Gun Industry Research Articles

The firearms industry challenges progress on SDGs in the Middle East

Abstract Firearms violence is a grave public health issue globally. Relevant public health outcomes include in addition to death, long term disability, and mental health harms. Further adverse effects on public health in armed conflicts include forced displacement, destruction of life supporting infrastructure and natural resources, in addition to adverse outcomes on civilian populations caught up in wars and protracted crises, who bear the burden more if located in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) of the world. Firearms violence is understudied beyond recent research which focuses on gun violence at an individual level in the context of the Global North, such as in the US, and which rarely addresses the marketing and lobbying strategies of the firearms industry globally to increase sales and consumption of its products. This focus on civilian level gun ownership and violence obscures the influence of the underlying commercial determinant, the firearms industry. Armed conflicts globally are fueled to a great extent by the weapons produced by the firearms industry and their trade, the majority of which are manufactured in industrialized countries, such as the US, UK and China. Based on the above and through the commercial determinants of health framework, this presentation will illustrate using the Middle East as a case, how the firearms industry gravely undermines and threatens the majority of SGDs, 3 (health and well-being), 10 (inequality reduction) and 16 (peace and justice) directly, and several of the others indirectly. Implications for research are also discussed.

Reinterpreting the NRA’s Eddie Eagle GunSafe® program as a corporate political activity

Abstract Background In the US firearm injuries are the leading cause of death among children and adolescents. However, and despite there being limited evidence to support the adoption of gun safety education programs, firearm industry-funded groups like the National Rifle Association (NRA) promote the delivery of their education-based Eddie Eagle Gunsafe® program while lobbying against other firearm policies less favourable to the firearm industry. The study aimed to address an important research gap by examining how the NRA frame gun ownership, safety and the role of the Eddie Eagle GunSafe® program as an effective firearm safety intervention and whether the design, promotion and delivery of the program serves the corporate political interests of the firearm industry, and if so, how. Methods We conducted a critical analysis of program-related texts and films and the NRA’s practices to promote its legitimacy and effectiveness, guided by the application of published taxonomies of corporate framing and action strategies. Data was collected from the program-specific websites and other NRA outlets to capture the breadth of strategies used to promote their education program. Results The NRA’s practices support the corporate political agenda of the firearm industry. The NRA adopts framing and action strategies that present the presence of firearms in homes and communities as inevitable and normal and the education of children through the delivery of their “lifesaving” program as the common-sense and effective way of keeping children safe from firearm injuries. They make misleading claims about the effectiveness of the program while undermining the credibility of those who advocate for the safety of children and adolescents. Conclusions The ongoing delivery of the Eddie Eagle GunSafe® program needs to be questioned. Policies based on a recognition that children and adolescents are safest when their homes and communities are free of firearms are needed to prevent firearm injuries. Key messages • The NRA makes misleading claims about their program’s effectiveness and distorts understanding of what is needed to prevent firearm injuries and ensure the safety of all children. • The firearm industry needs more attention from the global public health community. Evidenced policy measures that prioritize the prevention of firearm injuries are needed to save children’s lives.

7.C. Scientific session: Commercial determinants of health: impeding attainment of the Sustainable Development Goals

Abstract The commercial determinants of health (CDOH) and the adverse impacts they have on health equity globally, have recently emerged as an innovative growing field of research in public health. The corporate playbook comprises a myriad of strategies and tactics that aim to enhance profitability for the commercial actors, while harming health and posing grave risks to planetary health for current and future generations. The literature however, rarely explicitly makes the connection between commercial determinants and the impact they have on the attainment of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) set out by the United Nations in 2015. This workshop aims to use the commercial determinants of health framework as a new approach to draw attention to, and make linkages between, commercial determinants and the challenges they pose to the attainment of several if not all the global SDGs. The four presentations showcase exemplars of the commercial determinants to include the firearms industry, fossil fuel industry, food industry and the tobacco industry focusing on impacts in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs). The workshop will start with a brief overview of the CDOH framework, their corporate playbook, and the progress in SDG attainment globally while presenting the first case on the firearms industry trade impacting armed conflicts that impede SDG 3 (good health and wellbeing), 10 (reduced inequalities), and 16 (peace, justice and strong institutions). The second presentation will discuss how the fossil fuel industry uses greenwashing tactics to conceal its harmful activities thereby compromising SDGs 7 (affordable and clean energy), 11 (sustainable cities and communities), and 13 (climate action). The third presentation will address how the tobacco industry impedes the advancement of SDG 3, 8 (decent work and economic growth), 13 (climate action) and 17 (partnerships for the goals) perpetuated by national system level attributes. The last presentation will showcase how the food industry challenges SDG 3 in its production of ultra-processed foods. The workshop will draw on evidence from LMICs, but is also eye opening for high-income countries of Europe which face industry interference in social and health policymaking progress in SGD attainment. The audience will be engaged in a short warm-up exercise at the start of the workshop through an app for real-time feedback accessed through a QR code on the screen, and will interact with the presenters at the end of the workshop if time permits. Key messages • All commercial actors pose a direct or indirect threat to progress in attaining the SDGs. • The commercial determinants of health pose are in direct contradiction to the SDG 17 through their corporate playbook.

