The kids are doing it for themselves...

Here's the numbers: Between a quarter and a third of Americans are gun owners (exact data is not collected so we're reliant on estimates). Or to put that another way, between two thirds and three quarters of Americans do not own a gun and see no need to.

A very large number of American gun owners own one gun. A farmer who owns an ancient .22 "varmint rifle" will contribute to the figures without contributing to the problem at all.

Two thirds of Americans want stricter gun controls. So please don't generalise about "Americans" being a bunch of gun-crazy loons. A large majority of them are perfectly sane and normal people like you and me.

About half of America's guns are owned by three percent of the population. That's about 150 million guns owned by about nine and three quarter million people, or roughly 15 guns each in this minority freak market. The Vegas shooter owned 47 guns! Nine and three quarter million is a lot of people, but in a base population of over 300 million it is tiny.

For the arms manufacturers, the freak market is very important. It may be small but it is extremely lucrative, because they can sell anything there. The more bizarre and destructive a weapon is, the better their chances of selling it. "Hey, I like that, gimme three of them". These are the people who, whenever there is a shooting atrocity, rush out to buy yet more assault rifles. 3% may be a tiny minority of the population, but on a base population of 323 million, that’s still a lot of gun sales. The manufacturers know they can sell a couple of million copies of almost any weapon they make in this market.

The arms manufacturers don't just love the freak market, they need it. They are utterly dependent on it. They would very rapidly go bust without it. Colt did go bust in 2015 and has since "restructured". However, that is probably only postponing the inevitable, as "restructuring" a shaky company often does no more than buy time before the final collapse. Remington is entering the same process right now. Ruger and others are feeling the pinch as well. American arms manufacturers’ finances are so shaky they simply cannot afford to pass up such a rich and convenient source of sales. They play to it because they have to.

The freak market are the people most likely to respond to silly overheated rhetoric about "protecting freedom" and how guns are a good thing generally and how a "good guy with a gun" can stop a "bad guy with a gun", which the record does not bear out at all, or even the recent “let’s arm teachers” nonsense. Now a corporation cannot come out with this sort of stuff, because it has to maintain appearances of respectability. But the NRA can say it all on their behalf. The NRA claims not to receive any funding from the gun manufacturers but they lie. In fact they have received millions. The NRA, through a sustained and expert campaign of propaganda, has managed to spread the idea that if you are not one of the 3% of gun nuts who make up the freak market, you are somehow not a proper "patriot". If this means ensuring mentally disturbed teenagers can buy assault rifles, so be it.

So next time there's a shooting atrocity, remember, the victims did not die because "freedom is sacred" or because of the "Second Amendment", or even, heaven help us, because of what the sacred American flag means. They died to prevent corporate profits from falling through the floor. It's about money, nothing else.

Source.