Everytown for Gun Safety Releases New Report on Armed Extremism, Detailing How the Gun Industry Inspires Violent Extremists

The Industry and Associated Lobbying Groups Often Deploy Advertising that Appeals to Extremists, Spread Conspiracy Theories Popular With Extremists, and Support Political Leaders who Give Cover to Extremists

NEW YORK – Today, Everytown for Gun Safety Support Fund released a new report highlighting the rise in armed extremism and exploring how the gun industry and gun lobby feed into extremist narratives. The report describes how the industry and gun lobby cynically seek to not only capture, but also provoke extremist fervor for firearms for its own perceived financial and political benefit, using dangerous rhetoric that feeds into the extremist mindset and neatly conforms to existing conspiracy theories.   

“Armed extremism is an imminent threat  and it’s time for our country to take it seriously,” said John Feinblatt, president of Everytown for Gun Safety. “Where extremists see the opportunity to seize power and overturn the results of elections, the gun industry sees a marketing opportunity — consequences to the country be damned. With less than four months until Election Day, lawmakers at all levels must prioritize combating the deadly, rising threat of armed extremism.”

“Armed extremism didn’t start with the insurrection at the Capitol, but the event itself was the result of the conspiracy theories and violent rhetoric circulated by extremists and validated by leaders in the gun industry,” said Justin Wagner, senior director of investigations at Everytown for Gun Safety. “For too long, the gun industry has catered to extremists and it’s past time that they’re held accountable for their irresponsible practices.”

Key findings from the report:

• Guns are the weapon of choice for the extreme right.
  • While similarly situated democracies also face issues with violent extremists, the United States is the only such country that makes it easy for extremists to arm themselves with arsenals of military-style and even untraceable firearms, often without a background check.
  • Everytown has identified more than 200 extremists charged with a crime between 2017 and 2021 who allegedly used or possessed guns in the act, threatened or plotted gun violence, or illegally possessed or sold a firearm.
  • An analysis by the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) found that between 2012 and 2022, shootings accounted for three-quarters of the deaths at the hands of extremists.

• Dangerous rhetoric from the gun lobby and industry risks an escalating feedback loop in which the most radical extremists see any effort to regulate firearms as an existential threat deserving of a violent response.
  • For decades, the NRA has pushed the fringe insurrectionary theory of the Second Amendment, a theory which claims that individuals have the right to overthrow the government by force. 
  • The firearm industry’s official trade association, National Shooting Sports Foundation (NSSF), uses similar tropes to embrace essentially the exact same policy platform — for instance, the group has invoked “Nazi Germany” to falsely claim that the ultimate “goal” of those who support gun safety laws “is confiscation of law-abiding owners’ firearms.”

• The firearm industry and lobby not only assail the enforcement of gun laws, but many support eliminating gun laws altogether.
  • For years, the gun lobby and members of the firearms industry have repeatedly called for not only budget cuts for the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF), but the complete elimination of the federal agency responsible for enforcing gun laws.
  • In fact, groups like the NRA, Gun Owners of America, and Firearms Policy Coalition have further simplified the message, calling all laws that regulate firearms ownership “unconstitutional” or even “bullshit.” Eliminating these laws would allow anyone, including dangerous extremists, to obtain any gun at any time.