The anti-gun crowd seem to be in the throes of their biennial panic about "marketing guns to kids".
Look, if you think that the firearms industry is actually spending advertising dollars to market its products to a demographic that is going to save enough quarters from their allowance to buy a Glock, toddle into the gun shop, reach up on tiptoe and slide their piggy bank across the counter, only to be told "Sorry, kid, you gotta be 21 to buy that"...
If you think the gun industry is that dumb, well then you just need to let them keep on doing it, because nothing that dumb can possibly survive outside of Congress.
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23 comments:
Comin for the First Amendment again. Gotta love the Progs. It's OK to advertise slut clothes for first day back at third grade but HEAVEN FORBID some little girl oughtta be shooting with her Daddy.
Thanks for reading WaPo so we don't have to do so.
The Left wants a monopoly on indoctrinating kids. Then can't do that if Dad keeps buying Little Bit those Kalashnikitty t-shirts.
They should do something about stopping selling guns to children on the internet too!
And more seriously, lately I've been noticing how EVERYTHING is being marketed in a way that once would have been considered for children. Big bright colored goofy fonts, shiny pictures, fast movement, and nearly no information at all.
Bob:
The left has to recruit, since they don't breed that much. Anything that interferes with recruiting is crimethink.
If it wasn't for guns for kids my 21 year old daughter wouldn't have one. Her Mossberg 510 only works for her because it's youth sized. Being 5'2" with short arms doesn't make it easy to use a full sized shotgun for deer hunting.
I myself own a youth-sized Remington 870 Express 20GA pump, for two reasons: One, it's got a shorter barrel, and two, I've got short arms and a standard American shotgun stock is too long for me.
So they're not just for kids! :)
My college-aged son gladly wore his Kalashnikitty T-Shirt, camo green with the kitty proudly holding aloft her AK on the front, when he was a sophomore in the Corps of Cadets at Texas A&M.
He said that the Fish (Freshmen Cadets) were strangely more terrified when he led exercises in the morning wearing that shirt, than when he was in regulation attire.
Now that I think about it, he never mentioned wearing pants with the T-shirt.
The 21 year age limit is like waving a red flag to kids. "This is SOO cool, you can't have one until you are older". So, if anything, it is the anti-gun legislation that is advertizing to encourage kids to get guns (as soon as they are old enough).
Are there any other rights in the Bill of Rights that aren't valid until you are 21?
Boat guy and Bob are on the money...
Shouldn't they be talking a bit more to the video games industry? Or Hollywood?
Assuming that we really want to tell people what they can and dan't say / market, that is.
Yeah, they're working like crazy on parents, just like every other business in the world from McDonald's to Hot Topic.
What they really wish they could stop is the marketing of firearms that make it easier for parents to give in when Little Jenny wants her own rifle. But I had a "youth model" Stevens 20-gauge single-shot almost 30 years ago (!) that was much older than that. It actually belonged to my grandma.
This is also likely a way to work in the phrase "just like the tobacco industry," which is always worth doing from the other side's point of view. And maybe there really are some of them who are picturing gun shops where a kid can give the clerk an extra few bucks and get slipped a Hi-Point, just like every local gas station within 30 miles of here used to do with cigarettes? Or maybe the kids are hanging out in the parking lot waiting for that skeevy guy who's kind of a grownup but buys all the kids cigarettes and beer, and they're all bugging him, "Hey, man, can you just get me a Crickett? Just a Crickett, man, doesn't even have to be pink or nothin'."
Handling guns responsibly is a rite of passage I went through 60 years ago and my grandchildren are doing it now. Each child matures both mentally and physically at a different rate but introducing kids to shooting and hunting and letting them learn how the rules work and the seriousness of handling guns is one of the few ways left to teach a kid about actions and consequences and that some activities have no room for any margin of error.
My oldest grandson is 16 and he is absentminded about almost everything until it comes to guns. He understands that if he is careless one time with muzzle control or any other aspect of safety then we pack up and head home and he is excellent around guns.
He is also an incredible shot which we saw last month when he joined his uncle on a 500 meter range in Colorado. It is nice to see a kid's success when he or she nails the center of a target a long way off.
We also have fun cooking game the kids shoot, passing on a family tradition of hunting that goes back generations.
My daughter became a police officer with a major Texas metro department last December. She told me that while her class was on the range at the academy, one of the instructors asked her "Who taught you how to shoot?" Made my day.
I would love to see a new law that when one of these nonsense laws is ruled unconstitutional, the Congress Critters that voted for it have to pay the court costs.
If nothing else Warner Bros will be against it since it makes Yosemite Sam illegal (and others too but he was the first one to pop into my memory).
Kishnevi
My (one remaining, sadly, now that that guy doesn't make them any longer) Kalashnikitty shirt's been through 6 Southeast airports. I used to call it my flying shirt before I stopped flying.
"lately I've been noticing how EVERYTHING is being marketed in a way that once would have been considered for children"
Brawndo! It's got what plants crave!
Docjim505 has it. If they really wanted to not market guns to kids, every #$@%^& action film wouldn't have an overmuscled protagonist (hmm, what do all those muscles not do to little boys who aren't and will never be that muscled that all the airbrushed and photoshopped glamour models do to little girls)
with some gun he wields like a magic wand to solve all the film's problems. If anyone has a Markley's law problem it's the directors, producers and actors in the shoot-em-up films that gross so much money from teen boy viewers.
Because of the unethical behavior demonstrated by many trained in MBA programs in the 1970's, in grad school I was required to take a course called "Social, Ethical and Legal Systems of Business". The law school trained instructor (JD degree) insisted that Joe Camel was a marketing campaign unethically targeted to children. When I was tasked to do a presentation on the First Amendment and business, I solicited a large carton of "gimme" promotional items from a local distributor of alcohol and tobacco. It was heartening to see the class of grad students (all certified to at or above 21 years of age) react positively and exuberantly to my offer of free Joe Camel ball caps (one size fits most), red Marlboro jackets (adult sized, of course), Miller Lite bottle opener key rings (good for holding your house and car keys) and similar items. I distributed them while I presented to the class why the First Amendment did protect commercial speech and how images and promotional materials were used to promote brand awareness, interest and excitement. The only person not smiling at the end of my presentation was the instructor.
Since the decision to purchase firearms can only be made and acted on by those eighteen years of age or older, this claim of "marketing guns to kids" is absurd. It is an attempt at hoplophobe indoctrination. Firearms are not porn.
From last year:
Two, two, two memes in one.
Joe Camel is pitching ARs to kids who want to look cool, doncha know.
Does that mean Fat Tire brew is being marketed to pre-teen boys who desperately want a grown-up-sized, red bicycle?
Dann in Ohio
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