daniel defense Uvalde
===
an 5 24
far-right Youtube influencer Brandon Herrera is set to face-off against incumbent US Rep. Tony Gonzales (R-TX) in a primary race Tuesday. The Daily Beast reported in March that "'a Trumpworld source' said Herrera would be 'a disaster for Republicans' if elected."
A Sunday, May 26 Daily Beast article reports the "**gunfluencer" — who has over 3 million subscribers — recently "posted to YouTube a video in which he wears a balaclava, fires an Armalite rifle, uses Irish stereotypes while joking about the IRA [Irish Republican Army], and says he 'f–king hate[s] the British.'"
The Beast reports:
*The Armalite assault rifle was an American gun that became synonymous with the Provisional Irish Republican Army or IRA, the dominant republican terror group during the Troubles, the period of violent unrest in Northern Ireland and mainland Britain from 1968 to 1998.
*The accepted death toll from the Troubles, established in the book Lost Lives by authors David McKittrick, Seamus Kelters, Brian Feeney, Chris Thornton and David McVea, is 3,720. The Provisional IRA killed more than 1,700 people–hundreds of them civilians. According to Ulster University, a college in Northern Ireland, more than 47,000 people were injured in shootings, bombings and other acts of violence
READ MORE:['Disgusting': MAGA rages after far-right YouTuber running for Congress mocks Trump’s son
Vice president of the gun control group Giffords, Chris Harris, told the Beast, "Brandon Herrera is reckless and dangerous. He gleefully promotes violence and extremism."
The Beast also notes:
*Also known as the AK Guy, Herrera has more than 3.4 million followers on YouTube. His videos have courted trouble before. Earlier this year, in response to a video in which Herrera fires a German World War II submachine gun (which he calls 'the original ghetto blaster') and goose-steps while an associate wears a German uniform, Gonzales branded his opponent a 'known neo-Nazi.'
*Herrera denied the charge, saying: 'This is the death spiral ladies and gentlemen. He has to cry to his liberal friends about me, because Republicans won’t listen anymore.'
Gonzales's district — which Herrera is vying for — includes Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas, where a gunman killed 19 children and two teachers in 2022.
While the YouTuber has secured support from hardliner GOP lawmakers like US Reps. Matt Gaetz (R-FL) and Andy Biggs (R-AZ), Herrera may have hurt his chance of securing a primary win in March when he posted a video making fun ofDonald Trump's son, Barron.
READ MORE:**Texas border Republican accuses GOP of using immigration crisis for political gain**
"I’ve heard that Brandon Herrera has a problem with keeping his mouth shut and has a problem with saying stupid stuff, and this is just the tip of the iceberg," a Republican operative told the Beast. "Brandon Herrera is going to have a very bad time over the next couple months if what I’ve heard is true."
Former Anti-Slavery International director Aidan McQuade, who's from Northern Ireland slammed the GOP hopeful "for displaying 'jaw-dropping stupidity'" in the video.
"It is quite an achievement to make a video of which the anti-Irish stereotyping is the least offensive part," McQuade told the Beast.
*The Daily Beast's full report is here (subscription required).
---
an 10 22
no lnx twt
'Macabre': Texas schools send out DNA kits after Greg Abbott signed law following Uvalde massacre
David Badash and The New Civil Rights Movement October 17, 2022
Texas school districts have begun distribution of DNA kits to parents after GOP Governor Greg Abbott signed a law mandating they be made available in the wake of the horrific mass shooting at the Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, where 19 students and two teachers were slaughtered in May.
“The state Legislature passed a law in spring 2021 requiring the Texas Education Agency to give inkless in-home fingerprint and DNA identification cards to each public school system in Texas,” The Houston Chronicle reports. “The kits will be made available at each primary-level campus. The cards are intended to be kept by guardians who can give them to law enforcement in order to potentially help find missing or trafficked children.”
The kits are available to any parent or guardian who requests them. They can be used to identify the bodies of their children in the event of another school mass shooting, or other event where it is difficult to ID a child.
READ MORE: ‘Ghoulish’ Greg Abbott Slammed as a ‘Monster’ for ‘Inhumane’ Response to Deaths of 50 People Locked in Tractor-Trailer
Brandi Smith, an Emmy award-winning anchor and reporter at KHOU responded to the news, saying on social media that a “follower forwarded me the email about the DNA kits he received from Clear Creek ISD last week. He identified himself as retired Army and added these kits were used prior to soldiers deploying to Iraq or Afghanistan. Let that sink in.”
Gun violence prevention activist Shannon Watts, founder of Moms Demand Action, blasted the move.
“Texas Gov Greg Abbott is choosing to send DNA kits to schools that parents can use to identify their children’s bodies AFTER they’ve been murdered rather than pass gun safety laws to proactively protect their lives,” she wrote, urging Texans to vote for Democrat Beto O’Rourke in the gubernatorial race.
Last month Everytown, the grassroots “movement of parents, students, survivors, educators, gun owners & concerned citizens fighting to end gun violence and build safer communities,” posted a chart showing the relationship between strong gun laws and lower gun violence.
READ MORE: ‘Taking Us All for Fools’: Critics Decimate Greg Abbott’s Claims and Defense of His Actions in Wake of School Shooting
“The states with the strongest gun laws—like California—have the lowest gun death rates. That’s not a coincidence,” the group, which includes Moms Demand Action, writes.
California Democratic Governor Gavin Newsom, believed to be mulling a potential 2024 presidential run, also criticized prioritizing DNA test kits over changing gun laws.
