Making a Killing - 9781565844704

A comprehensive expose of the gun industry's efforts to increase profits by aggressively manufacturing and marketing more lethal and concealable guns. The gun industry is the last unregulated manufacturer of a consumer product in America, with a level of secrecy that makes the tobacco industry look like a model of transparency. Making a Killing blows away the smoke and offers a provocative new analysis of gun violence in our society. Tom Diaz argues that despite endless rhetoric about the right to bear arms, the real story behind the epidemic gun violence in America is the systematic increase in lethality by manufacturers. Diaz shows how over the last two decades the gun industry has sought to reverse declining profits by dramatically increasing the killing power of its products; designed and distributed guns with more ammunition and greater concealability; and aggressively sought to build a wider market by collaborating with the "gun press" and by targeting women and minorities as vital new consumers. Making a Killing goes in depth to explore the fascinating but little known business side of this $1.4-billion-a-year industry, revealing the inner workings of what one executive described as "a little money-making machine." Finally, it outlines a series of practical regulations that would help clean up the mess. Facts about the gun industry from "Making a Killing": guns are less regulated than toasters or teddy bears; most gun deaths in America are not crime related; by 2003, firearms are expected to supplant motor vehicles as the leading cause of product-related death in America.