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.
