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For Immediate Release
January, 13 2011, 02:27pm EDT
Contact:
Rob Lamontagne, 202-822-8200 x110, press@vpc.org
Gun Industry Holds Annual Trade Show in Aftermath of AZ Shooting
SHOT Show an Example of a Politically Powerful Industry Desperate to Hide Its Decline
WASHINGTON
Next week, America's
gunmakers will assemble for the SHOT (Shooting, Hunting and Outdoor Trade)
Show, the annual trade show for the firearms industry. As household gun
ownership has dropped dramatically since the early 1970s and America's
youth turn away from guns, the SHOT Show is proof of the gun industry's embrace
of increased lethality to shore up its fading market and declining sales.
The SHOT Show will bring together
hundreds of vendors - including Glock, a manufacturer of pistols used in
multiple mass shootings, which markets its handguns as "pocket rockets" - and tens of
thousands of attendees, as lawmakers in Congress are expected to introduce
legislation to ban high-capacity ammunition magazines like those used in last
week's mass shooting in Arizona. The show comes at a time that most of
the major gun manufacturers are experiencing a significant decline in demand
and falling sales.
Josh
Sugarmann,
executive director of the Violence Policy Center,
states, "Most Americans would be shocked
at what the gun industry has become. For those deeply concerned by the
firepower unleashed in Arizona last week, the SHOT Show proves that America's
increasingly militarized gun industry has embraced heightened firepower and
greater ammunition capacity in its marketing efforts to a shrinking customer
base."
DETAILS
FOR NEWS MEDIA
While closed to the general public, the
SHOT Show is open to the news media. Below is information from the SHOT
Show's sponsor, the gun industry trade association the National Shooting Sports
Foundation.
WHAT:
SHOT Show
WHERE:
Sands Expo and
Convention Center in Las Vegas, NV
WHEN:
Tuesday, January 18 - Friday, January 21, 2011
SHOT SHOW CONTACT
INFORMATION:
Web:
https://www.shotshow.org/en/Media
Email:
shot@compusystems.com
Phone:
203-426-1320
BACKGROUND
FOR NEWS MEDIA
The Violence Policy Center has released studies that demonstrate
the gun industry's reliance on increased lethality, militarization, and
political lobbying in its failed efforts to stem the long-term decline in
American household gun ownership.
DECLINING GUN OWNERSHIP
In light of long-term decreases in
household gun ownership in the United States and the industry's ongoing
concerns that it lacks 'replacement shooters' to take the place of an aging
market, these marketing trends represent a concerted effort to re-sell current
gun owners.
(See the VPC study "A Shrinking
Minority: The Continuing Decline of Gun Ownership in America," https://www.vpc.org/studies/gunownership.pdf.)
INCREASED FIREPOWER, HIGH-CAPACITY
HANDGUNS
Small, high-capacity "pocket
rocket" (a term coined by handgun manufacturer Glock) pistols designed for
concealed carry. Such manufacturers scheduled to be at the SHOT Show
include: Smith & Wesson; Sturm,Ruger; Sig Sauer; Glock; and, Beretta.
(See the VPC study "Pocket Rockets:
The Gun Industry's Sale of Increased Firepower," https://www.vpc.org/studies/pockcont.htm).
REBRANDING MILITARY-STYLE ASSAULT WEAPONS
The industry is attempting to rebrand
military-style assault weapons as "modern sporting rifles," primarily
AK-47 and AR-15 rifle and pistol models. Numerous assault rifle models are purchased in quantity on the civilian market in the U.S. and then illegally trafficked into Mexico where they help feed ongoing drug
wars. Such manufacturers scheduled as exhibitors at the SHOT Show include: DPMS; Bushmaster; Century International Arms; Rock River Arms, FN (Fabrique National); and, Colt's Manufacturing
Company.
