Guns provide people with feeling of power AND POWER IS ADDICTIVE...

Gun Addiction: It’s Real and It’s Deadly Guns provide people with feeling of power AND POWER IS ADDICTIVE... https://www.mcall.com/2015/06/03/guns-provide-people-with-feeling-of-power/ Addicted To Bang: The Neuroscience of the Gun “If you combine the populations of Great Britain, France, Germany, Japan, Switzerland, Sweden, Denmark and Australia, you get a population roughly the size of the United States, where, last year, there were 32,000 gun death. Those other countries, which all have a form of gun control, had a total of 112. In the wake of recent tragic events, there have been a raft of articles about new reasons for gun-control and the psychological make-up of mass murderers (See NYT or WSJ), but the authors of this piece (co-authored with neuroscientist James Olds) believe there’s a critical component missing from this discussion: the very addictive nature of firearms. There are a number of different ways to think about this issue, but a decent place to start is Steven Pinker. In The Better Angels of Our Nature, Pinker makes the data-driven argument that violence has been decreasing steadily since the Middle Ages and, across the boards, is now at its lowest point in history. But this isn’t the case with gun violence. Consider this report (about Oakland, CA) from yesterday’s San Francisco Chronicle: https://www.forbes.com/sites/stevenkotler/2012/12/18/addicted-to-bang-the-neuroscience-of-the-gun/ America's Gun Addiction OUR NATION IS ADDICTED TO GUNS, WITH INCREASINGLY DEADLY CONSEQUENCES. Wherever you find addiction, there you find denial. The alcoholic who says, “I can quit any time I want,” and the gambling addict who says, “If I hit this time it’ll all work out,” are in the same boat as those who say, “Guns don’t kill people, people kill people.” They are all addicts in denial, refusing to see the overwhelming evidence of the damage caused by their behavior. When allowed to continue unchecked, addictions destroy lives. The neuroscience of addiction is the same regardless of the behavior or substance. The brain doesn’t care if it’s porn addiction, shopping addiction, cigarette addiction, video game addiction or whatever you like, including gun addiction. Here’s how it works: Dopamine is the brain’s neurotransmitter that is released when you expect a reward – when you expect pleasure. The brain is flooded with dopamine when a shooter prepares to fire a gun. Firing a gun releases endorphins – the pleasure hormones – the same ones we experience with sex, with taking certain substances, and with other enjoyable activities. Since the pleasure (BANG! and endorphins) follows the anticipation so quickly and reliably, the brain easily learns to connect the psychological loop: guns – dopamine – pleasure/endorphins. Some brains then become preoccupied with seeking more dopamine. More guns. The desire for more is another defining characteristic of addiction. The addict develops tolerance and requires more to get the same rush. Americans own more guns in absolute and relative terms than any other nation. We own about half the world’s guns although we make up only 5% of the world’s population. https://www.psychologytoday.com/ca/blog/time-out/201803/americas-gun-addiction https://americanaddictioncenters.org/adult-addiction-treatment-programs/signs You can’t always get what you want. Not news to anyone who has escaped from childhood with a modicum of maturity. Yet many people in our society believe that because they want something, they should have it, when they want it, and as much of it as possible. Consumerism feeds this fantasy as it promises great things, notably, if you buy this product, and those whatchamacallits, you will be happy, or at least happier. If you are depressed, go shopping. It’s a known panacea for the doldrums. Of course there is a downside. It doesn’t appear to work over the long term. And if we come to depend on buying to escape dreary days, then we run the risk of becoming consumer addicts, buying for temporary highs, but not for any good reason. Guns are a uniquely attractive consumer item for many Americans. Presumably they can satisfy as any consumer product can. If you are down, purchasing one can make you feel better. But in addition guns make some people feel powerful in ways that other consumer products do