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What led up to the gun market in the USA so big? (Timeline)

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What led up to the gun market in the USA so big? (Timeline)

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During the american revolution it was mandatory for white men to have guns but with restrictions. The goverment could take it at any point to fight with. In 1850 Samual Colt started mass producing guns. He started selling them overseas for a market he sold to both sides of wars to make money. In 1854 Winchester started avertizing guns to white males saying the were white defenders. There were no restricions like in other countries because the government said it was on because the advertising sold to the people and to the government so they changed the laws.

One researcher said ”Cultral observers have argued that frontier  was the root of american character and also the oregon for americans propensity for violence.

This led to the wild-westification so the fights and want for violence sold by mr colt.

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How were guns sold so much to americans?

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How were guns sold so much to americans?

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In the early 1900s winchester avertized guns saying it made men more manly. Then around 1950 he avertized to 12 and ups. He also put an avertisment saying theres danger around every corner all real men need a gun to protect your family. The NRA was indorsed by ronald regan to sell more In 1988 the Government needed background checks on all gun owners

In 2000 Bush held a gun at his speach indorsing more guns \The republicans have won so many races just for indorsing and useing guns

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What organizations or leaders have played a key role in resisting gun violence in America?

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What organizations or leaders have played a key role in resisting gun violence in America?

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Everytown for Gun Safety is one of the largest organizations that still work today to bring down gun violence, and they have started initiatives such as the Be SMART program to promote secure gun storage. An example of an organization that does not try to resist gun violence, as they claim to support responsible gun ownership and firearm safety education. One example of a political leader who tries to resist gun violence is Erricka Bridgeford, who was the Co-founder of Baltimore Ceasefire 365 who was known in organizing ceasefire weekends.

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Pew Research Center's Social & Demographic Trends Project

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For the most recent data on gun owners, read our 2023 report "For Most U.S. Gun Owners, Protection Is the Main Reason They Own a Gun."

As a nation, the U.S. has a deep and enduring connection to guns. Integrated into the fabric of American society since the country's earliest days, guns remain a point of pride for many Americans. Whether for hunting, sport shooting or personal protection, most gun owners count the right to bear arms as central to their freedom. At the same time, the results of gun-related violence have shaken the nation, and debates over gun policy remain sharply polarized.

A new Pew Research Center survey attempts to better understand the complex relationship Americans have with guns and how that relationship intersects with their policy views.

The survey finds that Americans have broad exposure to guns, whether they personally own one or not. At least two-thirds have lived in a household with a gun at some point in their lives. And roughly seven-in-ten - including 55% of those who have never personally owned a gun - say they have fired a gun at some point. Today, three-in-ten U.S. adults say they own a gun, and an additional 36% say that while they don't own one now, they might be open to owning a gun in the future. A third of adults say they don't currently own a gun and can't see themselves ever doing so.

To be sure, experiences with guns aren't always positive: 44% of U.S. adults say they personally know someone who has been shot, either accidentally or intentionally, and about a quarter (23%) say they or someone in their family have been threatened or intimidated by someone using a gun. Half see gun violence as a very big problem in the U.S. today, although gun owners and non-owners offer divergent views on this.

Gun owners and non-owners are also deeply divided on several gun policy proposals, but there is agreement on some restrictions, such as preventing those with mental illnesses and those on federal watch lists from buying guns. Among gun owners, there is a diversity of views on gun policy, driven in large part by party affiliation.

The nationally representative survey of 3,930 U.S. adults, including 1,269 gun owners, was conducted March 13 to 27 and April 4 to 18, 2017, using the Pew Research Center's American Trends Panel. Among the key findings:

The ties that bind gun owners to their firearms are often deep

A majority of gun owners (66%) own multiple firearms, and about three-quarters (73%) say they could never see themselves not owning a gun.

Many American gun owners exist in a social context where gun ownership is the norm. Roughly half of all gun owners (49%) say that all or most of their friends own guns. In stark contrast, among those who don't own a gun, only one-in-ten say that all or most of their friends own guns.

Experience with guns starts relatively early particularly for those who grew up in a gun-owning household. Men who grew up in a household with guns and who have ever shot a gun report that they first fired a gun when they were, on average, 12 years old. Among women who grew up in gun-owning households and who have ever shot a gun, the average age at which they first fired a gun is 17. Men tend to become gun owners at an earlier age than women: 19 years old, on average, vs. 27 years old for women.

