This week, a member of my Sunday writing posse set us a challenge for the weekly assignment: Write something using the prompt AR-15. Seriously? I was a bit stumped. Do I try to work a semi-automatic rifle into my murder mystery? Do I write something about the concept of Chekhov’s Gun and the 400+ million guns in the US? Actually, I started jotting down ideas about that, only to wake up this morning to discover that Alexandra Petri at the Washington Post beat me to it with an outstanding piece. So, I took a different route. It didn’t hit the mark at first as I left my posse members wondering what the hell I was talking about but with their feedback, I refined it a bit and thought it worth posting here.
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What’s in a name? It’s the dream of every marketer (and the bane of every trademark attorney) to get their brand name onto everyone’s lips. Xerox. Google. Crock Pot.
You know them all. Those brands that become the standard-bearer for an entire class of products. Jet Ski. Jacuzzi. Onesies. Popsicle.
Names that are on everyone’s lips. Short, catchy. Easy to remember. Q-tips. Band-aids. Dumpster. Styrofoam. Uzi. Tommy Gun. AR-15.
Not only easy to use and catchy but common and frequently used. Highlighted in news programs, TV shows, movies, newspapers, and photos.
Two letters. Two numbers. It’s a code that sticks in your head. There’s a rhythm to the thing. It’s so easy to say and remember. Then over time, it becomes one of the first things you think of when the news breaks. Was it an AR-15?
It becomes commonplace. A bit of background noise. An accepted prop. Two letters. Two numbers. We don’t notice it anymore except to shrug and say yep, that’s what I thought even when technically, AR-15 wasn’t actually involved.
It just captures the category, like Kleenex. Post-Its. Bubble Wrap.
AR-15. Two letter. Two numbers.
And then, it fades away until it’s called to the stage once more in Columbine and Miami, Boulder and Parkland, Newtown and Las Vegas. Every time it does, we lose sight of the other “products” of every age and color, religion and region who won’t be available anymore.
CB, 6
RD, 29
JG, 7
ET, 51
CK, 7
KM, 61
AR-15 and its ilk have contributed so much to this world. They apparently bring joy to some. Assuage the fears of others. Deliver unexpected horror and anguish to so many others.
I wonder what TB, 49 and DS, 20 contributed during their lives? What potential was lost with the cancellation of AA, 25 or AA, 14, MT, 33 or AP, 14? MP, 18 and GC, 51 and RW, 31 and DA, 49?
And so we’re left with Senator TC, 50 opining on Capitol Hill that “every time there’s a shooting, we play this ridiculous theater” when it comes to AR-15 and its brethren, how they are purchased, who is allowed to buy.
But when during the marketing exercise of AR-15 and the second amendment, when did we reach the point of accepting the first words out of his mouth: every time there’s a shooting.
When did this become normal? When did we reach acceptance that there must be another one in the future?
When did AR-15 become the hill upon which conservative politicians chose to fight the great fight? I won’t say “the hill upon which they chose to die” because, frankly, they aren’t the ones doing the dying.
No, it’s ND, 17 and AF, 37 and JG, 22, CH, 34 and SB, 35, PE, 67 and an ever-growing list of people who are doing the dying, inexorably and without relief by the fingers on AR-15.
Two letters. Two numbers.
Because it’s all in the branding.
Just some of those lost:
Charlotte Bacon, 6 yo; Rachel Davino, 29 yo; Josephine Gay, 7 yo; Chase Kowalski, 7 yo; Avielle Richman, 6 yo; Victoria Soto, 27 yo; Olivia Engel, 6 yo (Sandy Hook, 2012) Eric Talley, 51 yo; Kevin Mahoney, 61 yo; Tralona Bartkowiak, 49 yo; Denny Stong, 20; Jody Waters, 65 yo (Boulder, 2021) Amanda Alvear, 25 yo; Martin Torres, 33 yo; Juan Guerrero, 22 yo (Orlando, 2016) Alyssa Alhadeff, 14 yo; Liana Petty, 14 yo; Meadow Pollack, 18 yo; Nicholas Dworet, 17 yo; Aaron Feis, 37 yo; Scott Beigel, 35 yo (Parkland 2018) Gordon Cowden, 51 yo; Rebecca Wingo, 31 yo (Aurora, 2012) Dorene Anderson, 49 yo; Charleston Hartfield, 34 yo; Pati Estas, 67 yo (Las Vegas, 2017)
And Senator TC, 50, of Texas? You can look it up.
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