not. They provide a power over life and death. Their purchase and possession can create a tremendous high, especially for those who feel recurrently threatened or insecure. They are the heroin of consumer goods. The high appears to be so intense that some people can’t stop themselves from buying the biggest, baddest, weapon they can find. And when the kick runs out, they buy another, and another, and another, and another. The more power, the greater the kick. (Those who own many guns have been referred to as super owners. See “Just 3% of Americans own more than half the country’s guns.” *) Of course I am not speaking here of your typical gun owner who may have a couple of handguns and rifles. Nor I am speaking of gun collectors who are antiquarians, like coin collectors, for whom guns of different periods have historical interest. No, I’m talking about those who just must have that shiny new AR-12, and then an AR-15, and then a model that can be souped up to deliver more bullets per minute, etc. It goes without saying that very few of these avid consumers are mass murderers. Nevertheless, their consumerism enables those who are. Because gun addicts need their fix, they are desperate to make sure that nothing stands in the way of the sale of guns. The fact that under- or unregulated gun sales might result in a mass killing is not their problem. They can’t even see it as a problem because they are in fact addicts. They see what they need to see. (Guns don’t kill people; people kill people.) If you had access to a virtually unlimited supply of heroin as a heroin addict, you would surely fight to preserve your rights, your supply. Ditto for gun addicts.** Yet the analogy breaks down because heroin addicts don’t have the advantage of a national organization–yes, NRA, I’m talking to you–to defend their “rights.” Nor do they have a Constitutional Amendment that can be (mis)interpreted to justify their habit. Nor can heroin addicts claim that they are making a score to defend their homes, or their families, or their persons. But of course heroin addicts, like other addicts, can come up with all sorts of seemingly plausible explanations to deny their addiction, which is how gun addicts behave when their purchasing omnipotence is challenged. Let’s be clear. There are huge sums of money involved in protecting the gun industry. As a business it’s interested in profits. And every business would love to get people hooked on their products, perhaps even to the point of creating some sort of (semi) addictive behavior. (Coca-Cola anyone?) We can argue about how much of a necessary evil excessive consumerism may be in a capitalist economy. What is inarguable is that guns are not a typical consumer product. Nothing that can take lives so easily should ever be commodified in this fashion. Yet here we are. Letting one industry profit by feeding addicts at the expense of American lives. ____________________ * “How many Americans actually own a gun? A 2016 study by Harvard and Northeastern University put the total number of privately-owned firearms in the U.S. at 265 million, with more than half of that – 133 million – being concentrated in the hands of just 3% of Americans, called “super owners,” who have an average of 17 guns each.” From “Just 3% of Americans own more than half the country’s guns.” ** One might say that referring to collectors of guns as addicts is unfair. Other people buy multiple versions of the same product and we don’t typically call them addicts, although we might, for example, a person who owns 10,000 shoes or 10,000 watches. But it isn’t only the quantity that make some gun owners seem more like addicts than just collectors. Gun owners report that guns are important to their identity and the behavior of some owners exhibit traits that we associate with addiction or dependence, for example, needing more to achieve the same effect and the production of rushes or highs. In any case, the use of the term addict here is meant to dramatize the intense, needy, and unique relationship that some gun owners have to their (multiple) weapons. In this regard, it’s worth noting that, 89% of gun owners see having one as important to their overall identity. SHARE THIS: HTTPS://UPNIGHT.COM/2018/02/19/GUN-ADDICTION-ITS-REAL-AND-ITS-DEADLY/ 7 TIPS FOR HELPING SOMEONE WITH AN ADDICTION