For most gun owners, owning a firearm is tied to their personal freedom

One key and defining characteristic of gun owners is the extent to which they associate the right to own guns with their own personal sense of freedom - 74% of gun owners say this right is essential, compared with only 35% of non-gun owners who say the same.

While the right to own guns is highly valued by most gun owners, not all gun owners see gun ownership the same way. Half of all gun owners say owning a gun is important to their overall identity - with 25% saying this is very important and another 25% calling it somewhat important. Three-in-ten gun owners say owning a gun is not too important to their identity and 20% say it's not at all important.

White men are especially likely to be gun owners, but ownership crosses demographic boundaries

About half of white men (48%) say they own a gun. By comparison, about a quarter of white women and nonwhite men (24% each) own guns, along with 16% of nonwhite women. There is also an education gap in gun ownership and that, too, is particularly pronounced among whites: 41% of whites without a bachelor's degree are gun owners, compared with about a quarter of whites with at least a bachelor's degree (26%).

Geographically, gun ownership is less concentrated in the Northeast than in other regions in the country, and there is a vast urban-rural divide across regions. Among adults who live in rural areas, 46% say they own a gun. By comparison, 28% of adults who live in the suburbs and even fewer - 19% - in urban areas own a gun.

The demographics of gun ownership

Male gun owners tend to be more immersed in gun culture than their female counterparts

From hunting and shooting to visiting gun-related websites and watching gun-oriented TV programs, there are many activities available to gun enthusiasts. About half of gun owners (52%) say they go shooting or to a gun range often or sometimes; 34% go hunting and 24% attend gun shows at least sometimes.

When it comes to gun-oriented media, roughly four-in-ten gun owners (39%) report that they at least sometimes watch TV shows and videos about guns, and 35% visit websites about guns, hunting or other shooting sports. Gun-related podcasts, radio shows and online discussion forums are less popular: About one-in-ten gun owners say they listen to gun-oriented podcasts or radio shows (11%) or participate in online discussion forums about guns (10%) at least sometimes.

Male gun owners are more likely than women who own guns to engage in some of these activities. For example, 58% of men who own guns say they go shooting or to a gun range at least sometimes, compared with 43% of female gun owners. Men also hunt at higher rates than women and watch more gun-oriented TV shows or videos.

Consistent with their more frequent engagement in gun-related activities, male gun owners are more socially connected to other gun owners than their female counterparts: 54% of men who own guns say all or most of their friends are also gun owners, while 40% of women say the same.

Protection tops the list of reasons for owning a gun

Two-thirds of gun owners say protection is a major reason they own a gun. By comparison, about four-in-ten (38%) cite hunting as a major reason and three-in-ten cite sport shooting, including target shooting, trap and skeet. Fewer point to a gun collection (13%) or to their job (8%) as being central to why they own a gun. To be sure, for many gun owners, these reasons overlap: 44% offer more than one major reason for owning a gun.

Roughly one-in-seven adults who own or have owned a gun (15%) say they have fired or threatened to fire a gun to defend themselves, their family or their possessions.

Regardless of the reasons for owning a gun, most gun owners don't think their having a firearm is public business, but they also aren't going out of their way to hide the fact that they own a gun. Eight-in-ten gun owners say they don't mind if other people know they own a gun, but they don't set out to tell them; 14% say they'd rather other people not know that they have a firearm, and 6% actively do want others to know.

For many gun owners, a gun is often close at hand

Roughly four-in-ten gun owners (38%) say there is a gun that is both loaded and easily accessible to them all of the time when they're at home. Men are especially likely to have a loaded gun at the ready: 43% of male gun owners vs. 29% of women who own guns say a loaded gun is always easily accessible.

Overall, about seven-in-ten gun owners say they own a handgun or a pistol (72%), while 62% say they own a rifle and 54% own a shotgun. Handguns are more common among those who own a gun for protection.

Among those who own a handgun, about one-in-four (26%) say they carry their gun with them outside of their home all or most of the time, a share that rises to 41% among those who think of their local community as unsafe.

When it comes to gun safety in homes with children, there are some areas of agreement about key precautions

Of the many possible safety precautions gun owners could take when they live with children in the home, three receive majority support from both non-owners and those who currently own a firearm. Nearly all gun owners (95%) believe that talking to children about gun safety is essential, followed by 66% who say all guns should be kept in a locked place when there are children living in the home, and 59% who say gun owners who are parents should take a gun safety course. Majorities of non-gun owners also say these are essential measures for gun owners with children in the home.

