Gun Industry CEOs Are Intentionally Misleading the Public
Americans who reject gun safety laws fear a future no one is fighting for. This is by design.
When you ask the average gun safety skeptic why they don’t support commonsense gun measures, they often cite one specific reason.
They fear that once we start to pass even small safety laws, the government may become so obsessed with it’s own power that it just won’t stop. That after we take a few small steps, we’ll be facing the day when the government walks into homes across America and takes every last gun.
Many of these skeptics will acknowledge the dangers posed by guns, including the ever-increasing scourge of mass shootings and the fact that shootings are now the leading cause of death for kids and teens. Yet somehow, the phantom threat of government overreach remains more menacing than the everyday reality of gun violence.
But there’s a big flaw in their logic: No federal lawmaker on either side of the aisle is advocating for the abolishment of the Second Amendment, and no leading gun safety advocacy group (including GIFFORDS) has called for the government to come and take everyone’s guns away. When it comes to solutions to gun violence, reasonable gun laws can and do coexist with Second Amendment rights.
So why is this such a common concern? Why do so many Americans fear the possibility of legislation that no one wants and that no one is fighting for?
The fact is, the gun industry, gun lobbyists, and the CEOs they enrich have spent an inordinate amount of time actively misleading the public. By running ads, posting misinformation on social media, aligning themselves with alt-right extremist groups, and sharing intentionally misleading talking points over decades, gun industry bigwigs have tried to convince Americans that any gun legislation—no matter how common sense—is too radical.
This sort of rhetoric is designed to make us scared that our guns could be seized at any moment. Why? Because if you sell guns, you make more money when people feel afraid. Trends show that people who fear their guns will be taken away will buy more guns—that’s why sales often spike during elections.
But as Jon Gold, one member of GIFFORDS Gun Owners for Safety, put it, “More than one thing can be true at the same time. I can deeply believe in my Second Amendment rights and I can deeply believe that a six-year-old should be able to play at anyone’s house and come home alive.” Because that’s what gun safety laws really do—they create protections that are just common sense.
Talking Points a Century in the Making
The gun lobby has been making “slippery slope” arguments since at least 1934, when the NRA suggested to its members that congressional legislation put forward to stop the spread of machine guns used by gangsters could one day be expanded to include “any firearm.”
This first baseless claim resulted in a deluge of letters and telegrams from NRA members to Congress, and it may have sparked a century’s worth of talking points that have little to do with legitimate legislative efforts. Today, gun lobby groups are still claiming that things as commonsense as background checks will directly “lead to gun confiscation.”
In addition, despite the fact that courts have determined time and time again that gun laws are constitutional, gun lobby groups love to invoke phrases like “gun control” and “gun confiscation” to inspire anger and fear toward an imagined violation of the Second Amendment.
The reality is that if you are a gun owner, the gun lobby and its loudest voices—including the NRA, the National Shooting and Sports Foundation, and Gun Owners of America—don’t care about you.
They want your donations so they can squander your money on lavish vacations for their executives. They want your anger so when they falsely claim safe storage laws and background checks will infringe on our rights, you believe them. And they want your fear so they can sell you more guns.
It’s possible to be a gun owner and stand for gun safety. In fact, we at GIFFORDS happen to know many gun owners from across the country who have been proudly working with us to advocate for stronger gun safety measures in their home states.
“Gun safety and gun violence prevention are not synonymous with taking away guns, but that is what the gun industry wants people to think.” said Peter Gurfein, a GIFFORDS Gun Owners for Safety senior ambassador from Colorado. “The gun industry wants to sell guns. They do so by trying to create a narrative that divides the country into pro-gun and anti-gun groups. “
“The Pew Research Group found in 2017 that two-thirds of gun owners say they own more than one gun, and a majority, 66%, own five guns. I own 12 guns. I suppose that makes me more pro-gun than the average gun owner in this country. Yet I know that my Second Amendment rights and supporting practical solutions to gun violence are not mutually exclusive—they are necessary and prudent and urgent,” said Gurfein.
GIFFORDS Gun Owners for Safety member Katie Fox expanded on this point: “The reality is, if our guns are really for protecting people, then we need commonsense laws that protect people too. I own my gun to protect myself and my family. But last year hundreds of kids unintentionally shot themselves or others—tragedies that something as simple as secure storage laws might have prevented. Laws like these don’t even come close to threatening our Second Amendment, yet the gun lobby opposes them.”
And Fox is right. Extremist organizations like Gun Owners for America believe that laws regarding the safe storage of guns actually cost lives and result in gun confiscation. But Dr. Claudia Fruin, a GIFFORDS Gun Owners for Safety member in Georgia, begs to differ.
“My career in pediatrics centered on protecting children, whether it was through vaccination or counseling on car seat and helmet use,” Fruin said. “I am a responsible gun owner who knows the statistics. More kids die from guns in our country than from anything else, and my guns are locked up because of this. It is not a hardship, and I can access them in two seconds. Our children’s lives are worth more than two seconds of inconvenience.”
Another member of GIFFORDS Gun Owners for Safety, Lisa Harter, added to that sentiment. “Smart gun laws won’t stop responsible people from buying guns, but the gun lobby wants you to think that’s the case. I don’t feel safer in a world where anyone and everyone has a gun. I feel safer in a world where guns must be carried responsibly.”
These gun owners aren’t alone in their feelings. Ultimately, despite its outsized influence over Congress, the gun lobby and the extreme rhetoric of its CEOs doesn’t reflect the truth. These groups continue to rely on manipulation and misinformation to uphold a dangerous legislative agenda designed specifically to reap maximum profits.
In the same breath that they tell you their product will protect you, the gun lobby fights against commonsense laws that will actually make our country a safer place—and they won’t stop, unless someone holds them accountable. At GIFFORDS, that’s exactly what we plan to do.
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