“Greg Abbott’s solution to gun violence? Send DNA kits to schools so parents can identify their kids’ bodies AFTER they’ve been shot and killed.”
On its website, Everytown ranks the Lone Star State 34th in the country for “Gun Law Strength,” adds, “Texas has weak gun laws. The state does not require a person to pass a criminal background check before purchasing a firearm from an unlicensed seller. Texas also allows people with carry licenses to carry concealed firearms on college and university campuses. Texas even allows some staff and teachers to carry firearms in K-12 schools.”
“In an average year, 3,647 people die by guns in Texas,” the group notes.
READ MORE: ‘I Apologize for Interrupting Your Press Conference’: Tearful Texas Democrat Urges Greg Abbott to ‘Do Something’ on Guns
Incumbent Governor Abbott is running for re-election against Democrat Beto O’Rourke. FiveThirtyEight reports the Texas Republican is polling about seven points higher than the former U.S. Congressman.
“Some families have found the [DNA test kits] program chilling, considering that police asked parents waiting to find out if their children were slaughtered at Robb Elementary on May 24 to provide DNA samples to help identify the dead,” The Houston Chronicle reports.
“When you put it in the light of Uvalde, it’s one of the most macabre things you could think about,” Bob Sanborn, president of the nonprofit Children at Risk, told The Chronicle.
“Among the countless chilling details to emerge from the school shooting in Uvalde, Texas,” The New York Times reported back in May, “was this: The authorities had asked parents waiting in agony for news about their children to give DNA samples.”
“The request suggests that some of the 19 children who were killed may have been so severely wounded and grouped so closely together that they were difficult to identify, according to experts in medical forensics.”
Confirming the Times’ suggestion, NBC News also reported in May, after the Uvalde mass shooting – the deadliest shooting ever at a Texas public school – that, “Many of the bodies were in bad shape.”
Eulalio Diaz Jr., a justice of the peace forced to act as a medical examiner in Uvalde, “tried to spare the parents as much pain as possible, hoping to positively identify the murdered children through descriptions their parents gave of clothing they wore to school that day, of photos parents showed him.”
“But it wasn’t enough,” NBC added. “The bodies were too shot up. The Texas Rangers ordered DNA swabs of family members.”
Earlier this month Uvalde families joined together, saying, “Greg Abbott has abandoned us.”
https://www.texastribune.org/2022/08/11/beto-orourke-greg-abbott-motherfucker-heckler/
https://www.thedailybeast.com/beto-orourke-calls-out-heckler-laughing-over-uvalde-shooting-it-may-be-funny-to-you-motherfucker
no lnx vid
Beto Calls Out Heckler Laughing Over Uvalde: ‘It May Be Funny to You, Motherfucker’
CLAP BACK
The Democratic gubernatorial candidate was discussing the victims of the shooting and gun control when the incident occurred.
Matt Young
Night Editor
Updated Aug. 11, 2022 1:22AM ET / PublishedAug. 11, 2022
Callaghan O’Hare/Reuters
Beto O’Rourke hit back at a heckler who laughed out loud Wednesday as the Texas gubernatorial candidate discussed the Uvalde school massacre.
O’Rourke was speaking to a crowd at a town hall in Mineral Wells during his 49-day tour of Texas when he began discussing the recent mass shooting that killed 19 children and two teachers.
:{
}:
“I’m going to make sure that now, 11 weeks since we lost 19 kids and their two teachers, shot to death with a weapon originally designed for use in combat, legally purchased by an 18-year-old who did not try to obtain one when he was 16 or 17 but followed the law that’s on the books, ladies and gentleman, that says that you can buy not one, you can buy two or more if you want to, AR-15s, hundreds of rounds of ammunition, and take that weapon that was originally designed for use on the battlefields in Vietnam to penetrate an enemy soldier’s helmet at 500 feet and knock him down dead…”
:{
}:
It was then that a man could be heard laughing loudly in the background.
:{
}:
“Up against kids at 5 feet… it may be funny to you, motherfucker, but it’s not funny to me, OK?” O’Rourke said.
The crowd then erupted in applause, giving O’Rourke a standing ovation.
“We’re going to make sure that our kids who are starting their school year right now, that they don’t have to worry about somebody walking into their school with a weapon like this,” O’Rourke said.
After the event, O’Rourke tweeted: “The parents in Uvalde are demanding action to address gun violence so no more families have to go through what they are experiencing. As governor, I will work with them to deliver it.”
According to footage posted to social media, the man was among a group of counter-protesters and supporters of Gov. Greg Abbott who were reportedly allowed to enter the premises.
:{
}:
In one video posted to Twitter by Roza Calderón, who confirmed to The Daily Beast that she was in the crowd at the time and sitting “just in front of the counter-protesters,” police can be seen speaking with one of the Abbott supporters who was allegedly among those laughing.
“While speaking about the Uvalde massacre every single Abbott supporter laughed as loud as possible, as if it were a joke,” she said.
She told The Daily Beast a few groups of Abbott supporters showed up, including a group of women.
“The group of men you see in the video were there to antagonize the crowd,” Calderón said. “They stood in the back speaking loudly over the guest speaker. They would make horribly racist or homophobic comments and laugh to get a rise.
:{
}:
“I’d say the whole room was trying to be cordial and welcoming to the Abbott people. When Beto went up to speak he reiterated that we were ALL welcome to join the discussion.
“When he spoke about the Uvalde shooting the men started heckling and laughing boisterously. It’s when Beto made the comment. The men were visibly embarrassed, and one of them started yelling like he was going to teach Beto a lesson. Event staff tried to calm him down, but they couldn’t. A police officer was flagged over to help.”