The majority of Americans who don't own guns feel it is also essential for gun owners with children living in the home to keep their guns unloaded and in a separate spot from the ammunition. Gun owners disagree. Majorities say these measures are either important but not essential or not important, even in households with children.

When asked about their own habits, roughly half of gun owners with children under 18 living at home say all of the guns in their home are kept in a locked place (54%) and all are unloaded (53%).

Still, many gun owners with children say at least some of their guns are kept unlocked and loaded. In fact, 30% of these gun owners say there is a gun that is both loaded and easily accessible to them all of the time when they're at home.

Americans who own guns largely disagree with non-owners on gun policy, but some proposals have support from both groups

Solid majorities of both gun owners and non-owners favor limiting access to guns for people with mental illnesses and individuals who are on the federal no-fly or watch lists (82% or higher favor among each group). In addition, strong majorities favor background checks for private sales and at gun shows (77% among gun owners and 87% among non-owners).

The groups are more divided when it comes to three other policy proposals: creating a federal database to track gun sales; banning assault-style weapons; and banning high-capacity magazines. Even so, significant shares of gun owners are open to these proposals. Roughly half of gun owners (54%) say they would favor creating a federal database, and 48% favor a ban on assault weapons. Some 44% of gun owners favor banning high-capacity magazines. Support for these proposals is much higher among non-gun owners, with about three-quarters or more saying they would support each of these proposals.

At the same time, majorities of gun owners favor proposals that would expand gun rights, such as allowing people to carry concealed guns in more places and allowing teachers and school officials to carry guns in K-12 schools - proposals that are each supported by only about a third of non-owners.

Even among gun owners, Republicans and Democrats don't see eye to eye on gun policy

There is a partisan divide in gun ownership: More than four-in-ten Republicans and Republican-leaning independents are gun owners (44%), compared with 20% of Democrats and independents who lean Democratic.

There is also a partisan divide on views of gun policy, and these differences remain even after controlling for gun ownership. For example, Republican gun owners are much more resistant than Democratic gun owners to creating a database to track gun sales and banning assault-style weapons and high-capacity magazines. On the flip side, Republicans are also more open to proposals that would expand gun rights. A prime example: 82% of Republican gun owners favor expanding concealed carry laws to more places, compared with 41% of their Democratic counterparts.

Republican gun owners are about twice as likely as Democratic gun owners to say owning a gun is essential to their freedom (91% vs. 43%), and there are also behavioral differences between these two groups. For example, Republican handgun owners are more likely than their Democratic counterparts to say they carry their gun with them, even if only some of the time (63% vs. 45%). Fully 55% of Democrats who own a handgun say they never carry.

At the most basic level, gun owners and non-owners disagree on the extent to which gun violence is a problem in the U.S.

Half of Americans describe gun violence as a very big problem in the United States, but the perceptions of gun owners and those who don't own guns differ considerably. While a majority of those who do not own guns (59%) see gun violence as a major problem in the country today, a third of adults who own guns say this is a very big problem. Democrats and Republicans also offer different assessments, with Democrats far more likely to describe gun violence as a very big problem, and the partisan divide remains when controlling for gun ownership.

Americans see many factors as playing a role in gun violence in the country today. Fully 86% say the ease with which people can illegally obtain guns contributes to gun violence a great deal or a fair amount; more than half say the same about family instability (74%), lack of economic opportunities (65%), the amount of gun violence in video games (60%), the ease with which people can legally obtain guns (60%), and the amount of gun violence in movies and television (55%).

Gun owners and non-owners alike point to the ease with which people can illegally obtain guns as a major contributor to gun violence in the U.S., but opinions diverge when it comes to guns obtained legally. Two-thirds of non-gun owners see the ease with which people can legally obtain guns as contributing at least a fair amount to gun violence; less than half (44%) of gun owners share this view.

It follows that non-gun owners are much more likely than gun owners to say further restricting legal gun sales would result in fewer mass shootings (56% vs. 29%); and non-gun owners are also more likely to say an increase in gun ownership would lead to more crime overall (44% vs. 13%). For their part, 54% of gun owners say there would be less crime if more people owned guns, and 33% say it wouldn't make much difference.