(See the VPC study, "Indicted: Types
of Firearms and Methods of Gun Trafficking from the United States to Mexico as Revealed in U.S. Court
Documents,"https://www.vpc.org/studies/indicted.pdf.)
MARKETING ARMOR-PIERCING MILITARY WEAPONS
FOR CIVILIAN USE
The most stark example of the industry's
embrace of military technology is its manufacture and marketing of 50 caliber
sniper rifles (like those used by U.S. troops overseas) that can penetrate
armor-plating from a mile away and can down jetliners on take-off and
landing. Such manufacturers scheduled to be at the SHOT Show
include: Barrett; Armalite; and, Bushmaster.
(See the VPC study "Clear and
Present Danger: National Security Experts Warn About the Danger of Unrestricted
Sales of 50 Caliber Anti-Armor Sniper Rifles to Civilians,"https://www.vpc.org/studies/50danger.pdf.)
The Violence Policy Center (VPC) works to stop gun death and injury through research, education, advocacy, and collaboration. Founded in 1988 by Executive Director Josh Sugarmann, a native of Newtown, Connecticut, the VPC informs the public about the impact of gun violence on their daily lives, exposes the profit-driven marketing and lobbying activities of the firearms industry and gun lobby, offers unique technical expertise to policymakers, organizations, and advocates on the federal, state, and local levels, and works for policy changes that save lives. The VPC has a long and proven record of policy successes on the federal, state, and local levels, leading the National Rifle Association to acknowledge us as "the most effective ... anti-gun rabble-rouser in Washington."
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\u201cDisaster capitalism. \nInvestors like "Water Asset Mangement" (an actual company) are betting on a water crisis.\u201d— Leslie (@Leslie) 1675176003
As the long-brewing crisis surrounding the Colorado River grows more acute, the federal government has taken steps to compel state-level policymakers to improve how they manage water resources in the increasingly arid region.
For instance, "Congress recently allocated $4 billion in drought funding that can be used to pay farmers to fallow their land and not use their water," CBS News reported. "Some Western states, including Colorado, are also considering paying some farmers to keep their lands fallow." Agriculture accounts for 70% of withdrawals from the Colorado River.
Last August, after the Colorado River Basin states failed to meet a federal deadline to approve a plan for achieving a 15% to 30% reduction in water use, the U.S. Department of Interior (DOI) announced—based on projected water levels for 2023—that Arizona, Nevada, and Mexico would be forced to draw less from the river this year.
On Tuesday, for the second time in six months, the seven states that depend on the Colorado River failed to reach a water conservation pact by the DOI's deadline, increasing the likelihood the agency will impose cuts later this year. Six states—Arizona, Colorado, Nevada, New Mexico, Utah, and Wyoming—agreed to slash water use. But California, the largest water consumer of the bunch, refused, setting the stage for what CNNdescribed as a "high-stakes legal battle."
In August, Food & Water Watch research director Amanda Starbuck implored policymakers to "eliminate rampant corporate water abuse before it's too late," decrying the "massive water use of Big Ag and Big Oil."
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Regarding WAM and other hedge funds looking to profit from looming water shortages, Rep. Ro Khanna (D-Calif.) and Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) unveiled legislation last March that would prevent Wall Street from speculating on life-sustaining water resources.
The Future of Water Act, as the congressional Democrats' bicameral legislation is titled, would amend the Commodity Exchange Act to affirm that water is a human right to be managed for public benefit—not a commodity to be bought and sold by investment firms. The bill would also prohibit the trading of water rights on futures markets—a recently invented financial ploy widely condemned as "dystopian."
Wenonah Hauter, executive director of Food & Water Watch, said at the time of the bill's introduction that "with the climate crisis delivering historically devastating droughts across the West, it is clearer than ever that water should be treated as a scarce, essential resource, not a commodity for Wall Street and financial speculators."
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Mueller, for his part, said Tuesday that "water in Colorado, water in the West, is your future."
"Without water," he added, "you have no future."
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