Are You Good With That? Taking on the Gun Industry’s #KillerBusiness

Lockdowns instead of learning. Funerals instead of graduations. Guns are the number one killer of kids in America and yet the gun industry is laughing all the way to the bank.

Everytown for Gun Safety and Students Demand Action are at the forefront of holding this #KillerBusiness accountable for its role in fueling gun violence. Using dark humor, gun industry caricatures, and ripped-from-the-headlines themes, our campaign presents young people with an urgent message: The gun industry is selling your safety. Are you good with that?  The campaign asks a simple question while pulling back the curtain on the people profiting from our suffering—and seeks to empower a generation of activists who can change the course of history on this issue. We will have the last laugh.

The problem

The gun industry is made up of people and companies that profit from the sale of guns and ammunition. Collectively, the industry rakes in more than $9 billion each year and includes gun manufacturers, gun dealers, marketers, and lobbyists, among others. But despite fueling a public health crisis that kills 125 people each day, wounds over 200 more, and traumatizes entire communities, the gun industry is rarely held accountable for the harm, death, and trauma its products cause.

The Are You Good With That? campaign started with the observation that while gun violence is a rising public safety threat, the gun industry is more protected and removed from the consequences of its business practices than ever before. Fueled by greed and indifference, the gun industry has prioritized its profits over people’s lives. As previous campaigns have pointed out, if the gun industry wanted to, it could be part of the solution in making its products safer and reform its business practices to save lives. Instead, gun companies have chosen to either sit on the sidelines or take steps to actively make America’s gun violence crisis worse.

Of course, the gun industry isn’t the first to profit off of a public health crisis. But when the business practices of tobacco companies or opioid makers have caused death, trauma, and illness, they’ve been held accountable for the suffering they’ve caused—and the gun industry shouldn’t be any different.

The campaign

What if we could see the cynical decisions and deceptions that make up the daily business practices of the gun industry?  The anchor video of the campaign pulls back the curtain and reveals a video call with Don the Greedy Gun Maker, Leslie the Tricky Marketer, and Gary the Rogue Seller. While the call is fictitious, the issues raised in it are not.

When Gary talks about his guns “being used in crimes all the damn time,” it goes right to one of our core critiques of the gun industry: their refusal to stop selling guns to bad apple dealers who, whether through greed, inaction, or negligence, keep allowing them to fall into the hands of criminals. You can check out more from Gary here:

When Leslie the Tricky Marketer unveils the “new plushy AR-15 toys” that the kids will love, we’re calling out the gun industry’s reckless marketing to children who aren’t even old enough to buy a gun. More from Leslie can be found here:

When Don the Greedy Gun Maker gives the order to “stoke fear” so that “our guns are the only solution,” we’re holding up a mirror to an industry that continuously whips up fear and conflict in order to make a buck. Overall, our campaign utilizes dark humor to make a dark point about the very real role of guns in America: The gun industry sells your safety to make big money. Don’t take our word for it, hear it from Don in the video below:

Goals of the Are You Good With That? campaign

1. Start a dialogue within Gen Z about how the gun industry values its own profits over our lives.
2. Expose the lies that the gun industry utilizes to manipulate people, stoke fear, and sell more guns.
3. Encourage young people to learn more and call for gun industry accountability.

Frequently asked questions about the campaign

• How can I help support the campaign? Explore the campaign on AreYouGoodWithThat.com
• Is this campaign only for young people? No. After we saw in our testing how young people reacted positively to this campaign, we ran similar tests and found that it’s effective across the board.  No generation is good with the gun industry’s #KillerBusiness—and so we have an opportunity with this campaign to start conversations with people from all different walks of life.
• How do you expect the gun industry to react to this? Oh, they’ll be very upset—and we’ll be sure to keep them in our thoughts and prayers. But seriously, if they don’t like what they’re seeing, they can do something about the tens of thousands of deaths and injuries their products cause each year. Unfortunately, the more likely response is that they continue to spread fear and conspiracy theories about anyone trying to solve the problem of gun violence in America (all of us).
• How about the NRA? For young people in America, the NRA is about as relevant as a rotary telephone. For years, the NRA has acted as a shield for the gun industry, distracting the public from the gun industry’s relentless pursuit of profits. With the NRA weaker than ever, our campaign is meant to expose the industry behind the shield.
• Why does the campaign use humor? Guns are the number one killer of kids, teens, and young adults in America and that is no laughing matter. But for the “lockdown generation,” no one needs to tell them that gun violence is a serious issue. In our discussions with members of Gen Z and our broader survey research, we found that using dark humor helped engage and educate young people about the gun industry in a way that was new, different, and worth paying attention to. Are You Good With That? adopts a very different style and tone, but given declining trust in institutions and authorities, we believe that a campaign dedicated to uncovering the industry’s efforts to profit from rising death rates will drive more online engagement which, in turn, will shine a brighter light on the industry. Our hope is that our Are You Good With That? campaign videos can avoid stuffy lectures, cut through the noise on social media, and bring more people into the conversation—because as it turns out, most young people are not good with the gun industry’s indifference to our country’s gun violence epidemic.