Many Americans (44%) say they personally know someone who has been shot, either accidentally or intentionally. This is particularly common among black adults, 57% of whom say they know someone who has been shot; about four-in-ten whites (43%) and Hispanics (42%) say the same.

Higher share of gun owners (51%) than non-owners (40%) report that they know someone who has been shot, either accidentally or intentionally.

Separately, about a quarter of Americans (23%) - including roughly equal shares of gun owners and non-owners - say they or someone in their family have been threatened or intimidated by someone using a gun. Again, blacks are more likely than whites to say they have had this experience: About a third of blacks (32%) say they or someone in their family have been threatened or intimidated by someone with a gun, compared with 20% of whites. About a quarter of Hispanics (24%) say this has happened to them or to someone else in their family.

Roughly one-in-five gun owners belongs to the NRA

Overall, 19% of all U.S. gun owners say they belong to the NRA. Republican and Republican-leaning gun owners are twice as likely as Democratic and Democratic-leaning gun owners to say they belong to the NRA (24% vs. 11%). And, among Republicans, conservatives have significantly higher rates of membership - 28% vs. 17% of moderate or liberal Republicans.

The public is divided when it comes to the amount of influence the NRA has over guns laws in the U.S. While 44% of all adults say the NRA has too much influence over gun legislation, 40% say it has the right amount of influence. Relatively few (15%) say the NRA has too little influence.

For their part, NRA members are largely satisfied with the amount of influence the organization has over gun laws in the U.S. About six-in-ten (63%) say the NRA has the right amount of influence and 28% say it has too little influence. Only 9% of NRA members say the organization has too much influence over gun laws. Among non-gun owners, 50% view the NRA as too influential.

Gun owners are more likely than non-gun owners to have ever contacted a public official to express their opinion on gun policy. About one-in-five gun owners (21%) say they have done this, compared with 12% of non-gun owners.

The remainder of this report examines in greater detail the public's experiences with guns as well as views on gun policies. Chapter 1 looks at the demographics of gun ownership and the reasons people own guns. It also explores early experiences with guns, such as growing up in a gun-owning household and participating in hunting or sport shooting. Chapter 2 focuses on the role guns have in the daily life of gun owners, including whether they carry a gun outside their home, how often they engage in gun-related activities or consume gun-oriented media, and their social ties to other gun owners. It also looks at negative experiences some people have had with guns. Chapter 3 examines the public's views on the responsibilities of gun ownership, with an emphasis on the differences between what gun owners and non-owners consider essential safety measures for gun owners to follow. Chapter 4 explores what Americans see as contributing factors to gun violence. Chapter 5 focuses on the public's views on policy proposals to restrict or expand access to guns.

Terminology

Unless otherwise specified, "guns" refers to firearms and not to airsoft guns, such as paintball, BB or pellet guns.

"Gun owners" are those who say they personally own one or more guns. "Non-owners who live in a gun-owning household" are those who say they do not personally own any guns, but someone else in their household does.

Those who did not grow up with guns in the home includes those who say, as far as they know, there were never any guns in their household when they were growing up or they are not sure if there were guns in their household when they were growing up.

Those who are said to have children in the household or at home are those who are a parent or guardian to a child younger than 18 who lives in their household.

References to college graduates or people with a college degree comprise those with a bachelor's degree or more. "Some college" refers to those with a two-year degree or those who attended college but did not obtain a degree. "High school" refers to those who have attained a high school diploma or its equivalent, such as a General Education Development (GED) certificate.

References to whites and blacks include only those who are non-Hispanic and identify as only one race. Hispanics are of any race.

All references to party affiliation, excluding one reference in chapter 1, include those who lean toward that party: Republicans include those who say they lean toward the Republican Party and Democrats include those who say they lean toward the Democratic Party.

References to adults who live in an urban, suburban or rural area are based on an analysis that takes into account the density of the area where they live based on their address or the location of their telephone number or their ZIP code if they didn't provide an address. For a more detailed explanation of how community type was coded, see the Methodology section of the report.

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Kim Parker, Juliana Menasce Horowitz, Ruth Igielnik, J. Baxter Oliphant and Anna Brown

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America's Complex Relationship With Guns

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Americans have broad exposure to guns, whether they personally own one or not. About seven-in-ten say they have fired a gun at some point and 42% currently live in a gun-owning household.

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Why is there a difference in how white vs black gun onwers are treated?

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Why is there a difference in how white vs black gun onwers are treated?

