The gun industry claims to be arming Americans against tyranny. Its embrace of Trump proves otherwise.
The gun lobby’s unwavering support of Donald Trump and authoritarianism proves its anti-tyranny marketing is a just cynical ploy to sell more guns.
With fewer American households owning firearms than in past generations, the gun industry was forced to find new ways to sell its products.
Its adopted sales strategy is obvious: radicalize its core consumers and stoke fear that can lead to devastating outcomes, particularly for vulnerable communities. After all, one frightened or angry customer buying 10 guns is just as good as 10 customers each buying one gun.
As the New York Times described it, “Gun companies have spent the last two decades scrutinizing their market and refocusing their message away from hunting toward selling handguns for personal safety, as well as military-style weapons attractive to mostly young men. The sales pitch—rooted in self-defense, machismo and an overarching sense of fear—has been remarkably successful.”
One such tactic adopted by the gun industry, along with its lawyers and lobbyists, is to convince customers that forking over more of their hard-earned money is the best way to demonstrate their American patriotism and opposition to “tyranny.”
On its face, opposing tyranny is a good thing. After all, tyranny and authoritarianism run contrary to the very purpose of our nation’s founding—so efforts to prevent abuses of power are patriotic.
Except that’s not what’s happening. The major gun companies, lobbyists, trade associations, lawyers, and even right-wing influencers have lined up behind the candidacy of former president Donald Trump—an aspiring authoritarian who talks about prosecuting his political opponents and overriding the Constitution.
The Gun Lobby
Trump’s former chief of staff—backed up by his former secretary of defense, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and many others—says Trump is “an authoritarian,” “certainly prefers the dictator approach to government,” and “never accepted the fact that he wasn’t the most powerful man in the world.” He has repeatedly threatened to deploy the US military against the domestic political opposition—and openly wished for military generals who would blindly follow orders like Hitler’s did. I could go on.
A political movement that genuinely wanted to fight tyranny above all else would strongly oppose such dangerous power grabs by a candidate for president. But the gun industry’s opposition to tyranny is anything but genuine.
In reality, the increasingly extreme gun industry simply employs the word “tyranny” to describe anything that threatens its bottom line. Often that means laws that would prevent dangerous people from buying their products, but it doesn’t stop there.
- Not putting mercury in the mail
- Animal attacks
- Background checks
- Not wanting militias to start a race war
- Safety training
- Automobile taxes
- Safety advice for lighting fireworks
- Prosecuting insurrectionists
- Protecting reproductive healthcare
- Orange light bulbs
- Forgiving loans
- Not being permitted to threaten a stranger with racial slurs
- Sales taxes
- Complying with the law
- Insurance
- Restraining orders
- Prohibiting assault rifles from children’s playgrounds
- Hospitals that don’t want humans taking horse medicine
- Gun permits
- “Policies that result in lower incident rates of firearm related deaths”
- A maximum magazine capacity
- “Sensible” gun laws
- Opposing death threats
- Prohibitions on felons owning guns
- Requiring permits for firearm dealers
- Waiting periods
- Gun-free college campuses
- Enhanced background checks for buyers under 21
The gun lobby’s support for Trump is based solely on the fact that he “did nothing” to stop gun violence and pledged to undo everything the Biden-Harris administration did to save lives. Its leaders want Trump back in office because he would allow the industry to rewrite gun laws to make it easier to sell more guns to more people, with no regard for who would be hurt—or killed—by such policies.
A decade of Trump’s actions and rhetoric shows why American voters have every right to be concerned about creeping authoritarianism. He has repeatedly abused his power to benefit himself—the opposite of a patriot. But anyone outside of the far-right media bubble can see the gun industry pretends to guard against tyranny while trying to elect an aspiring authoritarian for one simple reason—it’s good for business.
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