Next Step: Television

Something else happened in 2014: The lobby group launched NRATV online. In programs like Armed & Fabulous, New Energy (Remington was an early sponsor), and Tips & Tactics (sponsored by Cabela’s), the Internet personae whom the NRA had been sponsoring now had a new platform, and they were given celebrity treatment. (Lightfoot, for her part, has been featured on Tips & Tactics.)

One of NRATV’s most popular programs, Love at First Shot (sponsored by Smith & Wesson), is hosted by Natalie Foster, founder of Girl’s Guide to Guns. Season three, whose pilot is called “The Journey Begins,” follows three young women as they wade into guns for the first time. “I’ll walk through this journey with them, to discuss the lifestyle and cultural elements of becoming a gun owner,” Foster says to the camera, as a montage shows the women inspecting handbags, firing weapons, and laughing playfully. Throughout eight episodes the intertwined narratives of Erin, Jasmine, and Natalie are interrupted by product showcases and supportive group chats. Gathered in a hip microbrewery, the group is permitted to express self-doubt. “I think you’re giving voice to what a lot of women feel when they’re first getting into firearms,” Foster soothes.

Huff says the marketing reflects the best of what she teaches her classes: “An HGTV framework with bright, white aesthetics. A bubbly host who is equal parts friendly, inquisitive, knowledgeable. They’re signaling [gun ownership] is normal and acceptable.” The NRA’s message, she says, is that “getting together with girlfriends and going to a shooting range isn’t really that different from getting together and going to a spa.” (Attitudes aside, a day at the range is becoming more common. In 2000 just 500 women participated in NRA-sponsored handgun clinics; by 2014, 13,000 did, according to their data—an incredible increase in just over 10 years.)

The programming is complemented, of course, by carefully curated Facebook and In­­sta­gram campaigns. “Jasmine continues her journey to becoming a concealed-carry holder,” reads one Facebook photo of Jasmine and Foster, arms wrapped around each other. In another the four women hold hands in a freeze-frame sorority jump: “Kicking off the journey!”

Indeed, the industry’s online advertising has been mounting. In 2012 the NRA spent a few hundred dollars on Internet advertising (only $300 on banner ads in the second half of the year), according to Pathmatics, a marketing research agency. These promotions didn’t feature a single woman until 2014, when ads appeared showcasing young moms guarding a crib or a pregnant woman imploring viewers not to take away her rights. By 2018 the NRA had spent more than $4 million online before June on ads viewed a staggering 600 million times. About 23 percent of their Facebook ads targeted women, concentrated in metro areas like Los Angeles, Seattle, Boston, and New York City. Expanding their reach beyond Facebook—and using ad-buying technology that helps target specific demographic groups—the NRA hopes to reach women everywhere from the YouTube channels of female video gamers and children’s shows like Doc McStuffins to websites for companies like NBC, AccuWeather, DeviantArt, and even Glamour. (So much for that media embargo.)

“All of a sudden every product had to either empower women or give them confidence.”

Kristi Faulkner, who runs Womenkind, a woman-focused marketing firm in New York City, told me that the gun industry was mimicking what the best companies were doing starting in 2010: selling empowerment. “All of a sudden every product had to either empower women or give them confidence,” says Faulkner. That soon gave rise to a new buzzword: journey. “It’s the yoga message—it’s not a destination; it’s a journey,” she says. “In the wisdom of the NRA, it’s: How do we convert these women permanently? The journey simulates loyalty. We’re your partner.”

Faulkner doesn’t fault the NRA for expanding its base, as any company would do. “If I were the NRA’s CMO, I’d say: What’s the biggest barrier for a woman buying a gun? Fear of using the gun. Fear of judgment. Fear that she’s the only one,” she says, almost Don Draper–like. NRATV, she continues, is a marketing creation in which the female buyer “has the support of other women, she has the comfort of other women, she has the affirmation of other women. They’ve nailed it. That’s exactly how—God forbid, if they were my client—I would solve the problem.”