Gun Manufacturer Marketing and Young Men – A Perfect Storm
Daniel Defense, the maker of the gun used in Uvalde, is under scrutiny for its aggressive marketing. The NFL banned the manufacturer’s Super Bowl halftime commercial in 2014. With other advertisements invoking popular video games like “Call of Duty” and featuring “Star Wars” characters and Santa Claus, there is little doubt that the company sees teenagers as a lucrative business opportunity
Studies show the human brain is not fully mature until age 25 when the prefrontal cortex is fully developed, and violence/impulse controls are less reckless. Especially male teens are prone to violent impulsivity. “What you are seeing in the industry, in marketing these [guns] to kids, is priming youth for the day they turn 18 and go out and buy their first assault rifle,” said Josh Sugarmann, executive director of the gun-control group Violence Policy Center, which examined the gun industry’s marketing to youth and children in a 2016 report called “Start Them Young.”1
One week before the massacre, the manufacturer tweeted a photo of a young boy holding a Daniel Defense AR-15 in his lap. The caption, referencing a biblical proverb with a prayer emoji, read: “Train up a child in the way he should go, and when he is old, he will not depart from it.“ 2