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One example is in 1825 Florida law authorized white people to “enter into all Negro houses and lawfully seize and take away all such arms, weapons, and ammunition.” The second ammendment was racialy motivated and said "A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed." But this didn't apply to blacks and many were imprisoned for owning guns. Even to this day it is 10 times more likly for a black man to be arrested on a firearms charge than a white man.

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Racist Gun Laws and the Second Amendment | Harvard Law Review

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For a significant portion of American history, gun laws bore the ugly taint of racism.On the racist history of gun laws, see generally Clayton E. Cramer, The Racist Roots of Gun Control, Kan. J.L.

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How has the National Rifle Association (NRA) influenced resistance to try to control guns in america.

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How has the National Rifle Association (NRA) influenced resistance to try to control guns in america.

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The NRA has played a massive part in trying to resist gun violence in America, even though it might not be as significant, they have done so by investing heavily in education and training programs, reinforcing the idea of responsible gun ownership as a cultural and constitutional right. Although the Pew study found that 44% of U.S. adults said the NRA had too much influence over gun laws, while 40% believed its level of influence was about right.

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Why don't politicians stop gun violence?

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Why don't politicians stop gun violence?

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The real reason that all of the systems to stop gun violence don't work is due to the outdated system, so now most politicians have stopped trying and are instead trying to create a new system. Although the broken and outdated system has been in place for so long, any solution would take a lot of work and manpower to fix the gun violence problem, which is why most politicians don't even attempt to make a new system.

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The basic rules of American democracy provide a veto over national policy to a minority of the states.

After each of the repeated mass shootings that now provide a tragic backbeat to American life, the same doomed dance of legislation quickly begins. As the outraged demands for action are inevitably derailed in Congress, disappointed gun-control advocates, and perplexed ordinary citizens, point their fingers at the influence of the National Rifle Association or the intransigent opposition of congressional Republicans. Those are both legitimate factors, but the stalemate over gun-control legislation since Bill Clinton's first presidential term ultimately rests on a much deeper problem: the growing crisis of majority rule in American politics.

Polls are clear that while Americans don't believe gun control would solve all of the problems associated with gun violence, a commanding majority supports the central priorities of gun-control advocates, including universal background checks and an assault-weapons ban. Yet despite this overwhelming consensus, it's highly unlikely that the massacre of at least 19 schoolchildren and two adults in Uvalde, Texas, yesterday, or President Joe Biden's emotional plea for action last night, will result in legislative action.

That's because gun control is one of many issues in which majority opinion in the nation runs into the brick wall of a Senate rule-the filibuster-that provides a veto over national policy to a minority of the states, most of them small, largely rural, preponderantly white, and dominated by Republicans.
David Frum: America's hands are full of blood
The disproportionate influence of small states has come to shape the competition for national power in America. Democrats have won the popular vote in seven of the past eight presidential elections, something no party had done since the formation of the modern party system in 1828. Yet Republicans have controlled the White House after three of those elections instead of one, twice winning the Electoral College while losing the popular vote. The Senate imbalance has been even more striking. According to calculations by Lee Drutman, a senior fellow in the political-reform program at New America, a center-left think tank, Senate Republicans have represented a majority of the U.S. population for only two years since 1980, if you assign half of each state's population to each of its senators. But largely because of its commanding hold on smaller states, the GOP has controlled the Senate majority for 22 of those 42 years.

The practical implications of these imbalances were dramatized by the last full-scale Senate debate over gun control. After the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting in Connecticut, the Senate in 2013 voted on a measure backed by President Barack Obama to impose background checks on all gun sales. Again assigning half of each state's population to each of its senators, the 54 senators who supported the bill (plus then-Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, who opposed it only for procedural reasons) represented 194 million Americans. The remaining senators who opposed the bill represented 118 million people. But because of the Senate's filibuster rule, which requires the backing of 60 senators to move legislation to a vote, the 118 million prevailed.

The outcome likely would not differ today. Last year, the House passed legislation to expand and strengthen background checks. But it, too, has been blocked by a Republican filibuster in the Senate.