Calderón said the men “quietly left maybe 5-10 minutes after this exchange.”Beto O’Rourke Calls Out Heckler Laughing Over Uvalde Shooting, ‘It May Be Funny to You, Motherfucker’ (thedailybeast.com) video Roza Calderón on Twitter: "“It may be funny to you motherfuck*r, but it’s not funny to me!” - @BetoORourke Counter protesters were welcomed by Beto during his stop in Mineral Wells, TX. While speaking about the #UvaldeMassacre every single Abbot supporter laughed as loud as possible, as if it were a joke. https://t.co/PR1D109GZD" / Twitter
r2 92 biker dude
:{
}:
O’Rourke, who is appearing in Republic Party strongholds, has been a vocal supporter of gun control and more restrictive laws.
The footage has been widely shared online, with Fred Guttenberg, whose 14-year-old daughter Jaime was killed in the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School shooting, praising O’Rourke: “This is how you respond when someone laughs loudly while discussing the mass shooting in Uvalde.”
Founder of Moms Demand Action, Shannon Watts, urged voters to donate to the O’Rourke campaign and asked, “Please knock doors for Beto. Please get out the vote for Beto.”
cpb dad rescued dtr?
https://www.christianitydaily.com/articles/16023/20220530/gun-manufacturer-of-firearm-used-in-uvalde-massacre-paired-love-of-guns-with-love-of-the-bible-report-says.htm
https://www.newsweek.com/marjorie-taylor-greene-suggests-uvalde-students-needed-jr-15s-defense-1729317
Marjorie Taylor Greene Suggests Uvalde Students Needed JR-15s for Defense
BY AILA SLISCO ON 7/29/22
MARJORIE TAYLOR GREENE
ASSAULT WEAPONS
UVALDE
CHILDREN
Republican Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene says that the elementary school students killed during the mass shooting in Uvalde, Texas, earlier this year could have "defended themselves" had they been armed with assault weapons marketed to children.
Greene, who represents Georgia's 14th Congressional District, said that the Robb Elementary School victims "needed" to be armed with JR-15s, a small semi-automatic rifle modeled on the AR-15 and introduced earlier this year with a marketing campaign targeting children.Greene made the suggestion on Twitter while the House was meeting to debate an assault weapons ban, which included a moment where Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi denounced JR-15s as "disgusting."
"The kids at Uvalde needed JR-15s to defend themselves from the evil maniac that didn't care about laws," Greene tweeted while sharing a photo of Pelosi next to a JR-15 poster during the House hearing. "At least they could have defended themselves since no one else did, while their parents were held back by police."
"'Give the guns to the government' & they'll protect you," she added, alongside a "face with rolling eyes" emoji.
Greene's Communications Director Nick Dyer declined to comment when asked by Newsweek whether the congresswoman supported all elementary schoolchildren being armed with assault weapons as a tactic to defend against mass shootings.
The Uvalde shooting was the country's second-most deadly elementary school shooting, resulting in the deaths of 19 children and three adults including the shooter. The deadliest elementary school shooting—the 2012 shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary in Newtown, Connecticut—left 20 children and eight adults including the shooter dead.
Marjorie Taylor Greene JR-15s Guns Children Shootings
Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene said that the victims of the elementary school shooting in Uvalde, Texas, "needed" assault weapons marketed to children. Greene is pictured during an event in Newark, Ohio, on April 30, 2022.
Weapons manufacturer Wee1 Tactical's JR-15 poster describes the firearm as an opportunity for children to acquire a real semi-automatic assault weapon that "looks, feels, and operates just like Mom and Dad's gun."
The company also said that the JR-15 was intended to serve as an early introduction to guns that would lead to children becoming lifelong customers of the firearms industry.
"We believe that this introduction early on will produce a deep respect for firearms that continue and last for a lifetime of safety," Wee1 Tactical said in a press release that has since been removed from the company's website, according to Insider.
Pelosi expressed astonishment at Wee1 Tactical's JR-15 marketing campaign during Thursday's House hearing. The California Democrat spoke about the campaign while next to large reproduction of the company's colorful promotional poster, featuring cartoon images of girl and boy skull characters.
READ MORE
Background Checks for Gun Purchases Spiked in Texas After Uvalde Shooting
Every Republican to Vote Against an Assault Weapons Ban
Marjorie Taylor Greene Defends Nationalist Speech as 'She Is a Nazi' Trends
"It's particularly sickening to now see these same deadly weapons—are you ready for this?—being marketed to children," Pelosi said while discussing the poster. "Here's an advertisement for a JR-15, designed to be a so-called 'smaller, safer, lighter' version of the horrific AR-15, which has been used to murder so many of their playmates and friends."
"Look at this...these little skulls with ponytailsand that," she continued, pointing out the cartoon characters on the poster. "This callousness is disgusting. It's despicable and it reminds us that the crisis of gun violence requires action."
Newsweek reached out to Pelosi's office to comment.
biz insider?
gunmaker that made the rifle used in Uvalde advertises aggressively online, the NYT reports.
Daniel Defense was an early adopter of advertising directly to consumers online, per the outlet.
Its website promotes a buy-now, pay-later payment plan, and it runs "Call of Duty"-inspired ads.
The gunmaker that made the rifle used in the Texas elementary-school shooting uses online direct-to-consumer advertising tactics to attract young buyers, according to The New York Times.
