This is something I just posted in a Discord server for women gamers. I wanted to get the feedback of non gun owners on something, but I'd also like to run the idea by LGC members, too.
In response to the Uvalde shooting there has been lots of talk over in the Liberal Gun Club Discord that I admin. The club is opposed to gun bans, of course, but we do want to do things that address the underlying causes of violence. One of those causes is the toxic masculinity that runs so deeply in American gun culture, and indeed I've read things in the news the past couple of days suggesting that this may have contributed to the Uvalde shooting.
I'm not going to sit here and argue against gun bans - I think they are coming eventually whether I like it or not and despite me believing they will be ineffective.
What I do want to do is find something that we can do that would not only be widely supported but would also address the root causes of violence. To that end I yesterday proposed something that was well received by the LGC members, and even by our chief legal council. Namely I propose that we start regulating gun advertisements the way we do cigarette and tobacco advertisements. In particular I would like to see some sort of prescription on what can be in a gun advertisement, such as a neutral photo of the gun and a statement of it's specifications.
No fancy wording. No macho imagery. Nothing that portrays the gun in a glamorized kind of way.
Here are some examples of the kind of advertisements I want banned:
https://i.insider.com/50d2b093ecad040b3 ... width=1200
https://www.motherjones.com/wp-content/ ... m11-ad.jpg
https://i.pinimg.com/736x/99/a3/94/99a3 ... tising.jpg
The point of this is to get gun makers to stop pushing the ultra macho toxic imagery of what it means to be a man and to make gun advertisements less appealing. Maybe even make them have something like the Surgeon General's warning on cigarette packs: "Gun are used in most suicides", "Every year more than 300 children die from using unsecured guns". That kind of thing. Communicating the danger of guns, and thus the high level of responsibility needed to own one, should be a requirement.
Anyway, this is still an idea that is bubbling in my head and I will probably start writing my congress creeps about it. (Ugh! Ted Cruz!) What do you guys think of this? Is it something you'd support, either on it's own or as part of a large gun control package? Do you have any suggestions to improve the idea?
Regulate gun advertisements like cigarettes?
1106+ recreational uses of firearms
1 defensive use
0 people injured
0 people killed
1 defensive use
0 people injured
0 people killed