My thoughts and prayers are with the gun manufacturers who have once again seen a huge uptick in their share prices, as they do every time there’s a mass shooting because of the(misguided) fear that a sterner gun control bill might pass in the future and guns will be more difficult to buy.
Gun owners stockpile just in case and the subsequent bump in gun manufacturers share prices enables them to spend yet more money funding the NRA, more ads, more Congressmen bought, more guns sold, more massacres endured, then higher stock prices all over again.
The logic is inescapable — mass killings are good for business. It has nothing whatsoever to do with the Second Amendment, freedom, or patriotism, or the NRA — that’s just a distraction. Massacres are now the norm in the US because they’re great for profits. As of last week (October 3, 2017) Shares of Smith & Wesson parent American Outdoor Brands were up 3.2%. Sturm, Ruger & Co. climbed 3.4%, while Vista Outdoor, which sells firearms and ammunition, ended the week up 6.4%.
My only question in all this is why is Congress planning to vote to deregulate silencers? What’s the reasoning here? No matter how loud the bullets are now, how many school kids, club-dwellers, movie-goers or concert attendees are gunned down, nothing happens except gun profits go up. Noise isn’t an issue.
So why bother passing legislation that make it easier for people to kill more quietly? So card law-abiding gun owners can finally play at being James Bond in front of the bedroom mirror?
The sheer volume of gunfire just doesn’t seem to be disturbing people as is; there’s no political or economic reason to make the next massacre a little quieter. No one’s complaining about the decibel levels — it’s just the gun manufacturers’ relentless pursuit of the American dream, which inevitably means more bang for the buck.