Daniel Defense also runs ads modeled after the popular video game "Call of Duty," most likely also aimed to appeal to a younger audience, per the Times. The Uvalde shooter is said to have bought the rifle used in the attack days after his 18th birthday.
The Times reported how Daniel Defense also runs a buy-now, pay-later payment plan, which is advertised on the home page of its website.
The financing program allows buyers to spread out the cost of an assault-style rifle, some models of which retail for more than $1,800, over numerous pay periods in "three easy steps."
The plan is in partnership with Credova, a buy-now, pay-later company, according to Daniel Defense's website.
The Uvalde shooter reportedly bought a military-style rifle online from Daniel Defense a week before the massacre which left 19 children and two adults dead on May 24.
Legislators in several US states are pushing to strengthen gun laws. Gov. Phil Murphy of New Jersey called on his state's senate last week to pass a bill that would raise the legal gun-purchasing age to 21 from 18, progress on which was stalled last year.
Gov. Gavin Newsom of California also said that he would move to expedite stricter gun laws, including allowing people to sue gun manufacturers, according to Forbes.
The Times also reported last week that Daniel Defense was one of many gun manufacturers that received pandemic aid from the US government in 2020. It was granted a $3.1 million loan through the Paycheck Protection Program.
Daniel Defense didn't immediately respond to a request for comment from Insider. The Times reported CEO Marty Daniel did not respond to their requests for comment.
In a statement posted on its website, Daniel Defense said it was "deeply saddened by the tragic events in Texas."
"Our thoughts and prayers go out to the families and community devastated by this evil act," the statement continued.
"As reported in Governor Abbott's press conference, it is our understanding that the firearm used in the attack was manufactured by Daniel Defense. We will cooperate with all federal, state, and local law enforcement authorities in their investigations.
"We will keep the families of the victims and the entire Uvalde community in our thoughts and our prayers."
KEEP READING
NEWS
Most of the ballistic shields cops brought to the Uvalde school shooting weren't strong enough to stop bullets from the gunman's 'AR-15-style' rifle
More: Uvalde gun business Mass Shootings Texas
dot
EXCLUSIVE: ‘That’s the picture of him buying a gun’: Uvalde mass shooting suspect bought an AR-15 online last week
It's not known if this is the same weapon used in the shooting.
Claire Goforth Claire Goforth Tech Posted on May 24, 2022 Updated on May 25, 2022,
The Uvalde, Texas mass shooter frequently posted about guns and purchased a rifle online days ago.
Authorities say that 19 children and two teachers were killed in a mass shooting at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas. The alleged gunman, 18-year-old Salvador Ramos, was also killed. They haven’t provided details as to a possible motive for the shooting.
Soon after the shooting, people began posting screenshots of an Instagram account believed to belong to the shooter.
The account, which used the handle @salv8dor_, has since been banned from Instagram. The platform typically deletes mass shooters’ accounts in the immediate aftermath of a shooting.
Three people separately confirmed to the Daily Dot that the account belonged to Ramos.
The Daily Dot reviewed the account before it was deleted.
His most recent story features an image of two high-powered rifles. Ramos tagged a girl in the post. After the shooting, she posted screenshots of their correspondence in a story on her account.
She didn’t respond to the Daily Dot’s request for comment posted on her story.
The Daily Dot isn’t identifying her because she is a minor.
According to undated screenshots posted on her story, Ramos messaged her, “I’m about to.”
When she asked what he was about to do, he said that he would tell her before 11AM. “But you HAVE TO RESPOND,” he wrote. “I got a lil secret. I wanna tell you.”
She replied that she was sick and might not be awake when he reached out.
She never got a chance to hear that secret, according to the screenshots.
“Ima air out,” was the last thing Ramos reportedly sent her.
After the shooting, she wrote, “The only reason I responded was because I was afraid of him. I wish I had stayed awake to at least try to convince him not to commit his crime.”
“I didn’t know.”
In response to a private message from the Daily Dot, another person Ramos followed on Instagram confirmed that Ramos didn’t know the girl he tagged in the picture of the guns.
“All I know is he would always post guns on his story,” they added. They requested anonymity.
In response to an inquiry sent via Instagram direct message, another person Ramos followed on Instagram says that they met him on Yubo, a live streaming platform for young people.
They sent the Daily Dot photos of their correspondence about a gun Ramos had recently purchased. They also requested anonymity.
“He was just telling me about some rifle he bought,” they said, “But in America I know how normal that is and I had no idea.”
The screen name he reportedly used there matches the screen name he used on Instagram.
In their correspondence, Ramos mentioned following them on Instagram.
The receipt he sent to them shows the purchase of a gun bought from Daniel Defense, a Georgia-based company that sells guns online.
Daniel Defense didn’t respond to an inquiry sent via the contact form on its website after business hours. It appears Daniel Defense ships weapons to registered dealers, which then finish the purchase.
:{
}:
Among other weapons, its website sells an AR-15 for $1,870 plus tax—the same amount and model number listed on the receipt Ramos reportedly sent via Yubo.
The Instagram user, who lives abroad, said that Ramos bought the rifle eight days ago.
According to screenshots of their correspondence, they told him that “guns are boring.”
“No,” Ramos replied.
quartz
https://qz.com/2171070/everything-we-know-about-daniel-defense-which-made-the-gun-used-in-uvalde/
ON THE DEFENSIVE
Everything we know about Daniel Defense, which manufactured the gun used in Uvalde
A man holds up a gun next to a large billboard of a Daniel Defense ad at a prior NRA convention.
