ABSTRACT
Following a brief discussion of Pamela Haag’s argument, this chapter considers the decade from the mid-1980s to the mid-1990s when the gun industry and its marketing transitioned to semi-automatic pistols. From the mid-1980s, police departments across America underwent a firearms procurement upgrade switching from revolvers to semi-automatic pistols. P. M. Barrett describes the lengths to which the Glock company went in marketing loss leader versions of its pistols to police and military agencies in order to exploit these in its civilian advertising. The ‘look’ or typical appearance of a gun magazine comprises a front cover image dominated by a particular type of firearm which is to be tested and reviewed within the magazine itself. Of the 54 magazines examined, 34 had front covers exclusively devoted to semi-automatic pistols, a further 12 featured semi-automatics as well as some other weapon, usually a revolver, while the 8 remaining magazines did not feature a semi-automatic on the cover at all.
