“When carrying a concealed weapon for self-defense is understood not as a failure of civil society, to be mourned, but as an act of citizenship, to be vaunted, there is little civilian life left.” — Jill Lepore, “Battleground America”
The victim was Hazrat Ali Rohani, a 17-year-old who lost his young life to the gun industry’s successful manipulation of the accused defendant, Aaron Brown Myers. Myers could have been a responsible father, neighbor, and community member — but he chose to be a person who bought a gun and gave himself over to gun culture instead.
Burdened and blinded by paranoia, Myers shot Hazrat as the teen headed into a sporting goods store to return a BB gun. This wasn’t an accident; it was intentional. Myers was at the store’s parking lot conducting ”overwatch” — a position he gave himself. He owned a weapon and believed it was his duty to use it. Long story short: He was looking for a threat, and he found it in a teenager.
This is our country on guns.
The transformation of guns from hunting tools to a means for self-defense wasn’t causally related to actual threats to people’s safety. It was a deliberate shift propelled by the gun industry2 — and we can prove it.
In August 2024, Guns Down America started tracking the social media activity of six major gun companies — Smith & Wesson, Sturm Ruger, SIG Sauer, Glock, Springfield Armory, and Daniel Defense — as well as broader discussion of these brands online. We monitored the social media accounts of major gun influencers for mentions of the target brand, as well as keywords and hashtags commonly used in online discussions of gun-related issues. We captured more than 13,000 social media posts from Facebook, YouTube, Instagram, X (Twitter), and online forums in August by monitoring key gun influencer accounts and popular keywords and hashtags. Additionally, we individually topic-tagged 400 advertisements or social media posts produced directly by the companies.
Our tracker captured 163 banner advertisements, 117 Facebook posts, and 120 X/Twitter posts from accounts controlled by the six companies. Across all owned channels, the most popular themes were those emphasizing the importance of having an “everyday carry” gun, which often coincided with the promotion of a gun’s concealability. Tied for the top spots were ads or posts promoting generic “buy a gun” messaging, typically featuring pictures of the company’s latest products.
The takeaway: Would you run your dishwasher every night even if it wasn’t full? No, probably not. A 2020 ad campaign from Cascade wants you to do just that, though, since it means you use their product more.3 The idea is the same here. More gun use means more sales, which is better for the industry. The industry says practicing with a firearm is responsible behavior, but it’s not. It’s not about your safety or freedom; it’s about raw consumption, and it’s part and parcel of a broader shift in the gun business that gets pretty absurd.
An ad by Glock put their pistol in what appears to be the bow of a kayak with the copy “Weekends are for exploring, Share this post and let us know which GLOCK pistol you’re bringing with you!” The post has more than 800 comments and 100 shares. As far as we can tell, none of them asked, what good is a pistol in a kayak? As a kayaker myself, I can’t imagine choosing to interrupt my peaceful paddle with paranoia, looking for any opportunity to pull a trigger and missing out on the view ahead. On X, the hashtag #edc garnered more than 4 million impressions from 302 mentions, and #concealedcarry got more than 2 million impressions from 115 mentions.
The gun industry feeds on the misperception of danger to sell guns, telling owners that engaging with their products makes them responsible and safe. The reality? It makes them consumers and puts the rest of us at risk.
Former arms industry executive Ryan Busse testified that the marketing of guns took a dark turn in the early 2000s, intertwining firearms with political fear and conspiracy, boosting sales under the guise of self-defense. This campaign was a success, and we’ve seen its harmful impact grow over the past two decades. In 1997, a survey noted that 46% of gun ownership was tied to personal protection. In 2023, Pew reported that 72% of U.S. gun owners cited personal protection as the primary reason for owning a gun. Fear of the “other” is now the primary driver of gun sales. No matter the current violent crime rate and the fact that it has declined over the decades, the perception of danger persists, driven by a narrative that emphasizes personal armament as the solution while ignoring its role in the problem.
Dr. Firmin DeBrabander says it well in Do Guns Make Us Free?:
“We are back to the point where gun rights advocates are just those people who decide they will live under the influence of fear. They will recognize the dangers that surround us, even while criminologists say those dangers are diminishing. No life, no individual is ever absolutely free from danger. But here is the problem: this ‘armed resolve’ of gun rights advocates creates dangers where few existed before.”
Guns delude people into believing they cannot rely on public safety systems. Myers believed he couldn’t afford to wait for the police, echoing a sentiment shared among many gun owners who see themselves as the first line of defense.
The truth is that our institutions and our society work not because of gun owners but despite them. Though their purchase may make them feel equipped to protect and serve, the reality is that armed citizens rarely shoot criminals;8 instead, guns are more likely to escalate conflicts,9 turning minor disputes into lethal encounters, or result in suicides. Ownership of a gun turns the individual into judge, jury, and executioner.
The myth that gun owners can enforce law, unsurprisingly, is also a product of the gun industry. The NRA’s former CEO Wayne LaPierre, who retired in disgrace, repeated the sentiment of vigilantism for years, spewing emotional but unfounded comments like “Instant responders can prevent tragedy that first responders can only clean up,”10 and “We’re on our own,”11 to name just two.
In court, Hazrat’s father shared that his family immigrated to America from Afghanistan in 2016 for a “happy and prosperous life.” While Aaron Brown Myers had the “Everyday Confidence” to shoot a teenager and is now free on bail, Hazrat’s father reports that his surviving children and nephew “do not have the courage to go to school because of fear and do not feel safe.”12
When the concept of freedom is packaged and sold in the form of a gun, our chances of happiness and prosperity decay exponentially.
That’s what they’re selling. Are you really buying?
