User Insights & Hypothesis
“Americans are 25 times more likely to die from gun violence than residents of peer nations” (Gallup). Yet gun regulations have been at a virtual standstill for decades, because they seek to strip owners not just of a physical object but of foundational aspects of their identity.
“Amid the horrors of a mass shooting, it’s easy to forget that guns are social glue—and gun control efforts that don’t account for that will fail.”
To augment regulatory efforts, we needed a product solution that would deliver a portion of what regulators are asking gun owners to give up when they give up their guns, but without the lethality guns provide that enables mass shootings and suicide. To understand what this solution needed to provide, we had to understand what it is guns provide today and why gun owners are so passionate about keeping them. Among the factors we identified are: power, protection, community, tradition, and independence.
Power & Protection
The most obvious thing a gun provides is a sense of protection. According to the Pew Research Center, 67% of gun owners cite personal protection as a primary reason for gun ownership. An additional 68% of respondents cited hunting and sport shooting as other major reasons for gun ownership.
Owning a gun gives these users the sense of having enough power to protect themselves and family from violence. But according to a an analysis based on the National Crime Victimization Survey, guns were used for defense in just “0.9 percent of crimes from 2007 to 2011.” (npr.org) This tiny figure indicates that the need is lower than the desire for guns, as tools for self defense. Though this desire isn’t supported by statistics, a successful solution would have to address it on an emotional level at minimum.
““The average person ... has basically no chance in their lifetime ever to use a gun in self-defense. But ... every day, they have a chance to use the gun inappropriately.””
The sense of protection a gun offers is derived from its power to deliver greater force and at a greater range than that which could be achieved with hands alone. The gun is a lever that vastly increases the power of an average user to inflict harm on another organism. The problem with arming a user in this way is that this power is too great and comes too quickly; in the instant a user grips a loaded gun, he/she has the power to kill. A user armed with one or more military-style weapons of high capacity, power and range has the ability to inflict disproportionately more harm — particularly against the unarmed — than ever before.
Because it can be used to kill, a modern firearm requires regulation. However, famed MMA fighter Anderson Silva is also a deadly weapon, but his abilities require no regulation at all. The power to kill is not the problem; it is the speed at which that power was attained and with which it can be deployed. It took Silva a lifetime to become a deadly weapon. During that time he also gained the maturity to know how, when and where to apply his deadly art. And, even if a MMA fighter went on a rampage, the casualties (s)he could inflict would be significantly less than that of a teenager armed with an assault rifle.
Learned slowly, the martial arts can be a benefit to users and society. One commonality all martial arts share is the time it takes to master them. During that time, practitioners also learn elements of mindfulness, meditation, spirituality, responsibility, discipline, fitness, self-reliance, focus and more. Another commonality is that most, if not all, martial arts teach combat skills that are only applicable against one or a small handful of opponents at extremely close range. Even long range martial arts, such as Kyudo, a Japanese form of archery, would present little danger to society if used inappropriately. Martial arts probably do more good for society than ill.
“As dangerous weapons, guns offer a form of direct power in a world where trust and civic belonging are in short supply”
Output
To address the needs of the majority of the gun-owning community, our solution needed to plausibly provide protection and be usable for both hunting and sport shooting. (Though, as the statistics above indicate, the need for protection is more imagined than real.) The challenge was to come up with a solution that met these needs without delivering the high power, long range or rate of fire of conventional or military-style firearms that facilitate mass shooting and suicide. To be safe and sticky, the solution also had to take years to master but provide the feeling of instant progress that hooks new users.
Community & Tradition
For many gun owners, guns are a source of community, based on shared interest and experience, that spans social, geographical and generational divides. To these users, a threat to their guns is as visceral as a threat to their families, community, memories or lives, because all are inextricably interwoven with the culture of gun ownership. “Many American gun owners exist in a social context where gun ownership is the norm.” (Pew Research Center) Gun regulations fail because they threaten the very identities of those whose support they most need — the 43% of American voters who own a gun or live in a household with one (Gallup, 2019).
Like model trains, orchids, or antique cars, guns draw people together around a common interest. This interest has many aspects and outlets, and in an increasingly fragmented society, guns provide a form of social glue that connects nearly half of all Americans.