That impassable opposition reflects the GOP's reliance on the places and voters most deeply devoted to gun culture. Polling last year by the Pew Research Center found that the share of Republicans who live in a household with a gun (54 percent) far exceeds the share of Democrats who do (31 percent). (In all, Pew found that four in 10 adults live in a house with a gun and only three in 10 own one.) A 2020 Rand Corporation study found that the 20 states with the highest rates of gun ownership had elected almost two-thirds of the Senate's Republican lawmakers (32 of 50) and comprised about two-thirds of the states that President Donald Trump carried in the 2020 election (17 of 25). In an almost mirror image, the 20 states with the lowest rates of gun ownership had elected almost two-thirds of the Senate's Democratic lawmakers (also 32 of 50) and comprised about two-thirds of the states Biden won (16 of 25). The 20 states with the lowest rates of gun ownership have more than two and half times as many residents (about 192 million) as the states with the highest gun-ownership rates (about 69 million). But in the Senate, these two sets of states carry equal weight.

In their opposition to gun control, Republicans in Congress clearly are prioritizing the sentiments of gun owners in their party over any other perspective, even that of other Republican voters. The Pew polling found that significant majorities of Americans support background checks (81 percent), an assault-weapons ban (63 percent), and a ban on high-capacity ammunition magazines (64 percent); a majority also opposes concealed carry of weapons without a permit. Majorities of Republicans who don't own guns shared those opinions, as did Democratic gun owners, by even more lopsided margins. Even most Republicans who do own guns said in the polling that they support background checks and oppose permitless concealed carry ( which more red states, including Texas, are authorizing). Despite all of this, Republican elected officials, in their near-lockstep opposition to gun control, have bent to groups like the NRA in equating almost any restrictions as a sign of disrespect to the values of red America.

Even though the NRA has weakened institutionally, its influence inside the GOP has been magnified by the reconfiguration of American politics along geographic lines. When Congress, during Clinton's first term, created the national background-check system through the Brady Bill and later approved a ban on assault weapons (which has since expired), significant numbers of congressional Democrats representing rural constituencies opposed the legislation, while significant numbers of Republicans with big suburban constituencies supported it. But three decades of electoral re-sorting has significantly shrunk both of those groups. As a result, when the House passed its universal-background-check bill in 2021, only eight Republicans voted for it, while just a single Democrat voted against it.
Clint Smith: No parent should have to live like this
The Senate's small-state bias is impeding legislative action on other issues on which Americans broadly agree, including climate change, abortion, and immigration. As with gun control, polls consistently show that a majority of Americans support acting on climate change, oppose overturning Roe v. Wade, and back comprehensive immigration reform, including offering legal status to undocumented immigrants (especially young people brought into the country by their parents). The House has passed legislation reflecting each of those perspectives. The Senate's inaction on these issues again reflects the outsize influence of those states with the highest gun-ownership rates-which also tend to be those enmeshed in the fossil-fuel economy, with high shares of culturally conservative white Christians and low shares of immigrants.

If there is any hope for congressional action on gun control in the aftermath of the Uvalde tragedy-or another mass shooting in the future-it almost certainly will require reform or elimination of the filibuster. Otherwise, the basic rules of American politics will continue to allow Republicans to impose their priorities even when a clear majority of Americans disagree. The hard truth is that there's no way to confront America's accelerating epidemic of gun violence without first addressing its systemic erosion of majority rule.

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disproportionate influence of small states

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central priorities of gun-control advocates

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influence of the national rifle association

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The Real Reason America Doesn't Have Gun Control

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The basic rules of American democracy provide a veto over national policy to a minority of the states.

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Why cant we put restrictions on gun violence?

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Why cant we put restrictions on gun violence?

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Gun control won't work because the people who want it are in power and say its unconstitutional because what the second amendment says. Also Criminals wont obay and backroung checks wont search for people who buy guns because its legal. Some people say that gun violence goes down when good people have guns but it dosent it increases it because they will want to protect and fight the bad guys which makes them bad and on and on making more deaths and violence.

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Gun control laws don’t work and they’re flawed concepts. The Right to Bear Arms protects law-abiding citizens from violent crime and saves lives.

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If we vote for people against gun violence can we finally stop gun violence?

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If we vote for people against gun violence can we finally stop gun violence?

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Before Trump was elected, the source states that violent crime decreased by 3% between 2022 and 2023, although the gun violence had increased heavily than it had been before. With Trump being elected, it is predicted that gun violence will continue to grow at a higher rate than it had while Joe Biden was elected.

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‘Passing laws saves lives’: what’s at stake for US gun safety if Trump wins?

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Biden oversaw the passage of the first major federal gun safety law in nearly 30 years. But advocates fear gun safety policy could be easily reversed: ‘We are at a pivotal moment’

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How were guns allowed to be sold without restrictions?

