How the Gun Industry Markets Weapons to Doomsday Preppers and Violent Extremists

[Nevilledog]

Link to tweet

Tweet text:

Lisa Tozzi
@lisatozzi
Gone are the days of hunting and self-defense. The NRA convention show floor catered to “ghost gun” enthusiasts and marketed dark visions of societal collapse

rollingstone.com
How the Gun Industry Markets Weapons to Doomsday Preppers and Violent Extremists
Hunting and self-defense are out. The NRA convention is catered toward "ghost gun" enthusiasts with dark visions of societal collapse
5:30 PM · May 31, 2022

https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-features/nra-convention-uvalde-shooting-gun-industry-1361011/

No paywall
https://archive.ph/fQ3TT

A sprawling gun show — billed as “14 Acres of Guns & Gear” — was the main attraction at the the National Rifle Association’s annual convention in Houston this past weekend. And even in the aftermath of the carnage in nearby Uvalde, where 19 children and two adults were massacred by a teenager with an assault weapon, NRA members poured in by the thousands to gawk at the gun industry’s latest, sexiest, deadliest wares.

In addition to the expected panoply of pistols, revolvers, shotguns, and AR-15s, the showroom featured one booth with a machine that lets you mill your own, untraceable, gun out of a block of aluminum.

The “Ghost Gunner” is a computer-operated, tabletop, boring and machining device capable of producing “complete, mil-spec and unregistered AR-15 receiver…in the privacy of your own home.” (A receiver is the regulated part of the modular AR-15 — the part that normally requires a serial number, and can’t be bought at a gun shop without passing a background check.) And this machine, while ostensibly aimed at the DIY enthusiast, could also enable a criminal, prohibited from buying a gun, to produce their own, military-grade weapon.

The “Ghost Gunner” is just one, extreme, example of dozens of vendors at the NRA’s big show who catered to the dangerous fringes of the gun-buying public. Their products and paraphernalia were positioned to appeal to “patriot” members of militia movements and even violent extremists like the Boogaloo Bois, who seek to provoke a new civil war. To walk the showroom floor in Houston is to experience a world of gun commerce without guardrails. There are responsible sellers here, of course, looking to connect with responsible buyers, who may want a new rifle for hunting or a handgun to ward off home invaders. But in this crowded marketplace, other vendors push the envelope in search of profits, making grotesque appeals to unwell people — in ways that seem destined to amplify the nation’s crisis of deadly gun violence.

*snip*

[sanatanadharma]

1. Ban gun advertising

Bans on advertising do not infringe rights of possession.