REUTERS/JOHN SOMMERS II
Daniel Defense
Tiffany Ap
By Tiffany Ap
Published May 27, 2022Last updated July 20, 2022
The AR-15-style weapon that a teenage shooter used to kill 21 people at an elementary school in Uvalde, Texas last week was purchased from a company called Daniel Defense, based in Georgia.
One of the largest private manufacturers of guns in the US, its goods are easily procured online with a few clicks as Quartz recently tried out for itself.
Here’s what else you need to know about the company:
It sent “thoughts and prayers” to Uvalde victims’ families
The company put up a statement on its website that addressed the shooting saying it was “deeply saddened by the tragic events in Texas this week.”
“Our thoughts and prayers go out to the families and community devastated by this evilact,” it read. The company also added that it was cooperating with law enforcement officials in the investigation.
Because of increased public scrutiny, it pulled out of the annual NRA show which opened Friday, stating that “we believe this week is not the appropriate time to be promoting our products in Texas.”
It also made the weapons used in the 2017 Las Vegas shooting
This is not the first time that Daniel Defense weapons were used in a mass shooting. The Las Vegas gunman who fired on a music festival in 2018 killing 58 people had bought four semi-automatic rifles made by the company.
Founded in 2000 by former garage door salesman Marty Daniel, the firm produced about 52,000 firearms in 2020, a big jump from the 32,000 in 2019, according to data from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives. Daniel told Forbes in a 2017 interview that the company grossed $73 million in sales the year before.
Gun company stocks usually rise in the immediate aftermath of a mass shooting event as people, worried about a crackdown on gun ownership, rush to buy more products. Although Daniel Defense is private, its owner said that it, too, has seen sales rise after mass shootings, including the one in Sandy Hook Elementary in 2012.
It’s a well-funded Republican donor
Daniel said in the same Forbes interview that he supported Trump “100% “in the 2016 election, praising the former president for his stance on gun ownership. Trump also happens to be giving the keynote speech on Friday evening at this year’s NRA convention.
This year, the owners of the company donated more than $70,000 directly to GOP candidates for federal office this election cycle, according to the Washington Post. Last year, the company itself gave $100,000 last year to a PAC backing incumbent Republican senators.
It recently used a toddler in its gun ads
A week before the shooting at Uvalde’s Robb Elementary School, the company posted an ad featuring a toddler holding a gun. “Train up a child in the way he should go, and when he is old, he will not depart from it,” it published to Twitter on May 16, the same day the Robb Elementary shooter turned 18. It was a reference to a Bible verse.
A Daniel Defense ad shows a toddler holding a long gun.SCREENSHOT
The deleted Daniel Defense post.
The company has since taken down the tweet after a backlash, but gun companies have increasingly targeted young children, especially boys. Previous Defense Daniel social media posts show it has also funded high school shooting clubs.
https://instagram.com/p/Bu3inJqgiic/
It’s a prolific poster in social media
Daniel Defense’s marketing suggests it’s trying to reach a mainstream audience. In 2014, it submitted a minute-long spot for the Super Bowl but was rejected because of the NFL’s rules against advertisements for “firearms, ammunition or other weapons.” It posted the ad to its own website, calling it the “greatest Super Bowl ad that never was.”
Earlier this month, to mark Cinco de Mayo, it posted a video of a man shooting a piñata, which it matched to the lively beat of a mambo. For Christmas, it gift-wrapped guns and bullets in festive paper, while its 2016 Valentine’s Day post showed an illustration of a shooter spraying out a string of hearts instead of bullets.
https://instagram.com/p/CdLyuB9g3NB/https://instagram.com/p/CX6TCWkASvm/https://instagram.com/p/BBxSOqNgKed/
Some of its regularly deployed hashtags are #pewpew #gunporn #gunsofinstagram and #ootd or “outfit of the day”, asking its followers to post pictures of their gun paired with their outfit.
It’s also quick to latch onto the cultural zeitgeist, including with a references to the hit Netflix show Squid Games. A few years back, the company promoted a photo of the singer Post Malone holding a gun, too.
https://instagram.com/p/CVsuh12AUzY/https://instagram.com/p/B7rS5RvAKog/
an 7 22
https://www.alternet.org/2022/07/ar-15-manufacturer-mass-shootings/
AR-15 manufacturer: Mass shootings are 'evil,' but what about the welfare of guns?
David Edwards and Raw Story July 27, 2022
The CEO of an AR-15 manufacturing company testified on Wednesday that mass shootings are "pure evil" -- but he said that it was the future of assault-style rifles that really "concerned" him.
In his opening remarks to the House Oversight Committee, Daniel Defense CEO Marty Daniel began by acknowledging that mass shootings like the one at a school in Uvalde, Texas were "evil acts."
"I am concerned, however, that the stated implied purpose of this hearing is to vilify, blame and try to ban over 24 million sporting rifles already in circulation that are lawfully possessed and commonly used by millions of Americans to protect their homes and loved ones," the CEO said, "to safely sport shoot with family and friends and to put food on the table as licensed hunters."
He added: "I believe in God and my faith guides me and my family. Fundamentally, I also believe there is good and evil in our lives and what we saw in Uvalde, Buffalo and Highland Park was pure evil."
Daniel asserted that the assault-style rifles sold today are "substantially the same as those [firearms] manufactured over 100 years ago."
"I believe that our nation's response needs not to focus on the type of gun but the type of persons who would commit mass shootings," he said.
