Flannel, muddy girl camo and man cards. See the ads used to sell the AR-15.
Last edited Sun Oct 8, 2023, 07:23 PM - Edit history (1)
A very interesting chronological look at ads for the AR-15. The first one was in 1966 and it was marketed (unsuccessfully) as a hunting rifle. 1966 was before the NSSF pulled off it's coup of the old NRA which was dedicated to gun safety and marksmanship.
From 1977 on all the ads centered on military and police as a selling point of the rifle. Curious how the gun culture is insistent that it isn't a military weapon when the gun industry has advertised it as such for 25 years!
It's well worth the read and an education on how the gun industry literally brain washed a generation of gun buyers.
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https://wapo.st/46lNKjs
It was made from aluminum and plastic, not the heavier metals and wood used in traditional firearms. Its cartridges were tiny compared with typical hunting ammunition. And it was all black — a dour monochrome far from the rich walnut accentuating many guns at the time. In short, the AR-15 presented a litany of challenges for those tasked with trying to sell it.
Many gun enthusiasts and industry executives were initially skeptical that an offshoot of a weapon originally designed for combat could sell in a marketplace focused on extolling the virtues of rifles for hunting and handguns for self-defense.
Through it all, the gun also became a point of emphasis for gun companies that turned to tactical weapons as an emerging and lucrative market.*
* The AR-15 market is so competitive that there is very little profit in selling the gun alone, hence the need to sell cheap tactical add-ons often with keystone markup to make up the shortfall.
= new reply since forum marked as read
We have mass shootings because of ARs.
We have ARs because of Viet Nam.
We had Viet Nam because of the French.
...
Draw your own conclusions. 
I think you missed the point I was trying to make. A market for "modern" rifles opened up post VN, as returning service members saw the AR as a rifle they were familiar with, and could use for a variety of purposes, aka target shooting, hunting, varmint control, etc. You tend to like/use what you were trained with. Then law enforcement started picking up on it, as GI's also went into that field, and a carbine length AR/M-16 is more vehicle friendly than a full size rifle or shotgun.
I do WW2 reenactments/displays, and a sure way to light up the eyes of a WW2/Korea vet is to hand them an M-1 or a carbine. A lot of the older shooters still prefer the wood/steel rifles, but to each his own. I like both, soooo...
Didn't miss it.
BTW, I've shot both the Garand and the Carbine and reloaded for both. Waste not, want not.
Also, the idea of M1 thumb scares me.
Using knife edge of hand to hold op rod until clip is seated, then get your thumb the heck out of the way. Interestingly, the original manuals (pre-war) didn't show that, just pushing down on the clip with your thumb, nothing holding the op rod. Nothing like experience being the best teacher!
Have loaded for both, also, amongst a whole bunch of other surplus weapons. Look up data for the .25 ACP sometime. Usually 2 or 3 tenths of a grain between min and max.
Back in the day...interesting time.
Second, the Gun Culture itself is rapidly following.
Third, The gun makers have attracted international attention with 87% of the crime guns in Ontario traced to the US.
https://www.bloomberg.com/graphics/2023-us-made-gun-exports-shootings-violence-sig-sauer/
Fourth, you are suggesting we do nothing because everything we do causes a short term burst of gun buying.
I reject your approach as nothing more than capitulation.
...the CDC says there were 5073 non-firearm homicides in a population of 331,893,745. That's rate of 1.53 per 100,000.
For the year ending March of 2022 the UK had 696 homicides overall (guns, knives, poison, Maxwell's Silver Hammer...whatever.) That's in a population of 67,508,936. That homicide rate is 1.00.
The US non-firearm homicide rate is 53% higher than the UK's overall homicide rate.