“In part because of their danger and allure and in part because they’re the center of a sporting culture with deep American roots, guns draw adherents together in contexts like expos, gun ranges, and online chatrooms. At the recreational level, participants can indulge in hobbyist debate and discussion; on a political and cultural level, they can also forge a shared commitment to armed citizenship.”
Guns don’t just connect enthusiasts across socioeconomic and geographical divides; for many, the gun provides a link to family and tradition. These users remember the moments spent with love ones, often of older generations, who used guns as tools for survival — at home or at war. The values they learned as the result of these moments include responsibility, honor, craftsmanship and more. They seek to pass on these values and memories to their own children, using the same methods and experiences they learned from their parents and other loved ones.
Output
Our solution needed to provide not only a sense of shared responsibility but a physical act that could be taught, performed and shared by multiple generations. It had to be something that taught responsibility and required mastery; it had to be teachable at home and in nature; it had to be doable by a novice but allow an older generation to outperform the young. Lastly, to unify both sides of the gun rights spectrum, it had to be accessible and approachable by both those who love firearms and those who loathe them.
Independence
By providing the power to defend themselves and hunt for food, many users feel that firearms provide the ultimate personal independence. And many gun owners feel this on a grander scale, confident in the belief that their guns could be used to defend themselves against an attack from a hostile enemy force. Both are illusions, but each points to a desire for the kind of authentic self-reliance that breeds confidence and security.
“The sale, manufacture, distribution, purchase and production of guns, as well as the views of their owners, are, in part, responses to the perceived weakness of the government and the perceived need for constant vigilance and a concomitant interpersonal fear.”
Because they can’t manufacture bullets, gun owners are only as independent as their ammunition supply. A gun itself is a simple, spring-loaded, mechanical device. The real power of the firearm comes from its round. Whether cartridge-based or muzzle-loaded, a firearm is nothing without this critical piece of technology — a technology that is beyond the capabilities of most users to reproduce. The source of this aspect of a gun owner’s independence is completely dependent on the supply of a resource they cannot control. Though perhaps subconscious, the fear that their sense of independence is a house of cards may be a source of insecurity and defensiveness for many gun owners. And no firearm can realistically provide defense against the advanced aerial, electronic, chemical and nuclear weapons of a military force.
Output
Though the independence a gun provides is largely hollow, the desire for it is real. A device that depends only on the skill and craft of the user who wields it is the only one that can provide real independence from the manufacturers and regulators. And because a firearm fails in this, independence is one area in which an alternative solution can provide an authentic advantage.
As this capabilities demonstration of an armed unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) demonstrates, there is no weapon an individual could own that could plausibly repel the tools of a modern military force. Firearms are only useful for protecting oneself from one’s neighbors.
Hypothesis
To reduce overall gun violence in America, it is imperative to reduce the overall number of guns. To do this, it is imperative that the voting gun-owning population support legislation that limits their availability. To gain the support of this population, an alternative product must be introduced that provides some or all of what regulators are asking gun owners to give up — the source of a portion of their feelings of power, protection, community, tradition and independence. Such a product would have to plausibly serve the purposes of protection and hunting, create a community of users, be accessible to multiple generations, and — is possible — offer true independence in the way that even firearms cannot.
“Addiction is a complex condition, a brain disease that is manifested by compulsive substance use despite harmful consequence. ”
America is addicted to guns, and regulators believe gun owners should quit cold turkey. Our hypothesis is that just as Methadone has been used successfully to treat opioid addiction, so too could a less potent alternative be used to treat gun addiction. To test this hypothesis, we created a kit for Danger Goods to introduce this ancient martial art to the U.S. market. By catalyzing the sport of slinging among this generation of U.S. gun owners and their offspring, our hope is that future generations of would-be gun owners will gain their senses of power, protection, community, tradition and independence from slinging rather than shooting.
““Methadone eliminates withdrawal symptoms and relieves drug cravings by acting on ... the same receptors that other opioids such as heroin, morphine, and opioid pain medications activate. Although it occupies and activates these opioid receptors, it does so more slowly than other opioids... It has been used successfully for more than 40 years to treat opioid use disorder.””