Watch the video below or at this link.
more
8 Preposterous NRA Defenses of the AR-15 - Alternet.org ›
Like using a 'bazooka to hunt squirrels': John Thune ridiculed for ... ›
This is the type of damage an AR-15 can inflict — and why we need ... ›
RELATED ARTICLES AROUND THE WEB
Gunmaker Daniel Defense's Super Bowl stunt sheds lights on AR-15 ... ›
America's rifle: Why so many people love the AR-15 ›
What to know about the AR-15, the gun used in the Uvalde shooting ... ›
no lnx
INVESTIGATIONS
Gunmaker’s Super Bowl stunt sheds light on marketing of ‘America’s rifle’
Sales soared in the past decade at Daniel Defense, the maker of the gun used in the Uvalde shooting, as the firm employed aggressive marketing tactics to sell AR-style rifles
By Shawn Boburg and Jon Swaine
July 25, 2022
AR-style rifles manufactured by Daniel Defense, seen in 2017 at its headquarters in Black Creek, Ga. (Lisa Marie Pane/AP)
A rapidly growing manufacturer of AR-15-style rifles tried to run an ad during the Super Bowl in 2014, knowing that the NFL typically does not allow gun commercials during its marquee event.
But Daniel Defense — the maker of the semiautomatic rifle used in the Uvalde school shooting — privately had in place a plan to generate publicity whether the ad aired or not, according to previously unreported court documents that shed light on the gunmaker’s marketing strategies.
...
few lnx
Inside a gunmaker’s publicity stunt over a rejected Super Bowl ad
By Shawn Boburg and Jon Swaine, The Washington Post
Updated: 1 day ago Published: 1 day ago
AR-style rifles manufactured by Daniel Defense, seen in 2017 at its headquarters in Black Creek, Ga. (Lisa Marie Pane/AP)
A rapidly growing manufacturer of AR-15-style rifles tried to run an ad during the Super Bowl in 2014, knowing that the NFL typically does not allow gun commercials during its marquee event.
But Daniel Defense - the maker of the semiautomatic rifle used in the Uvalde school shooting - privately had in place a plan to generate publicity whether the ad aired or not, according to previously unreported court documents that shed light on the gunmaker’s marketing strategies.
If it aired, Daniel Defense’s top marketing executive planned to have people across the country complain about the company’s own ad to left-leaning media organizations, stirring controversy and generating coverage.
If the ad was rejected, records show, the executive had arranged for a prominent National Rifle Association commentator to release a prerecorded online video accusing the National Football League of censorship and hypocrisy.
“I had two plans, you know,” Daniel Defense’s former marketing director, Jordan Hunter, a former Marine, said during a May 2015 deposition in a trademark infringement case. “That’s from the Marine Corps days, two plans. If it goes bad, you have another.”
An examination of Daniel Defense’s marketing, based on court filings, interviews, internal documents and other records, shows how the gunmaker over the past decade devised publicity stunts, paid for favorable coverage in newsstand magazines and employed other aggressive tactics to entice Americans to buy its AR-style semiautomatic rifles.
Daniel Defense’s fortunes rose in parallel with the popularity of the guns known as AR-15s. The weapons, sometimes referred to as “America’s rifle,” are beloved by many gun enthusiasts but are seen by gun-control advocates as an instrument of carnage.
The marketing strategies of Daniel Defense and other gun manufacturers have come under increased scrutiny in recent months amid deadly mass shootings by gunmen using AR-style rifles in Buffalo, Uvalde, Texas, and Highland Park, Illinois.
The Uvalde, Tex., school board said July 25 that it will formally urge Gov. Greg Abbott (R) to raise the legal age to buy assault rifles from 18 to 21. (Video: Uvalde CISD Benson Board Room)
The CEOs of Daniel Defense, Smith & Wesson and Sturm, Ruger & Co. have been called to testify before the House Oversight Committee on Wednesday, part of the panel’s investigation into the sales and marketing of AR-style semiautomatic rifles. And earlier this month, Everytown for Gun Safety, a group that promotes gun control, asked the Federal Trade Commission to investigate Daniel Defense’s marketing, arguing that federal and state laws prohibit advertising that promotes the unsafe or illegal use of dangerous products.
Daniel Defense did not respond to multiple requests from The Washington Post for comment. The company said in a statement shortly after the school shooting in Uvalde that it was “saddened by the tragic events” and intended to cooperate with investigators. The company has not commented on the FTC complaint.
Hunter, who worked at the firm from 2011 to 2015, did not respond to requests for comment.
Hunter’s deposition was taken as part of a lawsuit that Daniel Defense filed against competitor Remington Arms that was later withdrawn by agreement of the parties.
The eventual rejection of the proposed Super Bowl commercial resulted in “by far” the most successful marketing effort in the company’s history, Hunter said during the deposition. “Nothing’s even close,” he said.
The online commentator’s video fiercely criticizing the NFL went viral, and the story about the banned Super Bowl ad reached tens of millions of people after it was featured on Fox News’s signature programs, such as “The Sean Hannity Show” and “The Five,” Hunter recounted in the deposition.
Within Daniel Defense, the publicity generated by the rejected Super Bowl ad was seen as a marketing coup that the owners sought to replicate, according to Thomas Carlson, who led the manufacturer’s marketing and communications from 2015 to 2017 and reported to Cindy Daniel, co-owner with her husband and CEO Marty Daniel.
“Cindy was always trying to figure out that kind of thing - what kind of PR stunt can we do to get a little more notoriety,” he told The Post.
Another key element of the company’s marketing strategy, he added, was to use images of military and tactical units holding Daniel Defense rifles. The AR-style rifles closely resemble their military counterparts, though the military version allows the shooter to fire more than one round with each pull of the trigger.