The State of Firearm Policy Research in the United States.

Firearm-related deaths lead to the most person-years of life lost in the US. There were 48,830 deaths from homicides and suicides in 2021 alone. Firearm access remains at an all-time high in most states - indicated by record manufacturing, sales, employment in firearm industry, taxes collected from sales, and the number of federal background check applications in 2020 and 2021. Yet, firearm injury is a politically contentious topic to the point of stalling progress on an important public health topic. This politicization led to nearly three decades of federal disinvestment in firearm research; reduced surveillance of firearm-related crime, injury, and death; and degraded data quality. This left generations of researchers with limited epidemiologic tools to conduct firearm policy research, jeopardizing the amount and quality of research conducted. Despite these limitations, research has persisted and promising approaches to reduce firearm morbidity and mortality have been identified. Yet the field has struggled to keep pace with methodological advancements and conceptualizations of racial and ethnic disparities as products of systemic racism. In this commentary, we highlight some existing evidence-informed policies, explicate some limitations in the field, and identify opportunities to address the limitations of prior work to strengthen future capacity for evidence-informed prevention.

Why Americans increasingly claim to own guns for self-protection: A modern culture of social-psychological threat defense

This article addresses two questions: (a) why do Americans believe that they need guns to defend themselves and their families and (b) why has the number of Americans who share this belief increased dramatically in recent decades? To address the first question, we describe a model of defensive gun ownership that assumes that Americans’ perceived need of a gun for self-defense is not only determined by their perceived lifetime risk of being assaulted (PLRA), but also by some diffuse belief in a dangerous world (BDW). In attempting to identify the dangerous world feared by high BDW gun owners, we review evidence that gun ownership is often associated with racial prejudice and concerns about groups that are stereotypically associated with safety threats (e.g., Black Americans, illegal immigrants). We identified three environmental changes that might exacerbate social threat perceptions: the proliferation of intergroup threat narratives such as the great replacement theory (that White Americans will be replaced by non-White minorities), the COVID-19 pandemic, and a change in the way the American gun industry advertises their products (praising the quality of their guns to emphasize the usefulness of guns for self-defense).

Money first? Strategic and economic interests in the international arms trade network, 1920–1936

AbstractArms transfers result from economic and political motives, with the latter often dominating the former. While this is accepted knowledge for the post‐World War II period, it seems not to apply earlier. Much existing research argues that in the interwar years, weapons were traded as purely commercial goods because governments had neither the ability nor willingness to control and direct arms transfers. We reassess this idea and argue that, while formal control was largely absent, governments could steer weapons shipments nonetheless because arms producers depended on them as main customers, sales agents, and financiers of their export business. Anecdotal evidence suggests that governments actively used this influence. To test whether interwar arms transfers were the result of political or commercial interests, we use newly collected, historical data on the small arms trade and inferential network analysis methods. Our results suggest that although economic drivers existed throughout the interwar period, political considerations were especially influential when international relations were hostile at the start and end of the period. This research contributes to our understanding of international economic relations between the world wars and of the drivers of arms transfers across time.

There's Something about Uvalde: American Patriarchy and the Slaughter of Innocents.

After every school shooting in the United States both a wish and a fear arise: Will this be the one? Will this be the tipping point for change in a nation so deeply divided over the meaning of "the right to bear arms?" Sandy Hook, Connecticut? No. Parkland, Florida? No. So, why might the killing of 19 children and 2 teachers in Uvalde, Texas, prove different? The American epidemic of mass school shootings betrays a country's willingness to let its children disappear, to sacrifice them on the altar of an archetypally violent ethos. While the internal experiences of alienation, resentment and contempt are often at play in the individuals who carry out such violence, the author suggests that the uniquely American glorification of "the lone wolf", the "rugged individual" and the "misunderstood hero" fuels a supportive background for mass shooters in a nation that appears to be enamoured of ancient patriarchal attitudes as it doubles down on its valuing of weaponry. Such patriarchal attitudes, underscored by capitalism and the profits of the gun industry, are implicated in the territorial adhesion to American gun rights and in the high cost paid by the blood of innocents. Drawing on Vestergaard & Odde's (2021) concepts of socio-analysis and sociality, this paper explores the dynamic process of "mass-character" marked by "contagion, imitation, attraction and repulsion" that convolute cultural values of heritage and freedom into the perverse expression of mass violence.

