10 things the gun industry won’t tell you

[SecularMotion]

1. “Owning our product may be hazardous to your health.”

In the U.S., there are now somewhere between 270 million and 310 million guns, according to the Pew Research Center — that’s almost one gun for every person in the nation. Judges and legislators across the political spectrum recognize the constitutional right to bear arms. And gun and ammunition sales to private citizens are a significant part of a nearly $15 billion industry that’s seeing plenty of growth: On Tuesday, for example, Smith & Wesson SWHC +1.10% reported that its fiscal third-quarter profit rose to $20.8 million, up from $14.6 million a year ago .

What makes the gun industry so controversial, of course, is the ever-shifting debate about how to reconcile gun rights and public safety. Each year in this country, more than 31,000 people are killed by firearms, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimate — roughly 85 people per day. The U.S. has one of the highest rates of civilian gun ownership and one of the highest rates of firearm-related deaths per capita across developed countries around the world.

What’s more, a growing body of research suggests that simply owning a gun is correlated with an increased likelihood that you’ll be a victim of violence. A study published this January in the Annals of Internal Medicine found that people who live in homes with firearms are over three times as likely to die from suicide and two times as likely to be a victim of homicide as those who don’t have access to firearms. The study analyzed the results of 16 other studies and found that in all but one, access to guns was linked to a higher probability of murder or suicide. In another study published in the journal Aggression and Violent Behavior, two Harvard researchers conducted a review of 26 studies on gun availability and homicide in multiple countries and found that most of them “are consistent with the hypothesis that higher levels of gun prevalence substantially increase the homicide rate.”

http://www.marketwatch.com/story/10-things-the-gun-industry-wont-tell-you-2014-03-07?pagenumber=1

[LiberalEsto]

1. If all guns had to carry a picture of a toddler dead from gaping gunshot wounds...

Maybe the Consumer Product Safety Commission should step in on this one.

[billh58]

2. 2. “Fear is good for our bottom line.”

From the same link:

From 2008 to 2013, the gun and ammo manufacturing industry had one of the stronger periods in its history, with revenue growing at an annual rate of roughly 8.4% to an estimated $14.7 billion in 2013, according to a report on the industry by research firm IBISWorld. The report’s authors concluded that gains for the industry were driven in part by anxiety among its customers. “Fear of a potential rise in crime contributed to unprecedented industry growth,” the report stated. (In fact, nationwide, both property and violent crime rates fell over this period, according to FBI data.)

The impact of fear on gun sales was clear in the aftermath of the terrorist attacks on Sept. 11, 2001. The number of criminal background checks for firearm purchases — considered a good proxy for gun sales — jumped 22% in September of 2001 over the previous month’s levels, and another 19% that October.

Fear of crime isn’t the only anxiety that drives sales: When gun owners believe that the government will pass new regulations limiting their access to firearms, many, not surprisingly, go out and stock up. Some analysts believe that was the case in the latter half of 2012, when two large mass shootings by lone gunmen — one in Aurora, Colo., in which 12 movie-theater patrons were killed; another in Newtown, Conn., that killed 20 children and six school employees — led more public figures to call for gun restrictions. From August to December of that year, Federal Bureau of Investigation background checks climbed a total of 82%, to 2.78 million in December, an all-time record and a 49% increase over December 2011, according to FBI data.

Those numbers seem to have translated into improved sales as well: Smith & Wesson reported that net sales for the year ended April 30, 2013, climbed 43% from the previous year, hitting a record $588 million, with fourth-quarter sales up 38% compared with a year earlier. And gun maker Sturm Ruger & Co. saw net sales in 2012 hit $491.8 million, up from $328.8 in 2011. Indeed, gun sales sometimes jump after events like mass shootings, and they jumped after the recent elections, says Robert J. Spitzer, a professor of political science at the State University of New York-Cortland and the author of four books on gun policy. “Some people are afraid their access to guns will be restricted, so they buy;” others “buy them as a political statement to voice their disagreement with people who want to regulate guns.”

Of course, Second Amendment absolutists and right-wing gun nuts will see this as "good news" because it means that their NRA-induced fear is justified, and that this country will continue to be flooded with lethal weapons. The entire right-wing American gun culture is based on paranoia: fear of government, fear of "scary looking" people, and fear of many other imaginary boogeymen.