Despite appearing to the contrary, American gun manufacturers and sellers are not untouchable, untouchable, or above the law.
Typically, when lawmakers fail to protect the public, makers of hazardous products and perpetrators of hazardous industrial practices are apprehended by the threat of civil lawsuits. But this policy does not apply to the gun industry, as it has received unprecedented immunity from this important liability system.
Lawsuits against arms manufacturers are prohibited by the Protection of Lawful Commerce in Arms Act. When the bill became law in 2005, The NRA said It was “the most important part of the pro-gun law in twenty years.”
Federal law allows six exceptions where gun manufacturers can be sued. One of them is for manufacturers who violate state or federal laws regulating the marketing or sale of guns.
The marketing exception helped parents of children killed in the 2012 Sandy Hook Elementary School massacre successfully sue Remington Arms last year. The families of those killed in the nine Sandy Hook school shootings have been awarded 73 million as a result of the lawsuit.
According to CalMattersSurvivors of the 2019 shooting at a synagogue in the San Diego area also successfully argued that Smith and Wesson used marketing “which attracted passionate young men with military complexes who might be particularly attracted to the unique capabilities of AR-15 style weapons.”
To take a closer look at the claims, let’s take a look at some of Smith and Wesson’s marketing materials.
Does the video above do a good job of “moving metal” to borrow a phrase from the automobile industry? And who is interested in this video? Future SWAT team members?
There are dozens more videos on the brand’s YouTube page. I’ve picked a cherry-pick that beautifully explains how marketing high-powered automatic weapons isn’t about hunting, it’s about managing real-life combat games. Where people die.
Like guns, gun advertising is largely uncontrolled
How can we bring a rogue industry to a better place? Can we force gun makers and sellers to the table and make them play nice?
In 1997, the state attorney general, the plaintiffs’ lawyers and a group of industry representatives negotiated a complex agreement that required large quantities of tobacco to pay for. 8 368.5 billion in 25 years To compensate states for the costs of treating smoking-related illnesses, to fund nationwide anti-smoking programs, and to provide health care to millions of uninsured children.
There is no agreement in advertising or in real life to keep firearms out of the hands of children. It partly explains why a new ad from the Georgia-based AR-15 maker has been used in the Uvalde Massacre to show a child involved AR-15 as the best gift of all time.
“Train a child the way he should go and when he grows up, he will not move away from itDaniel Defense wrote in an ad shared on Twitter on May 16, eight days before the murder at Rob Elementary School.
The line refers to a proverb The Bible.
West is one, turn in your song
Since the advertising industry will not be self-regulating and the gun industry will not stop pumping their chambers until ‘we, the people’ stop them, what else can be done?
We can create and place public service ads for gun control. Do you remember this iconic promotion line?
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Seat belts save lives.
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Only You Can prevent fires.
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Keep America beautiful.
What is the “take control of the song” line that opens the mind and changes the heart? “Song Control Now” is very demanding and casual. To meet this challenge we need inspirational copies and campaigns from the best manufacturers in the industry.
Many Americans believe they have a God-given right to a gun. Very few Americans have read the Constitution or The Bible. The Second Amendment says members of a “well-organized militia” may have a gun. Adolescents with the will to die are not part of any militia, well-organized or not. Soccer parents who are equipped with teeth are not part of any militia. Some Americans have a right to a gun.
Now how to convey its truth to the people of this nation? How can we be more careful about saving lives than destroying people? How do we restore America’s public squares? Lawsuits and advertising campaigns alone will not do this, but they are effective tools that are in our toolbox. Let’s make full use of them.