{"id":86147,"date":"2022-09-30T10:12:41","date_gmt":"2022-09-30T15:12:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/?p=86147"},"modified":"2022-09-30T10:12:41","modified_gmt":"2022-09-30T15:12:41","slug":"86147","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/?p=86147","title":{"rendered":""},"content":{"rendered":"

DEMONIZING GUN ADS IS A MISGUIDED WITCH HUNT<\/a><\/p>\n

Gun control advocates are ready to start grabbing pitchforks and torches in their attempt to drive out firearm manufacturer advertisements. They fear that today\u2019s advertising is running to a tipping point where they need to rally the villagers to chase the monster pieced together by mad gun advertisers out of town.<\/p>\n

Today\u2019s gun ads, they claim, are a horrific menagerie of \u201ctoxic masculinity,\u201d fearmongering and anti-government militancy. Except none of that is true. Gun control\u2019s efforts are more like a witch hunt, and more like\u00a0Monty Python\u2019s version<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0of one depicted in the cult classic, \u201cThe Holy Grail.\u201d<\/p>\n

They\u2019re too busy clanging alarm bells to roust of the\u00a0Federal Trade Commission (FTC)<\/a><\/strong>\u00a0to realize that the monster they\u2019re chasing doesn\u2019t exist. The real monsters are the criminals, not the law-abiding gun owners who are lawfully purchasing firearms for self-defense, recreational shooting and hunting.<\/p>\n

They want to muzzle and silence our industry so the American heritage and tradition of hunting and the shooting sports is not passed on to the next generation.<\/p>\n

Defining Acceptable Ads<\/h4>\n

Adweek was the\u00a0latest<\/a><\/strong>\u00a0to weigh in. The advertising trade publication, which regularly highlights efforts by various gun control groups to demonize lawful gun ownership, posted a feature claiming that today\u2019s gun ads are turning America\u2019s children into \u201cextremists.\u201d<\/p>\n

The article focuses on an effort by lawmakers to pressure the FTC to abandon their neutrality and deny gun manufacturers the ability to advertise. They say the ads of yesteryear of plaid-clad hunters unwrapping a rifle under the tree are acceptable, but today\u2019s advertising that draws on patriotism and self-reliance is a bridge too far. They want the FTC to burn gun manufacturers at the metaphorical stake and cut out their tongues.<\/p>\n

That is a pretty big leap to suggest that Americans \u2013 even youth \u2013 exposed to firearm ads will poison their minds. Guns have been advertised for decades, even guns offered in youth models.\u00a0Mechanix Illustrated<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0ran an ad in 1954 for a Remington .22-caliber rifle, featuring a youth holding a rifle he received as a Christmas present. Sears Roebuck\u00a0listed firearms<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0in their catalog in 1897, featuring a shotgun for $7.95 and would even deliver a revolver to a mailing address.<\/p>\n

Clearly, government regulations restricted that years ago. Even toy guns, like\u00a0Mattel\u2019s #2 M-16<\/a><\/strong>\u00a0were featured in 1967 with \u201cbraap, brra-a-a-a-ap, brap, brap,\u201d sounds were advertised. None of that turned America\u2019s youth into murderers. In fact, recreational shooting, including the scholastic shooting sports, ranks among the safest sporting activities. Golf, walking and tennis\u00a0report<\/a><\/strong>\u00a0more injuries than hunting and trap and skeet shooting reports just 0.1 percent of injuries.<\/p>\n

Intellectually Dishonest<\/h4>\n

That is because the shooting sports are heavily supervised. Basic foundational safety rules are a must and are drilled into every gun owner. Children are admonished to only handle firearms under the direct supervision of a responsible adult.<\/p>\n

Critics of lawful firearm ownership are being intellectually dishonest when they say it is advertising that is causing out-of-control crime rates or horrific murders. They know this is not true. It is not as if these are individuals who are not academically accomplished. U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) was once a professor at Harvard University. Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) was Yale Law School graduate who also served as Connecticut\u2019s attorney general. They are not uneducated. They are just being dishonest.<\/strong><\/p>\n

They do not want to admit that the soft-on-crime policies they espouse are not making our communities safer. They would rather latch onto every gun control notion they can and mispresent to America that the societal ills are the fault of the firearm industry that they have made a career demonizing. It plays well to their voters when they do not have to admit their policies are failing. It is easier to cast blame and malign an industry, tell America that murderers are not individuals with craven hearts who couldn\u2019t care less about the law, much less the value of human life. It is easier to ignore that the responsible firearm industry offers\u00a0Real Solutions\u00ae<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0than admit law-abiding gun owners are invested in safe and responsible ownership.<\/p>\n

Do not believe their false and misleading claims that the firearm industry is evil. They are the ones selling pitchforks and torches.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

DEMONIZING GUN ADS IS A MISGUIDED WITCH HUNT Gun control advocates are ready to start grabbing pitchforks and torches in their attempt to drive out firearm manufacturer advertisements. They fear that today\u2019s advertising is running to a tipping point where they need to rally the villagers to chase the monster pieced together by mad gun … Continue reading “”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[75,24,8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-86147","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-media","category-rights","category-rkba"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/86147","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=86147"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/86147\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":86148,"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/86147\/revisions\/86148"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=86147"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=86147"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=86147"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}