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How were guns allowed to be sold without restrictions?

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During the George W. Bush administration, the gun industry scored major legislative victories. In 2004, Congress let the federal assault weapons ban lapse—allowing previously restricted types of semi-automatic rifles and high-capacity magazines to be sold. The following year, Bush signed the Protection of Lawful Commerce in Arms Act, which says gun manufacturers and dealers can’t be sued for harms caused by the “criminal or unlawful misuse of firearm products.” Busse says it allowed gun manufacturers to market and sell their weapons without regard for who would buy them or how they would be used. National Rifle Association Executive Vice President Wayne LaPierre called it “the most significant piece of pro-gun legislation” in recent years.

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America's gun industry is currently fixated on selling military-style weapons to consumers-semi-automatic rifles similar to those used by soldiers, and handguns with high-capacity magazines like those carried by police officers. This has coincided with a rise in mass shootings in which dozens of people are killed or wounded in a matter of minutes-usually carried out by young men with AR-15-style rifles that they purchased legally.

The gun industry wasn't always this way. In the early 20th century, gun manufacturers made a dramatic shift in advertising in an effort to sell more guns to Americans who were increasingly living and working in cities, according to Pamela Haag, author of The Gunning of America. Guns went from being advertised as tools next to plows in agricultural magazines to being marketed as central to American masculinity-essential for protecting family and property.

But Amy Swearer, who researches gun issues at the conservative Heritage Foundation, says these shifts resulted from natural changes in consumer demand. "I don't think this is a case of the gun industry sitting there going 'Well, how can we change American society?'" she says. "It's the gun industry saying, 'Well, we have fewer hunters and more people who want guns for self defense-of course we're going to advertise accordingly.'"
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The gun industry's roots can be traced to the 19th-century era of European imperial expansion. "We were arming imperialism," says Haag. "The four gun manufacturing titans in the 1800s-the Winchester Repeating Arms company, the Colt company, Remington, and Smith & Wesson-relied most heavily on international military contracts to survive." Gunmakers were clustered in the Connecticut Valley-Colt, Winchester, Smith & Wesson (Springfield, Mass.)-due to a concentration of good power sources from water mills near the Connecticut River and skilled labor. Others, like Remington, originated not far away in Upstate New York for similar reasons.

Contrary to the popular image of American lever-action rifles and six-shooters being for cowboys and frontiersman, the industry's biggest clients were monarchs like Tsar Nicholas II of Russia and the Sultan of the Ottoman Empire-as well as other armies abroad and revolutionary groups. During the Russo-Turkish war, for example, Turkish soldiers armed with Winchester rifles-a precursor of the "gun that won the American West" -unleashed 20,000 shots per minute in one battle during the 1877 Plevna Delay.

After arming militaries overseas, the industry turned its attention to supplying Americans back home. "Major gun companies begin to sell the gun more as something that has a mystique and that has emotional, symbolic and even psychological value," says Haag. "So it's no longer just a tool. It's kind of becoming a totem. It's changed from something that was maybe needed but not necessarily loved in the 1800s to something that was loved but not necessarily needed in the 1900s."

Frightened husband with gun and wife on stairway, "Protect Your Family", advertisement, Smith & Wesson, circa 1901. Universal History Archive/Universal Images Group-Getty Images

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Guns were marketed as necessary for self-defense out in the woods or on empty backroads. "Be prepared against country road hold-ups," one early 20th-century Colt ad proclaimed. Ads promoted keeping a Colt pistol tucked between car seat cushions or in a lady's muff or handbag. "There's a lot of effort to create a sense of fear, to create a sense that guns were still needed even in a context where they might not have been really needed at all," says Haag.

In the late 1910s, ads for Winchester maintained that "real boys" deserved to own a gun. One ad from the era suggested that buying a rifle for "the kid you're so proud of" equated to other rites of passage in a young man's life. A March 1921 sales publication for the manufacturer urged retailers to put guns in the hands of every 12-year-old. A boy should be taught to shoot a gun correctly because he'll "get his hands on one sooner or later," one ad intoned.

