Gun industry recruits children as future customers amid urban decline

Evidence

Mass urbanization has created a major economic problem for the gun industry. Present-day city dwellers do not go hunting for food, nor are many of them sport-shooting enthusiasts. It is the cyberworld that commands the attention of today’s youth. The gun industry has mounted a broad campaign to socialize a new youth generation to guns. Mike McIntire (2013) describes the scope of socialization: “The industry’s strategies include giving firearms, ammunition and cash to youth groups; weakening state restrictions on hunting by young children; marketing an affordable military-style rifle for ‘junior shooters’; sponsoring semiautomatic-handgun competitions for youths; and developing a target-shooting video game that promotes brand-name weapons, with links to the Web sites of their makers.” This large-scale campaign to cultivate a future generation of gun lovers relies heavily not only on direct indoctrination of children. The Hunting Heritage Trust and National Shooting Sports Foundation commissioned studies on how to enlist peer influence in the recruitment campaign (National Shooting Sports Foundation, 2012). — Albert Bandura, Moral Disengagement, 1348

Categorization

• SEED: Angle: marketing addiction-adjacent industries (tobacco, gambling, guns) all pivot to youth socialization once their adult base erodes — a comparative piece on ‘replacement customer’ strategies.
• SHARE: The ‘junior shooters’ marketing riff and youth peer-ambassador strategy is specific enough for a gun-policy wonk friend.