Press Releases

Campaign Research Notes, February 11, 2025 – The gun industry never misses an opportunity to market its increasingly lethal products to the American public. While most of America sees Valentine’s Day as a time of love and closeness, to the firearms industry it’s just another day to try and sell some guns.

Campaign Research Notes, February 4, 2025 – In January 2022, the Violence Policy Center (VPC) exposed the launch of a marketing campaign by gunmaker WEE1 Tactical for the JR-15, an AR-15 assault rifle specifically designed for children. Now, the founders of WEE1 are back with an apparently new company,  and what appears to be the same junior-sized AR-15 assault rifle, but with a new name: The GOAT-15.

Campaign Research Notes, December 19, 2024 – While most of America sees Christmas as a time of peace and goodwill, to the firearms industry it’s just another opportunity to market its increasingly lethal products.

Campaign Research Notes, November 26, 2024 – Another holiday, another chance for the gun industry to market its increasingly lethal products. While most of America sees Thanksgiving as an opportunity to gather with family, friends, and neighbors to celebrate and give thanks, the gun industry sees it as just another sales opportunity.

In this industry update: the latest from the Violence Policy Center’s ongoing research project Assault on DC, Guns & Ammo features a four-page advertising spread (including the front and back covers) from Silencer Central urging readers to buy one firearm silencer and get the second for free, and another example of the firearm industry’s financial support of the gun lobby.

Campaign Research Notes, October 29, 2024 – Though most people think of Halloween as a fun holiday for children, for the gun industry it’s just another opportunity to market their militarized products. As the gun website Pew Pew Tactical noted last Halloween, “So…Halloween Gun Sales are a thing now. But if you think about it…it’s the perfect thing to bridge the gap until Black Friday and Cyber Monday.”

In this industry update: the U.S. Supreme Court hears arguments on the Biden Administration’s ghost gun regulations while ongoing VPC research offers a snapshot from Washington, DC on the dramatic increase in police recoveries of these guns; another example of the gun industry’s militarized marketing, this time from gunmaker FN; and, back to the Supreme Court, which agrees to hear the Mexican government’s case against specific gun manufacturers.

Campaign Research Notes, September 26, 2024 – In this industry update, Gun Owners of America (GOA) hosts their inaugural Gun Owners Advocacy and Leadership Summit (GOALS) which highlights the group’s “expanding partnerships within the gun industry.” Held in August in Knoxville, Tennessee, VPC staff traveled to the meeting and attended panels featuring gun industry members and GOA personnel.

In this industry update, in the wake of the school shooting allegedly committed with an AR-15 style assault rifle by a 14-year-old student at Apalachee High School in Winder, Georgia on September 4, we examine the role played by the firearms industry, which relentlessly markets guns to children ─ directly and through their parents.

In the wake of the school shooting allegedly committed with an AR-15 style assault rifle by a 14-year-old student at Apalachee High School in Winder, Georgia, today the Violence Policy Center (VPC) released a new backgrounder on the gun industry’s marketing of guns to children.