If anyone is responsible for our nation’s gun violence epidemic, it’s the firearms industry.
There’s currently very little that can be done, however, to hold gun manufacturers and dealers accountable for their marketing and business practices that stoke fear and encourage aggression and violence in order to sell guns. Why? Because in 2005, Congress outrageously passed the 2005 Protection of Lawful Commerce in Arms Act (PLCAA),[1] which effectively shields the industry from lawsuits. We can change this.
Right now, by blocking legal action against gun manufacturers and dealers, PLCAA has removed any incentive for the gun industry to make guns safer and has absolved the industry of any responsibility for reckless and negligent sales practices, leading to the flood of guns both legal and illegal into our communities. This quite simply has to change.
Shielding the gun industry from lawsuits has allowed manufacturers and dealers to sell guns based on an extreme gun culture rooted in fear and violence, that disdains gun safety and embraces armed aggression, and puts weapons in the hands of those most susceptible to its dystopian vision. It is not okay.
Here’s a very small sample of the kinds of marketing tactics the gun industry has used to sell firearms (click the footnote links to see the actual images):
- A 2021 cover of Firearms News, under the theme “Be Ready,” shows a man protecting his family with a rifle aimed at a presumably Latino person waving a skateboard. [2]
- On May 16, 2022, Daniel Defense shared on social media a photo of a toddler cradling one of its AR-15s, along with a Bible verse beginning “Train up a child in the way he should go.” Two weeks later, a young man used an AR-15-style weapon manufactured by Daniel Defense to shoot 36 students and educators at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde. [3]
The gun industry’s marketing tactics have sown fear, racism, and violence in order to sell guns, and have been so successful that it’s turned firearms into an $80 billion-dollar industry. [4]
Not only do firearms profits enrich the industry, they are used to fund lobbying efforts against even the simplest, most basic gun safety policy reform which the vast majority of people in America support, such as universal background checks and barring gun sales for children.[5] Profits are also used to elect right-wing, pro-gun politicians who clear the way for even more gun sales![6]
There are around 400 million guns already in circulation in the United States, but nothing is stopping the firearms industry from continuing to push millions more weapons into our communities and homes every year, 15.8 million guns in 2023 alone.[7] In a country swimming in guns, more guns than there are people, it’s a national emergency that school shootings are becoming increasingly commonplace [8] and firearms have become the leading cause of death for children.[9]
To stop the gun industry from promoting extreme gun culture in order to sell as many guns as possible, the American people need every tool possible, including civil lawsuits to hold gun manufacturers and dealers accountable for the carnage of gun violence. We need PLCAA to be repealed immediately - our gun violence epidemic is a national emergency!
PLEASE SIGN NOW and forward this message to everyone you know who is concerned about the devastation of our country’s gun violence epidemic, and urge them to sign too.
We will never stop fighting for the safety of our children, loved ones, and communities.
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