gun advocates point to other potentially dangerous
substances with fewer advertising restrictions.
I don't think there should be restrictions.
I mean, look, as a free society, we have the First
Amendment. It would be no different.
Let's go into alcohol.
You have all of these different alcohol companies.
You have beer companies, you have hard liquor
companies. They all do their commercials.
And how many people die at the hands of drunk drivers?
Facebook, Instagram and TikTok have policies against
paid ad campaigns promoting the sale or use of weapons.
But there are fewer restrictions on what content
can be posted on your own profile.
Among U.S. adults viewing YouTube, 61% say they
frequently or sometimes have observed videos with
people engaging in dangerous or troubling
behavior. According to one study, a YouTuber with 1
million subscribers can earn up to six figures m
onthly.
Influencers are an important part of firearms
advertising, in the same way they become an important
part of advertising for a large range of different
consumer products.
Influencer work is a lot different than traditional
forms of advertising in that it's sort of a homemade
media content, relatable, much longer segments of
videos, and there is engagement with the audience
in terms of when people post comments or respond to
them in different formats.
One of the cases against firearm marketing is the
potential exposure to children or those under the
age of 18.
In July of 2022, California enacted a law prohibiting
firearm companies from marketing to minors.
The law imposes fines of up to $25,000 for advertising
that looks appealing to those under the age of 18.
That same month, California signed another bill that
would allow citizens to sue companies for marketing guns
to kids like this ad for a child sized AR-15.
I would just challenge that the entertainment content
that is being produced be held to that same standard,
that if it's not appropriate for little Timmy
to see an ad for a gun, well, then there's probably
a lot of TV shows and movies they probably
shouldn't be watching either.
We can't have those sorts of things marketed, especially
to troubled young teenage kids, which is what we've
seen here recently.
I mean there are so many things that we consider in
our society that teenagers are not ready for yet,
whether it's tobacco, alcohol, drugs or
pornography, all sorts of things.
It seems like a gun would be at the top of that list.
The most dangerous thing that you could possibly have
.
In 2016, Apple was the first company to swap out
its pistol emoji for a water gun for reasons
unsighted. It came one year after a 12-year-old was
charged with allegedly using the emoji as a death
threat. While there aren't many studies directly
connecting gun violence to firearm advertising, gun
control advocates point to recent mass shootings.
In 2012, Adam Lanza used three different guns from
his mother to kill 27 people at Sandy Hook
Elementary School.
Remington, the gun company that made the AR-15 assault
rifle Lanza used, advertised the semiautomatic
on the internet. Families of nine victims sued the
gunmaker for promoting sales of the weapon
appealing to troubled men.
Remington settled the lawsuit for $73 million in
February 2022.
I would like to see legislation to rein in
irresponsible marketing.
As an example, the Buffalo shooter noted his extensive
use of social media pages to research the tactical
gear and the guns that he bought.
So, I mean, it definitely has an effect.
And those sorts of marketing campaigns, they
work or the companies would not be spending money on
them.
Google's ad policy bans guns, but according to an
analysis by ProPublica, 15 of the nation's largest
firearm sellers like Daniel Defense used Google Systems
to place ads that generated over 120 million impressions
before and after a mass shooting.
Google hasn't responded to requests for an interview,
but they said in an email, While we offer tools for
publishers to decide if they want to accept third
party ads for weapons, we do not block sites from
running these types of ads if they choose to do so.
It's a complex issue.
We live in a complex country. I still own guns.
I'm pro-gun. I want to continue to do that.
But we're not going to have any rights in this country
if this thing gets so out of control that our entire
democracy, I mean, we can't go to a parade as a family
on Independence Day.
Over the past few years, activists have urged the FTC
to investigate the marketing practices of big
name firearm companies for what they deem to be "unfair
and deceptive." Some of their reasoning includes
"misrepresenting an association with the
military" and "causing substantial harm" that is
not outweighed by any benefits.
In May of 2022, following the Highland Park and Uvalde
shootings, the Committee on Oversight and Reform
launched an investigation into gun manufacturers,
including Daniel Defense, LLC, Smith & Wesson Brands,
Inc. and Sturm, Ruger & Company, Inc..
The three gun manufacturers did not respond to CNBC's
request for comment.