https://www.trihealth.com/dailyhealthwire/wellness-and-fitness/7-tips-for-helping-someone-with-an-addiction Media Matters: A History of the NRA’s Embrace of QAnon According to a new report by Media Matters, the NRA just endorsed “two high-profile congressional candidates who support QAnon” –– but, as Media Matters notes, that’s not “not the pro-gun group’s first experience with this dangerous conspiracy theory.” Five NRA board members have also “promoted QAnon or QAnon-related accounts on social media” and the NRA’s political action committee has “endorsed four state legislative candidates who have expressed support for the conspiracy theory.” https://www.everytown.org/press/media-matters-a-history-of-the-nras-embrace-of-qanon/ 'It's straight out of a playbook': At NRA convention, conspiracy theories abound To many attendees, the mass shooting in Uvalde was about mental illness and dark forces pushing their own agendas. https://www.politico.com/news/2022/05/27/nra-convention-uvalde-shooting-00035842 Guns, Lies, and Fear Exposing the NRA’s Messaging Playbook https://americanprogress.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/04/NRA-report.pdf NRA Promotes Two Execs Who Spread Bonkers Conspiracies https://www.thedailybeast.com/nra-promotes-charles-cotton-and-willes-lee-two-execs-who-spread-bonkers-conspiracies Mainstreaming Gun Confiscation Conspiracy Theories https://www.adl.org/resources/blog/mainstreaming-gun-confiscation-conspiracy-theories The NRA and its media outlet have long been a breeding ground for odious conspiracy theories https://www.mediamatters.org/alex-jones/nra-and-its-media-outlet-have-long-been-breeding-ground-odious-conspiracy-theories Emails Reveal NRA Official Emailed a Newtown Truther About Parkland A National Rifle Association official reportedly contacted a notorious Sandy Hook conspiracy theorist to discuss the Stoneman Douglas shooting https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-news/nra-sandy-hook-814811/ LOW IQ AND CONSPIRACY THEORIES: A HAND IN GLOVE RELATIONSHIP https://www.adamstaten.com/blog/2021/2/7/low-iq-and-conspiracy-theories-a-hand-in-glove-relationship Trump Promotes Messiah Complex With Low IQ, Religious Voters https://www.newamericanjournal.net/2020/08/trump-promotes-messiah-complex-with-low-iq-religious-voters/ GUN PORN: Hollywood's Gun Obsession: 43 movie posters from 2018 that sell audiences with guns. https://www.al.com/life/erry-2018/05/99883f864a4335/hollywoods_gun_obsession_44_mo.html Gun violence movies and TV shows https://bestsimilar.com/tag/4684-gun-violence 10 Movies that Honestly Depict the Horror of Gun Violence Francois Truffaut said it was impossible to make an antiwar film, because every representation is an act of romanticization and therefore an act of recruitment. In the gun debate, one often hears a similar argument: the movies make guns look unduly romantic and cool, transforming them into fetish objects to celebrated with mindless glee, contributing to a culture of acceptability and the naturalization of violence. Whether representation, even if flattering or romanticized, actively influences the behaviour of an impressionable audience is hard to say, but in any case it seems obvious that the cinema—and the American cinema in particular—has a fascination with gun violence so extreme and unrelenting that it borders on irresponsible. The problem isn’t so much that movies explicitly valorize guns as it is that they do nothing to suppress their appeal. It’s a tacit sort of endorsement, all the more insidious because, as with war movies, the advocacy remains only implied. https://www.mtv.com/news/8aaho1/gun-violence YET, THERE IS NO DEBATE ABOUT MOVIES SELLING TOYS Retail looks beyond its old love — the movies Toys and feature films go together like butter and popcorn. But with lower ticket sales and fewer blockbusters, “it’s not just about movies anymore.” https://www.retaildive.com/news/holiday-toy-retail-movies-streaming/636986/ TRAINED TO BUY FROM CHILDHOOD: Movies make the $26.5 billion toy industry go round https://www.smh.com.au/business/movies-make-the-265-billion-toy-industry-go-round-20170303-gupltz.html 7 Trends Driving the Toy Industry In 2023 1. MORE MOVIE AND TV FRANCHISE TIE-INS https://explodingtopics.com/blog/toy-industry-trends Big name movies driving licensed toy sales, says NPD https://www.licensingsource.net/big-name-movies-driving-licensed-toy-sales-says-npd/ Delayed movie releases ripple through toy industry https://www.marketplace.org/2021/02/08/delayed-movie-releases-ripple-through-toy-industry/ I Don't Like Mondays 2006 · 50 min TV-14 Crime · Documentary This true crime documentary explores then-16-year-old Brenda Spencer's school shooting in San Diego, California in 1979. Starring Brenda SpencerRichard SachsGene CubbisonPenny Buckley Directed by John Dower https://tubitv.com/movies/681653/i-don-t-like-mondays?start=true Parkland: Inside Building 12 2019 · 1 hr 59 min TV-14 Documentary Interviews and cell phone footage provide a grim look inside the February 14, 2018 Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School shooting. Starring Emma GonzálezLogan MitchellMadalyn Snyder Directed by Charlie Minn https://tubitv.com/movies/569500/parkland-inside-building-12?start=true The Columbine Massacre: In the Killer's Mind 2016 · 54 min PG-13 Documentary · Crime · Action · Drama · Mystery · Reality · Thriller In 1999, two students arrived at Colorado High School armed to the teeth, executed 13 people and wounded dozens of others before committing suicide. Directed by Stephanie Kaim https://tubitv.com/movies/512098/the-columbine-massacre-in-the-killer-s-mind?start=true The Columbine Massacre: In the Killer's Mind 2016 · 54 min PG-13 Documentary · Crime · Action · Drama · Mystery · Reality · Thriller In 1999, two students arrived at Colorado High School armed to the teeth, executed 13 people and wounded dozens of others before committing suicide. Directed by Stephanie Kaim https://tubitv.com/movies/357456/77-minutes?start=true THE RIGHT TO OWN GUNS IS PROTECTED BY THE CONSITUTION BUT IS THERE ANY RIGHT TO MANUFACTURE GUNS IN THE US CONSITUTION? NRA’s 2016 Donation to Trump’s Campaign Pays Off President Donald Trump has remained vague and cool in public on the idea of pursuing background check legislation in Congress in recent days, after a call with National Rifle Association chief Wayne LaPierre. The NRA spent significant sums on behalf of the Trump campaign in 2016, and could be a source for campaign contributions to the candidate and congressional Republicans in 2020. https://fortune.com/2019/08/21/how-much-did-nra-contribute-trump-campaign/ The U.S. Lawmakers Who Have Received the Most Funding from the NRA U.S. LAWMAKERS HAVE IN RECENT YEARS CONTINUED TO RACK UP DONATIONS FROM GUN RIGHTS GROUPS – SOME TO THE TUNE OF TENS OF MILLIONS OF DOLLARS https://people.com/politics/the-lawmakers-who-receive-the-most-funding-from-nra/ The GOP lawmakers who get the most cash from gun rights groups https://www.axios.com/2022/05/25/ted-cruz-lawmakers-money-gun-rights-groups Gun companies arm trade association with cash to influence 2016 elections The National Rifle Association (NRA) is well known for using its deep pockets and passionate membership to fight off efforts at gun control, even in the wake of mass shootings. But it’s not the only gun organization spending big money to influence gun policy. The National Shooting Sports Foundation (NSSF), the firearms industry’s trade association, is taking aim at the 2016 election. The group, which represents gun manufacturers, distributors, and retailers, is investing heavily in its #GunVote voter mobilization campaign, all with an eye towards mobilizing gun owners to elect pro-gun candidates while defeating advocates of gun control. https://www.citizensforethics.org/reports-investigations/crew-investigations/gun-companies-arm-trade-association-cash-influence-2016-elections/ The gun lobby: See how much your representative gets https://www.politico.com/interactives/2017/gun-lobbying-spending-in-america-congress/ Gun Lobby Donations Are Driving the GOP’s Increasingly Extreme Opposition to Gun Control As the gun lobby increases its donations to GOP candidates, the Republican Party unifies against gun control, including against passing the assault weapons ban. https://www.americanprogressaction.org/article/gun-lobby-donations-are-driving-the-gops-increasingly-extreme-opposition-to-gun-control/ Maker of rifle in Texas massacre is deep-pocketed GOP donor POLITICAL CONTRIBUTIONS BY THE OWNERS OF GEORGIA-BASED DANIEL DEFENSE SHOW THE FINANCIAL CLOUT OF THE GUN INDUSTRY, EVEN AS NRA SPENDING DECLINES https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2022/05/27/texas-shooting-gun-manufacturer-donations/