Fear and ideas about masculinity continued to be central to gun industry marketing campaigns in the 21st century- but accelerated dramatically, according to Ryan Busse, a former gun industry executive and author of Gunfight: My Battle Against the Industry that Radicalized America. He says the modern gun industry was born after the 1999 Columbine school shooting in Colorado, which left 13 victims dead. In 2021, NPR published secret tapes that revealed National Rifle Association representatives talking out their response to the shooting. As Busse sums up those conversations, "They basically had debates behind the scenes about, 'Okay, do we give in and be conciliatory, or do we basically use these sorts of events to stir up hatred and fear and division and all the stuff that rules our politics now?' And they obviously chose the latter."
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During the George W. Bush administration, the gun industry scored major legislative victories. In 2004, Congress let the federal assault weapons ban lapse-allowing previously restricted types of semi-automatic rifles and high-capacity magazines to be sold. The following year, Bush signed the Protection of Lawful Commerce in Arms Act, which says gun manufacturers and dealers can't be sued for harms caused by the "criminal or unlawful misuse of firearm products." Busse says it allowed gun manufacturers to market and sell their weapons without regard for who would buy them or how they would be used. National Rifle Association Executive Vice President Wayne LaPierre called it "the most significant piece of pro-gun legislation" in recent years.

Busse argues the election of President Barack Obama and conspiracy theories including birtherism and false claims that the Obama Administration was planning to seize or restrict the sale of guns marked another turning point in the gun industry's growth: Namely a focus on the AR-15 assault rifle and other militarized firearms. "The industry goes from [never having sold] more than about 7 million units in a single year prior to Barack Obama being elected to an entity that, by the time he leaves, selling almost 17 million units with lots of them being AR-15s," Busse says. "By 2020 [the industry's] preferred candidate [Former President Donald] Trump pours fuel on the nation and the industry sells almost 22 million units. So the industry more than quadrupled in size in less than a decade and a half."

And gun marketers leaned into this trend-drawing on previous ideas of fear and masculinity. Famously, in 2012, Bushmaster, a subsidiary of Remington that specialized in AR-15-style assault rifles, ran an ad in Maxim magazine that said, "Consider your man card reissued." Later that year, a Bushmaster rifle was used in the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting that left 26 people dead. In 2020, Remington filed for bankruptcy-and sold off the Bushmaster brand. In 2022, the company agreed to a $73 million settlement with Sandy Hook parents.

Busse argues that while three to seven million guns are sold each year for uses like hunting, sports shooting, and target shooting, marketing that preyed on people's insecurities during the pandemic drove annual sales of certain guns over the 10-million mark in 2020.

"Much of [the advertising is] wrapped up in all of the things that create fear in our society," he says, "which Trump just instinctively knew how to put on steroids-COVID shutdowns, Black Lives Matter, an impending race war, civil war, more shutdowns-all the things that create angst, and, importantly, hatred, fear, conspiracy."

Swearer, of the Heritage Foundation, says this argument misses out on a fast-growing segment of gun owners- Black women. "These sorts of characterizations of these advertisements being about white fear is coinciding with the most explosive rise in non-white gun ownership, possibly in American history," she says. Some people of color have reported buying guns to protect themselves in response to high-profile killings of Black men and women.

Some of the oldest gun manufacturers make guns for military use; Remington and Colt have made M4 rifles for the Army, and following the U.S. invasion of Iraq, Smith & Wesson sent pistols to the U.S. Armed Forces in Iraq so they could be given to the Iraqi military and security forces.

Swearer argues that the gun industry markets weapons used by military and police to indicate their quality, citing the Smith & Wesson's M&P (military and police) line of firearms. "You have gun control advocates, who will [say] they are intentionally marketing military and police products to civilians in this sort of nefarious way to get products that are military and police to people who aren't military and police." Rather, she says, the goal is that consumers will think "if the police are using it, if the government thinks this is good, if the military wants to use these products, it probably tells me that it's a pretty high standard...It's not this emphasis on [the] assaultive, attacking nature of it; it's the same tactic that they've been using."

But Busse believes that the focus on military-grade weapons has already led to violence in the U.S. He cites research that the Buffalo shooting suspect did into tactical gear and the racist politics that he outlined in his manifesto before he allegedly killed 10 mostly Black people at a supermarket.

Busse predicts more such shootings in the social media era. As he puts it, "I think that we have a lot more of these on the way, and I think they have a direct line to much of the industry marketing that we see out there now. I think these shooters are being created."

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The Inside History of How Guns Are Marketed and Sold in America

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America's gun industry is currently fixated on selling military-style weapons to consumers, but it wasn't always this way.