Friday, April 25, 2008

Guns, Death and Profits

The gun debate rages on, even as enraged citizens continue to use firearms to kill themselves and/or other people. It’s funny how “well regulated” is quietly forgotten in these discussions. The same old clichéd arguments are dredged up as if someone magically discovered a trove of hidden pro-gun meanings. Like guns don’t kill people, people kill people…a gun just sits there…

Perhaps I’m missing something. My guess is it would be my inabiltiy to get hopped up on testosterone to glean such truths.

A radio talk host in Madison Wisconsin recently interviewed the gun dealer who sold a few items to the Virginia Tech and NIU killers. These Second Amendmenteer’s stroked each others inadequacies, acting as if the neighborhood bully had stolen their only role of caps.

Any other responsible radio host would never have allowed themselves to be used as a promotional tool for the likes of a self serving dealer looking to make a sale over the dead bodies of his satisfied customers.

The Gun Guys offered up this insight: “A gun dealer in Green Bay Wisconsin…is currently engaged in a reprehensible publicity stunt. For two weeks, he announced to the media, he will sell guns at ‘cost’ to arm more people ‘to protect’ themselves. Eric Thompson is engaged in an ‘arm them all’ promotion.

We can’t read into Thompson’s mind, but we do know a little about public relations, and Thompson is broadcasting his “offer” to the media, which, of course, drives people to his gun websites. This is what is called free media as compared to paying for advertising.

So the gun dealer who sold shooting items to two mass murderers on campuses is now offering to arm people to “protect” themselves from the type of people he profited from in the first place from his gun business.

He is in the business of selling guns to both sides of our nation’s gun wars. There’s always a profit in that.”

How many more lives have to be spent at the gun shop?

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