Pinkwashing Turns on Itself with Breast Cancer Awareness Gun

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Smith & Wesson Breast Cancer Awareness PistolOctober was Breast Cancer Awareness month, and the group Breast Cancer Action seized on the opportunity to promote its Think Before you Pink campaign to raise awareness of how companies are increasingly exploiting breast cancer as a marketing device to sell products -- some of which are actually harmful to women's health. Pink ribbon campaigns are offering up some bizarre, albeit benign products like a breast cancer awareness toaster and a breast cancer awareness floating Beer Pong table. But the most bizarre item yet to have a pink ribbon slapped on it must be Smith & Wesson's Pink Breast Cancer Awareness 9 mm Pistol, promoted by a woman named Julie Goloski, Smith and Wesson's Consumer Program Manager and a sharpshooter herself. Goloski is promoting S&W's breast cancer awareness pistol on her Facebook page, saying "October is Breast Cancer Awareness Month and Breast Cancer Awareness M&P’s are shipping to dealers. I am thrilled to have my name associated with such a worthy cause and one of my favorite firearms." According to a 2008 report from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control, firearms are the second most common cause of violent deaths of women, accounting for 29.2% of all violent deaths among females in the U.S. in 2008.

Comments

You're right a single or

You're right a single or handful of incidents doesn't make a case. On the other hand many incidents do make a case. Take a look at the Civilian Gun Self-Defense blog:

http://www.claytoncramer.com/gundefenseblog/blogger.html

This site contains countless stories about people, many of whom are women, defending themselves with firearms. Instead of saying Smith and Wesson make an implement that causes many deaths you should be saying Smith and Wesson make an implement that saves many lives.

The product doesnt cause

The product doesnt cause anything until someone picks it up and uses it. Blame the criminals not the tool they use. This is just as bad as MADD blaming the alcohol for drunk driving accidents instead of the people who cannot control themselves.

Oh by the way, defensive use of a gun probably saves more women's lives each year than every breast cancer treatment out there. Course that would be inconvenient to mention now wouldnt it?

Your analogy to cigarette makers is a poor one because cigarettes do not have any healthy uses, firearms do. Namely self defense, which is the most common use for a firearm.

Cigarettes don't kill ...

... until they're used, either.

Alcohol-related emergency room visits are a serious problem [http://www.who.int/substance_abuse/publications/alcohol_injury_summary.pdf worldwide]

Products like guns, cigarettes and alcohol cannot be completely absolved of all blame. The world does not benefit from their additional promotion through pinking, either.

Anne Landman

No, you missed the point

This is also the same company that makes the best tool available for women to defend themselves against attack. Maybe it makes a lot of sense that the same company that prevents the rape of countless women would also be concerned with protecting those same women from breast cancer.
Your analogy is flawed as well. Guns do not cause breast cancer,unlike the relationship between cigarettes and lung cancer.

I never said guns cause breast cancer...

...but guns are notoriously associated with wounding and death, both purposefully and accidentally.

Some products are ridiculous for "pinking" and some are completely inappropriate. This is one.

Anne Landman

Guns are only a tool

Most women who learn to shoot do so so they can shoot men. Women use the "gun" for defense against those who use knives, guns, bats, rope, and many other devises to harm women. Look at the big picture, people harm people guns don't do anything people don't make them do. They are simply a tool to be used for good and sometimes evil.

Anne

You don't have the wherewithal to back your argument nor do you seem interested in the facts. Walk away with what little intellectual dignity you have left.

Your logic is unsound and your facts wrong

Making a classic false comparison between cigarettes (an inherently unhealthy and dangerous product where there is no possible way that it might be used safely) and firearms (a generally health neutral product which only causes injury when it is misused in a criminal manner or operated in a negligent fashion) is classic straw man argument technique and a common error in logic. There is no possible way to safely use tobacco. Firearms are used safely literally millions of times per day in this country. Interesting that one would make a moral judgment and look down on a company trying to help and do the right thing from atop a mountain of arrogance and self-righteousness. Merely because one does not personally "like" firearms or that firearms are sometimes misused by criminals doesn't devalue the contribution of one who likes them and uses them properly. They are completely unrelated. The hubris and condescention of such an attitude is astounding and its apparent that one would rather allow cancer run rampant than take a heartfelt contribution from someone who engages in an activity (which is legal, as well as morally and ethically neutral) that some disapprove of. I suggest that someone with this attitude expand their horizons a little and become more inclusive. Literally millions of Americans, all law abiding, honest and hardworking use firearms. Is it really in the interests of those fighting cancer to eschew their contributions to the fight?

In addition, I question the factual basis of the point concerning 29% of violent deaths of women being attributable to firearms. Where did this figure come from and how was it arrived at? Even if for the purposes of argument you accept the figure as accurate, the logic in using it is unsound. It fails to distinguish between the criminal and patently illegal use of an otherwise legal product and the non-criminal use of the same product, while making a invalid comparison between the non-criminal and safe use of one product, (firearms), and the use of another (tobacco) which is inherently unsafe and unhealthy and can in no way be made safe. No firearm was ever responsible for the violent death of a single woman, rather it was the person operating it in an unlawful manner.

Julie (Goloski) Golub is more than a mere "sharpshooter" and the director of marketing for a firearms company. She is a well known competitive shooter, arguably the best female pistol shooter in America, perhaps the world, one of a small group of "Annie Oakleys" of the day. A military veteran she has never operated a firearm in such a manner. Her company, Smith and Wesson, is one of the oldest firearms manufacturing companies in America, founded in 1852. Neither Julie nor Smith and Wesson endorse anything but the lawful, safe and responsible use of firearms. Merely because some individuals criminally misuse an otherwise safe and lawful product does not make an illogical comparison any more logical or factually sound.

A correct analogy to the position taken by a previous commentator would be to turn down donations to the fight against cancer by automobile manufacturers merely because one of the leading causes of death in America are automobile crashes due to DUI as well as negligent operation of vehicles. I would bet next month's mortgage payment that the number of women killed either by criminal misuse of vehicles, such as DUI, as well as negligent operation of vehicles, far outnumber those killed violently with firearms, yet I don't see anyone advocating against the acceptance of donations in the fight against cancer by Ford, Chrysler or General Motors because they get some kind of good PR publicity. That would be generally regarded as ridiculous. Similarly, turning one's nose up against a donation from a person (and her employer) who has long been involved in the fight against cancer (I recall reading that Julie donated much of her long hair several years back to "Locks for Love") merely because one doens't happen to "like" their profession or industry is an example of cutting one's nose off to spite their face, political correctness run amuck and contrary to common sense, and equally absurd.

Cancer kills, and so do guns

Ironically, here's another tragic display of how guns are used to slaughter innocent people in the U.S.:

Gunman kills 11 in shooting rampage at Fort Hood army base
Thursday, November 5, 2009
http://www.reuters.com/article/newsOne/idUSTRE5A454F20091106
Anne Landman

Irony?

I for one sure am glad this women was armed and trained. She saved many lives with that gun.

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/us_and_americas/article6907235.ece

This man was determined to kill. He used a handgun. If he didnt have a hand gun because you were able to ban them, he would have used a shotgun. If you got to ban shot guns he would have used a bomb. Those can be made from things you cant ban.

This does not prove your point it proves the contrary. If the good guys were allowed to carry on base, the bad guy would have caused much less damage. You become a bad guy the second you choose to senselesly take a human life.