“A lot of people are like, ‘Our armed forces use that. That’s cool. I want that,’” Carlson said.
Food vendors, vending machines and tables occupy the area where Daniel Defense was to have their booth at the National Rifle Association Annual Meeting held at the George R. Brown Convention Center Friday, May 27, 2022, in Houston. Daniel Defense, the manufacturer of the AR-15 rifle used in the Uvalde, Texas, school shooting, pulled out of the convention shortly after the shooting.]
‘Two ways to go with this’
Formed in 2001 by Marty Daniel, a former garage-door salesman, Daniel Defense began as a military contractor using the bureaucratic slogan “small arms product solutions.” As recently as 2012, 80% of its sales were to the military, Hunter said in the deposition. The company sold the Department of Defense gun components, according to federal contracting records.
But Hunter said the company shifted its focus to civilians as America’s wars in the Middle East wound down. That period coincided with a backlash against the Obama administration’s gun-control plans after a 20-year-old man used an AR-style rifle in a December 2012 massacre at an elementary school in Newtown, Conn.
“The rhetoric starts flying about, you know, guns and Second Amendment rights and things like that, that’s going to cause consumers to take action,” Hunter said in the deposition.
Using slogans such as “Protecting Your Freedom,” the firm shifted its marketing toward self-defense and personal liberty. It published “Torture Test” videos of its guns being hit with bullets, bombed and run over to prove their toughness in rugged combat conditions.
In what Hunter described in his deposition as the firm’s “most effective” ad campaign, troops were shown carrying rifles made with Daniel Defense components, under the heading “Use What They Use.”
“Use what operators are using,” Hunter said. “You have the right to own that kind of thing, too.”
More than 90% of the company’s sales were to civilians by the time Hunter sat for his deposition, he said.
By August 2013, the firm, already a major player in the AR-15 market, was projecting a massive surge in sales, according to internal documents obtained by The Post. An internal presentation that month showed the company projected its previous year’s sales revenue of $31.7 million would more than triple to $110 million by 2014.
Reflecting that confidence, the company decided it was prepared to spend up to $600,000 to promote its guns during what would become the most-watched television event in U.S. history, the 2014 Super Bowl, Hunter said during the deposition. It was a major step up from the company’s previous marketing efforts, which included running ads in magazines and on local television stations, as well as “online campaigns” and attendance at tradeshows, according to an internal document that described its 2012 marketing initiatives.
For the Super Bowl ad, Daniel Defense produced a commercial that featured a military veteran, the father of a newborn, looking over his family in a suburban home.
:{
}:
“I am responsible for their protection,” a narrator says in the ad.“And no one has the right to tell me how to defend them. So I’ve chosen the most effective tool for the job,” the narrator says, before the commercial flashes to the silhouette of a Daniel Defense rifle.
Daniel Defense wanted to run the ad in eight cities, including Atlanta, Dallas and Memphis, Hunter said. But he said he realized the NFL might not allow it.
“I had two ways to go with this,” he recalled.
“The A plan was to run this thing and then I had people in each one of these cities that were going to - I had 15 different media groups that were left-leaning - and they were going to notify . . . that this thing aired, and we were going to get some press out of it.”
Hunter did not identify the people or media groups.
Plan B, he said, involved getting the editor of a trade publication, Guns & Ammo magazine, to agree in advance to publish the commercial online if it was rejected for the Super Bowl. The editor, Eric Poole, did not respond to a request for comment.
Additionally, Hunter said, he “kind of manipulated the situation” by having “a guy named Colion Noir, who is an NRA commentator and internet guy, kind of put his spin on, or his take on, what he thought his opinion was on this thing.”
:{
}:
The NRA had recruited Noir, a gun enthusiast and internet personality, in 2013 to appear in NRA News videos. Noir also has a YouTube channel with more than 2 million subscribers.
Neither Noir nor the NRA responded to requests for comment.
It’s not clear whether the NRA, which is not mentioned in the video, was involved in the video’s production. But NRA News separately published an eight-minute video about the rejected ad featuring an interview with Marty Daniel and titled “NFL’s Bad Call.”
Even among gunmakers, Daniel Defense stands out for its strong support of the NRA. The company is frequently a headline sponsor of NRA events, and the NRA has described the relationship as a “united front.”
:{
}:
Daniel Defense bought NRA memberships for all of its employees, the NRA said in 2017, and chartered buses to take them all to the NRA’s annual convention. That year, the NRA awarded Daniel Defense’s V7 rifle its “gun of the year” title — a first for an AR-style rifle.
During the deposition, Hunter said he believed the decision to reject the commercial did not come from the NFL, but rather from Fox, the channel broadcasting the Super Bowl.
“I actually had the Fox sales rep saying, ‘You know . . . the NFL will not allow this to air.’ And, in fact, I think it was Fox that killed it.”
An NFL spokesman at the time said the league had no involvement in rejecting the commercial, although he acknowledged its policy prohibited gun ads. “This is a completely bogus story,” Brian McCarthy, the NFL’s vice president of communications, told CBS Sports, referring to the controversy over the rejected ad.
As soon as Hunter received an email formally rejecting the ad, he said he forwarded it to Poole.
“He went and ran with the story,” Hunter said. Noir, he added, “had his video already ready and prepped.”
Noir published the Daniel Defense commercial along with his prerecorded commentary about the NFL on his YouTube channel on Dec. 1, 2013.
:{
}:
“All because a couple of jackasses do something bad with a gun, and the NFL thinks it has a gun problem,” Noir says in the video.