The Challenges of Human Security in the Horn of Africa: The Case of Somaliland.

Purpose: In the Horn of Africa the main challenges to human security in this region have originated from political and state fragility, resource scarcities, and environmental degradation. Human security is arrayed against escalating communal violence, small arms proliferation, and massive movements of people within and beyond the region. Since 1991 the people of Somaliland have successfully established a peaceful and relatively stable state and community. They have managed a process of reconciliation, demobilized the local militias, restored law and order, and held numerous rounds of peaceful elections. Peace, stability, national and state security were enhanced which allowed normal patterns of trade and other economic activities to resume. Therefore the main objective of this study is to analyze the contemporary situation of human security in Somaliland and to figure out the key challenges of human security that faced Somaliland since post 1991and its performance in subject matter. 
 Methodology: The study is exploratory as well as descriptive research designs. Where qualitative data were collected and used. For selection of respondents, non- probabilistic sampling techniques, particularly purposive sampling technique were applied.
 Findings: The study found that Somaliland had made relatively advancement for political, economic, health, personal and community securities post 1991. In addition, the study found that the environmental security challenges in Somaliland are many and complex in nature and Somaliland has chronically food insecure since 1991 due to lack of commitment of the government for realizing food security in the country, frequent natural and man-made disasters that erodes the livelihood base of the community. Also the study found that, Lack of international recognition, Terrorism activities in Somalia are major external challenges of human security in Somaliland. While a high unemployment rate, corruption, weak of governmental institutions and recurrent droughts are the dramatic internal challenges of the realization of human security in the country.
 Unique Contribution to Theory, Policy and Practice: Moreover, the study recommends that the government of Somaliland is required to engage human security notions by employing effective strategies and policy directions, to realize wellbeing of the Somaliland society which would promote both human security and state security since these two concepts are interrelated. Also the study recommends to Somaliland government should Review, evaluate and develop agricultural policies, health policies, environmental policies, economic policies and the legislative and institutional framework on a regular basis for the purpose of promoting and ensuring human security in the country.

What It Takes to Write Statutes that Hold the Firearms Industry Accountable to Civil Justice

What It Takes to Write Statutes that Hold the Firearms Industry Accountable to Civil Justice

“Are Canadian Street Cops Outgunned?”: The Debate over Police Handguns in the 1990s

AbstractThis article offers the first scholarly analysis of the shift from revolvers to semi-automatic handguns in Canada to contribute to our knowledge of police militarization. In the 1990s, most Canadian police handed in their venerable service revolvers and received modern semi-automatic pistols. Advocates of new weapons pointed to relatively rare but high-profile shootings of police to show the dangers of law enforcement work and the need to have better firearms. The gun industry encouraged the rearming of police through an aggressive marketing campaign emphasizing that modern police forces required more advanced weapons and the military lineage of their products. The transition to semi-automatic handguns sometimes proved controversial, as human rights advocates believed the new handguns could result in excessive use of force. Despite this concern, most police were rearmed by the beginning of the twenty-first century.

Proceedings from the Second Medical Summit on Firearm Injury Prevention, 2022: Creating a Sustainable Healthcare Coalition to Advance a Multidisciplinary Public Health Approach.

Proceedings from the Second Medical Summit on Firearm Injury Prevention, 2022: Creating a Sustainable Healthcare Coalition to Advance a Multidisciplinary Public Health Approach.

The eco-munitionary subject: Conservation with and of firearms

The Pittman-Robertson Act of 1937 was a transformative piece of legislation for wildlife management and conservation in the United States, incentivizing the creation of state wildlife agencies and establishing funding mechanisms for these agencies. The legislation directs an excise tax on firearms, ammunition, and archery equipment to a fund to support wildlife restoration projects by state wildlife agencies. In 2021 alone, this generated more than $1 billion in project funds. Although commonly framed as a user pays model of conservation whereby hunters fund wildlife management, most of the excise taxes collected on firearms and ammunition are now associated with non-hunting uses. Despite this disconnect, many firearms industry groups continue to support and promote their relationship to Pittman-Robertson. Here, we examine the role of Pittman-Robertson in shaping the relationship between firearms and conservation and seek to understand how this relationship is reproduced. We examine this shifting relationship through an analysis of amendments to Pittman-Robertson since its creation and a discourse analysis of contemporary materials from web sites of firearms, hunting, shooting, and conservation organizations. Drawing on the concept of environmentality and diverse ecologies, we argue that Pittman-Robertson has contributed to the production of, and been re-shaped by, a distinct environmental actor: the eco-munitionary subject.

