Be wary of gun marketing

For or against gun control reform, please consider: Hunting guns account for less than one-quarter of the market. The hunting industry forecasts a 24 percent drop in revenue by 2025. Handgun sales have jumped 70 percent since 2008. Top gun makers enjoy gross profits of 30 percent or more.

Less than 20 percent of Americans born after 1980 report having a gun in the home. For the industry, the problem is “Who is going to buy the guns?” Instead of the replacement smokers the tobacco industry struggled with, the gun industry is asking “How do we find replacement shooters?”

Marketing strategy:

1) Feminizing weapons by dressing them up in hot pink.

2) Marketing powerful guns to women as protection.

3) Promoting violent movies and video games to our youth.

The political fight over assault rifles and high-capacity pistols is about more than profits; it’s about a desperate bid by gun makers to prop up a decaying business. We are being manipulated again by fear and greed.

Please consider these facts. Don’t get caught up in this deadly sales gimmick. Educate yourself.

For more information, read “The Gun Industry’s Deadly Addiction” by Tim Dickinson in the Feb. 22 Rolling Stone magazine.

Mary Naber

Spokane