Should Be Outlawed: US Gun Lobby Going After Youth
Kid with Gun!
I recently came across a report out of the Guardian newspaper that says that US gunmakers are going after America’s youth in an attempt to bolster gun sales. Yeah, you read that right!
GUNMAKERS going after OUR YOUTH!
Shouldn’t there be a law somewhere against that? According to the article I read, youth will be targeted with “junior shooting shows” and “pump-action shot guns.” I shake my head because guns and the people that own them have contributed GREATLY to the amount of violence that we currently have in society.
A portion of the article read:
The National Rifle Association, the hugely powerful lobby that campaigns to uphold the second amendment right to bear arms, knows how crucial such young guns are to the gun-rights cause. Firearms manufacturers know it, too. As Handguns Magazine put it, “Children are our salvation in the fight for liberty and the preservation of the shooting sports.”
“We can win this battle, if we all try,” proclaimed New England Firearms, a gun-maker, in an advert aimed at kids. “It will be an old-fashioned wrestling match for the hearts and minds of our children,” echoed the NRA as it launched a campaign to “invest” in America’s youth.
The metaphors might be extravagant, but the sentiment is accurate. America’s gun interests do indeed have a struggle on their hands to engage the country’s kids, for the simple reason that gun ownership is steadily declining. Over the last 30 years, the percentage of American households that have guns in the home has tailed off from a high of 54% in 1977 to 34.5% in 2006.
When I read stuff like this, I think about the 8 year old boy who killed himself when he accidentally shot himself in the head at a gunshow in Western Massachusetts. People, what are you thinking? Guns should not be targeted to kids any more than cigarettes, alcohol or other hard core drugs. What does the NRA have to say when a young person accidentally kills themselves or someone else because they thought they knew how to handle a gun?
The video of the newsstory of the boy who accidentally killed himself is below:
Tags: accidental suicide, gun lobby, guns, junior gun show, NRA, outlawed
About the Author
Yasmin Shiraz is the President of Still Eye Rise Films, an independent production company which films educational and thought provoking documentaries that chronicle the lives, traumas and experiences of youth. Her first production, Can She Be Saved?, a documentary that examines violence among middle school girls, was an official selection of the 2009 Roxbury Film Festival and recently won a 2009 Indie Award of Merit from IndieFest.
Yasmin Shiraz is the Award winning Author of Retaliation a novel about a community’s response to youth violence. In 2009, it was selected as one of the top Ten Quick Picks for Reluctant Young Adult Readers by the American Library Association. She is the author of The Blueprint for My Girls: How To Build A Life Full of Courage, Determination & Self Love (Simon and Schuster) and five other books. Her best selling “Blueprint” empowerment series is utilized as a self esteem, motivational, and educational tool at middle and high schools, after school programs, non-profit youth centers, as well as Boys and Girls Clubs throughout the country. 
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