:{
}:
Hunter said in the deposition that the video took off instantly.
“And the thing just went and spun out and then it’s -a couple of hours later it’s on Drudge,” he said, referring to the popular online news site Drudge Report.
Appearing on Fox News to discuss the rejected commercial on Dec. 3, 2013, Marty Daniel urged viewers: “Call the NFL and tell them, ‘C’mon man! Run my ad!’”
That same day, Daniel Defense filed applications to trademark “C’mon man!” and “C’mon man! Run my ad!” for use on T-shirts, baseball caps and other clothing, according to U.S. Patent and Trademark Office records.
Videos of news segments about the supposed NFL ban ricocheted [heh] all over the internet, Hunter said during the deposition.
“It was the number one video on ‘The Five,’ the ‘Hannity Show’ and a couple other of those big-name Fox shows,” he said. Citing figures from Fox, he said videos about the ban were watched 20 million times in 10 days.
Hunter said he parted ways with Daniel Defense in March 2015, a few months after he said Cindy Daniel assumed control of the company’s marketing, because the firm determined he “wasn’t a good fit for her team any longer.” He went on to work for other gun manufacturers and now runs his own marketing firm, according to his LinkedIn page.
Boosting its profile
Keith Hendrix, of Starkville, Miss. looks over a rifle from Daniel Defense in the exhibition hall at the National Rifle Association Annual Meeting in Indianapolis, Saturday, April 27, 2019. (AP Photo/Michael Conroy)
In the years since theSuper Bowl stunt, Daniel Defense has rapidly expanded and increased production. It went from making 2,413 rifles in 2010 to 29,180 in 2020, according to annual data published by Shooting Industry magazine, climbing 23 places in the publication’s ranking of American long-gun producers to No. 18.
Hunter described the company’s target demographic as largely White, conservative men ages 35 to 55.
That audience is in line with the typical gun owner of today, according to a closely held 2020 study conducted by the National Shooting Sports Foundation, the firearm industry’s trade association, and shared with gun manufacturers. The Post obtained a copy.
“Protection for themselves and others at and away from home is the top motivation for purchasing a firearm,” the study said of the average buyer.
The study found that a demographic it termed “Urban Defenders” - the most likely to buy guns because they “do not trust others around them” - was the fastest growing segment and bought guns at a higher rate than any other in 2020.
Daniel Defense has appealed to such anxieties in its print marketing, using the image of a man in pajamas poised with a rifle and recommending its guns “whether you’re on the battlefield . . . or protecting your family in the middle of the night.”
The company stresses on its website that its sales comply with the law and that it does not ship specific weapons to states where they are banned.
In addition to placing traditional advertisements, the company has also cultivated favorable coverage in the gun press, using an array of tactics to boost the profile of its firearms and garner favorable reviews, according to a review of its marketing activities.
During his deposition, Hunter said the company paid to shape the content, design and even the paper quality of Daniel Defense-focused editions of a specialty AR-15 magazine published three or four times a year by InterMedia Outdoors, then the publisher of Guns & Ammo. There were at least three such editions, all in the years around the Super Bowl ad, each labeled “Daniel Defense edition” on its cover, according to images available online.
“I would then handpick the editor I wanted, handpick the writers that I wanted working with that editor, make a list of all the products I wanted covered,” Hunter said, adding that he had overseen the rewriting of articles and had a hand “in each and every part” of the publication.
A Daniel Defense marketing document said it used the AR-15 magazine, placed on newsstands, to reach “the Average Joe.”
A108-page Daniel Defense edition of the magazine from 2014, a copy of which was reviewed by The Post, did not contain any explicit disclosure about the company’s involvement. The names of Hunter and other Daniel Defense staff members appeared beside the regular editorial staff on the magazine’s masthead, under a Daniel Defense logo.
Poole, the Guns & Ammo editor who, according to Hunter, was also engaged for the Super Bowl stunt, contributed a six-page feature to the magazine on Daniel Defense’s $3,000 integrally suppressed rifle (ISR). “If you’re engaging a violent intruder from across the room in your house, you’re not going to miss with the ISR for lack of performance,” he wrote.
InterMedia was bought by new owners in November 2014 and renamed Outdoor Sportsman Group, which did not respond to a request for comment.
Daniel Defense has also worked to generate excitement for new weapons by hosting select writers at special launch events. In 2018, it put on a waterborne assault course for writers, driving them around a lake at high speed while they fired a new Daniel Defense rifle at targets, according to accounts published by Guns magazine.
The next year, it unveiled itsDelta 5 rifleat an event for writers that Guns magazine said was held at “a secret location” in Georgia. “Marty Daniel stood up in a lakeside cabin, sunlight illuminating him so perfectly I was sure a special-effects crew was stationed outside, and hoisted the Delta 5,” the magazine’s cover story said.
Brent Wheat, the editor of Guns, told The Post that the events did not secure favorable press for Daniel Defense. “Our general editorial philosophy is ‘good guns get coverage,’” Wheat said in an email.
In May 2018, Daniel Defense opened a new 300,000-square-foot headquarters and factory in Ellabell, Ga., more than doubling its previous space. Marty Daniel forecast that the new building would help the company triple its revenue.
While the company’s finances are private, the growth has been a boon for Daniel. In a 2018 video interview, he summarized his goal using a quote he attributed to the retail pioneer J.C. Penney. “I keep shoveling money toward God and he keeps shoveling it back, and his shovel’s a lot bigger than my shovel,” said Daniel.