The Contours of Gun Industry Immunity: Separation of Powers, Federalism, and the Second Amendment

The Contours of Gun Industry Immunity: Separation of Powers, Federalism, and the Second Amendment

THE EUROPEAN SOURCE OF GUNNERY PRACTICAL KNOWLEDGE IN KITĀB AL-ʿIZZ WA AL-MANĀFIʿ LI AL-MUJĀHIDĪN FĪ SABĪL ALLĀH BI AL-MADĀFIʿ

The Arabic manuscripts are known for their historical role as dynamic tools for restoring Muslim's historical identity and records. It covers a wide range of areas and fields, including military technology. The military engineer Captain Ibrāhīm ibn Aḥmad ibn Muḥammad ibn Ghānim ibn Zakariyyā al-Andalusī (d. 1641 AD) produced a remarkable well-illustrated encyclopaedic book in 1632 AD, a veritable practical artillery manual. Titled Kitāb al-ʿIzz wa al-Manāfiʿ li al-Mujāhidīn fī Sabīl Allāh bi al-Madāfiʿ (The Book of Glory and Benefits for those who fight with Cannons on the Path of Allāh). The work was translated into Arabic in 1638 AD by a fellow Morisco Aḥmad ibn Qāsim ibn Shaykh al-Ḥajarī al-Andalusī (d.1642 AD). This work has a significant impact in the field of the firearms industry. The book contains superb engravings entirely consecrated to artillery, which includes content on European artilleries. The Andalusian artisans specialised in distinctive Western military techniques and contributed to their diffusion throughout the Islamic world to oppose their enemies. Due to the author’s background and experience, he was conscious of Euro-Christian superiority in artillery and the value of well-trained and instructed gunners. This article extracts from his work some significant exposition in this aspect. It represents a short account on the European source of firearm knowledge, a constituent of Islamic technology. The main objective of this research is to identify the European source on which the author relied. The methodology used in doing this research is library-based. The significance of this research is to shed light on the Andalusian efforts in transferring firearms know-how technology from the West to the East.

Wildlife Crime: Story of an International Law Lacuna

Wildlife crime and more precisely the illicit trade of wildlife products is one of the fastest growing international crimes in connection with narcotics trafficking, human trafficking and the small arms trade. Conducted mostly by transnational crime syndicates, wildlife crime is also a source of funding for terrorist groups and armed militias in conflict ridden states contributing to the erosion of the rule of law and environmental degradation which has been expressly acknowledged by the United Nations Security Council (UNSC). Yet, there is no dedicated international law instrument to tackle wildlife crime. Instead, the international community relies on international cooperation and a patchwork of international instruments none of which were originally designed to deal specifically with wildlife crime. Predictably, the current legal framework does not seem to contribute that much to the prevention and eradication of wildlife crime as wildlife populations worldwide keep plummeting. If at the legal level, the adoption of an international agreement to prevent, supress and punish wildlife crime could be a step in the right direction, maybe it is humanity’s relationship with nature which needs to be reassessed especially in the light of the probable zoonotic origin of COVID-19.

A qualitative framing analysis of how firearm manufacturers and related bodies communicate to the public on gun-related harms and solutions

There is a growing understanding that the producers and sellers of harmful products directly and indirectly affect population health and policy, including through seeking to influence public understanding about the nature of harms and their solutions. However, the firearm industry and related organisations have not to date been the subject of this type of enquiry. This study sought to address this evidential gap through examining the ways in which the firearm industry and industry-associated organisations frame firearms, firearm-related harms and possible solutions to gun violence. This was a thematic qualitative documentary analysis of materials from 7 of the largest firearm manufacturers and associated organisations. Two authors independently extracted textual material from web articles, press releases, annual reports and shareholder communications between 1st April 2019 to 1st April 2020 (302 documents). A hybrid approach combining both deductive and inductive coding was adopted, guided by the literature on the commercial determinants of health and using NVivo version 12. The firearm industry and firearm industry-funded organisations use framings about the safety and role of guns, evidence on associated harms and solutions that align with the industry's business interests, consistent with evidence on other harmful product manufacturers. This study identified framing strategies employed by the firearm industry and related organisations. These included attempts to undermine evidence, linking regulation to a dystopian future, minimising some of the most common harms, placing the responsibility for harms on individuals, and attempting to foster a heightened sense of risk to personal safety.

Self Defense is Killing Us

Much of the gun violence prevention debate has been around gun control and personal responsibility when the focus should be on the hidden power and influence of the gun industry that has shaped the narrative in order to maximize profit and stay in business. This article unmasks the gun industry’s marketing strategy so that we can begin to have a different conversation around what actually makes us safe and take action to end gun violence.

Manufacturing Advantage: War, the State, and the Origins of American Industry, 1776–1848

Manufacturing Advantage: War, the State, and the Origins of American Industry, 1776–1848

The Gun Industry and the New Anti-Boycott Laws

The Gun Industry and the New Anti-Boycott Laws

Mexico v. U.S. Gun Industry

Mexico v. U.S. Gun Industry