The report, called “Start Them Young,” documents exactly how the gun industry is working to appeal to kids. One company has a friendly cartoon mascot, “Davey Crickett,” an armed insect that is used to market a beginner rifle. Consumers can also buy the “Davey Crickett” beanie baby, replete with fake gun…
…”Imagine the public outcry if the alcohol or tobacco industries introduced child-friendly versions of their adult products,” Josh Sugarmann, the study author, said in a release. “Yet the firearms industry and gun lobby are doing all of these things and more in their aggressive efforts to market guns to children.”
Source: Advocacy Group Warns U.S. Gun Industry Is Targeting Children
Imagine if I were to inform you that, sadly you are only 30 plus years late to the outrage party. Yup, late by three decades and change. The Davey Cricket beanie baby is marketing from Keystone Sporting Arms who also sell the “father” of the Cricket Rifle: The Chipmunk. Heck, they even tell you how the Cricket came to be!
In the book Rifles of the World, we find this entry for the Chipmunk Rifle:
Lovely thing the internet that allows you to find information really quick and you find out that patents 4,416,077 and 4,457,094 are dated for 1983 and 1984. The Cricket Rifle dates back to 1996 so it is celebrating its two decades of existence this year which means there is a healthy market for them. Yet, we have not heard of school massacres by kids armed with either rifles…which it is gonna be hard since they are one-shot bolt-action rifles anyway. Now imagine how many thousands of kids learned the proper handling, shooting and respect of firearms with those two rifles alone. But the Opposition needs to keep the Outrage machine fed even if it is with misleading and late information because its followers are misinformed and refusing to learn the truth as shown in the comments of the CSGV post.
There you have it, Folks. Stay tuned since I am sure they will come up with a new outdated outrage soon enough like the facts that the NRA bought the Boy Scouts and they are now teaching kids how to shoot the Cricket Rifles so they can go hunting humans in the ghetto.
PS: I know there are kid rifles even older that the Chipmunk and The Cricket. If you have the knowledge, please share it in the comment section.
Every time we do the rifle merit badge we have to discuss the history of gun laws. I always get a teensy bit nervous that I’m going to offend a parent.
Wow, Mark Johnson… since when has the NRA or anybody else ever advocated for concealed carry for children? Or when have concealed carry permit holders in any volume started gun fights over petty issues? Every Cricket Rifle I’ve ever seen has something like “only use in the presence of adult supervision” engraved on it. The only madness I see is the opinion you laid down on Facebook that is so divorced from reality that I’m wondering how much prune juice it took to dislodge it from whence it was formed.
Well if I can the two brain cells to run together I seem to remember that Winchester marketed a pump action 22lr for the kiddies. This was around 1900 or so. Neat search images
https://www.google.com/search?q=advertising+images+for+the+winchester+model+1906&client=safari&hl=en-us&prmd=isvn&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwj_n_6mwZDLAhUFMyYKHf5NBzMQ_AUIBygB&biw=375&bih=559&dpr=3
That’s a lot of stooopid in one place. Especially for some that claim to be educators. I thought the key to a good life was education. Unless it comes to guns. I bet they hate Eddie Eagle too.
Ian at Forgotten Weapons just did a video on a Marlin 1897 “bicycle rifle” 10 shot lever gun takedown that was marketed so that boys could pack it in a special case that strapped into the frame of their bike as they rode out to wherever they went to shoot.
Seems like the solution the anti’s advocate is Abstinence-Only Ignorance…
https://youtu.be/UMbelqq1i5E
http://www.weerdworld.com/2015/family-history/
This gun was pre-68 (no serial) Dad got it used when he was 10 which means it was MADE in the 40s or so, and under NO circumstances was this gun designed for a grown adult to shoot….it can be done, but the thing is WAYYY too small.
I’ve got to say that the one argument these clowns make all the time that makes the least sense to me – and it’s hard to pick one – is that the gun industry supports the NRA. Honestly, who do they expect the industry to support? Them? That’s just common sense.
If you’re Big Gun Company or especially Small Startup Gun Company, where do you spend your scarce advertising money: in American Rifleman or the Ladies Quilting Journal? Where do you think is a more effective place to get your product in front of a likely buyer? (Although given the demographics of new gun owners, a little expenditure in a young ladies magazine might not be a bad idea).
Is it any wonder that places like Midway USA and Taurus and more manage donations to the NRA, or include first year of NRA membership dues? It’s an industry under constant, unrelenting, vicious attack, and everyone recognizes the NRA is that 800 pound gorilla in the room.
Mind you, it’s amazing how they blame innocent things like those Cricket rifles on the NRA. The NRA doesn’t manufacture or sell any guns.
I have a Chipmunk!
Pawn Stars, season 3, ep 23:
Items appraised include … a child’s half-scale flintlock musket dated to the 1770s–1780s;
I think the issues is now resolved….LOL
[…] Clutching their pearls and screaming GUN INDUSTRY TARGETS CHILDREN. […]
The liberals seem to forget why they are so uneducated about guns.It is because no one took the time to teach you when you were a kid.The kids are our future and to refuse to educate them of all things in the world is a waste.This is why our schools and colleges are teaching liberalism nowadays instead of real live.Which leaves them as victims in the real world.
The Chipmunk was originally made by the Rogue Rifle Co.
I had my Roy Rogers cap guns at five yrs old and shot competition in the Boy Scouts at ten with single shot bolt action rifles. Now my granddaughter has a pink cricket and the oldest grandson has….hide your eyes momma demands, an evil black AR15. Mom & Dad supervise his shooting activities. I haven’t been able to find one small enough to fit in his lunch box, if anyone has info on where I can buy one please email me.
I enjoy the sampling of comments from that Facebook post. You have the usual ignorant housewives, and (of course) a person who has a picture of a cat as their profile picture and another with a Wiccan pentagram. What does that mean? I’ll let you all decide.
The collage is my favorite thing to do. A small time capsule of their insanity
My dad grew up with a Stevens Favorite .22 rifle, a single-shot lever-operated falling block action, which was small, lightweight and very popular with youngsters in the day. They were made between 1894 – 1935. Many kids learned their gun handling and shooting skills with these rifles. I still have the one my father had and it still shoots well.
When they are children is the time to teach them and they will learn respect and proper handling of the gun and with that knowledge will follow them thru life and then pass it on the way it should be.Instead of teaching them fear and no respect for something they know nothing about.I grew up with guns and my children and grandchildren have also and all have great respect and knowledge of guns.