Pinkwashing Turns on Itself with Breast Cancer Awareness Gun

Submitted by Anne Landman on

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.

Main Source: 
GunBroker.com, November 3, 2009
Topics: 
Corporate Campaigns
Ethics
Health

Comments

Omegis13 replied on

Nevermind the fact that so much money raised for "breast cancer awareness" is actually contributed towards research and/or education, you're concerned because a very marketable TOOL is being used to raise funds, and because you perceive the only use of this TOOL to be for murder, you don't think it should be help contribute funding to something you seem to view as an admirable cause? Lady, you need to get your priorities straight. Here's an idea for you though. If you don't want to own this gun (or any other gun for that matter), DON'T BUY ONE! Just leave everybody else alone to make up their own minds about it.

Just so you know, Ted Kennedy's car has killed more people than my guns have. So has breast cancer.

Anonymous replied on

I believe guns are important for hunting game we eat, but guns are not to be used to promote health and cancer prevention. We can see past the facade of pink ribbons and realize pink guns do not prevent cancer or domestic violence. Steve the shrink

Anonymous replied on

I've got an aunt who's firearm very much did prevent domestic abuse.

Because she shot her boyfriend dead when he came at her with a knife.

Ann, the idea that Martial Arts is a viable means of self defense is laughable. When the FBI compiled statistics on how likely one was to avoid injury when victimized in a violent crime, physically resisting without a weapon was the single least effective means. People who fought back unarmed were more likely to be killed or injured than people who fought back with a knife, blunt object, people who surrendered and didn't resist, people who used pepper sprays or stun guns, or people who displayed a firearm (whether they used it or not).

The firearm is the only method of self defense that is safer than just letting the attacker victimize you.

Besides, speaking as a 200 lb male who has martial arts experience, a novice my size will defeat a 130 lb expert almost every time. The weight and power disparity is not a surmountable disadvantage.

Anonymous replied on

I really don't understand why women should NOT own firearms. I've shot with quite a few over the years; neither sex nor gender are a hindrance to putting rounds on target.

Sad to say but it seems more women then men are targets of rape. I can think of no better treatment for rapists than high velocity lead therapy. Used correctly, there's a zero chance of recidivism.

Web replied on

Wow you are some progressive. You are not only against an American company donating to help save women from breast cancer, you are also against a women defending herself from being raped.

Anonymous replied on

Whether it is the press focusing on the sensationalism or a politician the result seems the same--infantilism. Can use of guns lead to death--yes. Can use of cars lead to death--yes. Can use of vioxx lead to death--yes. But violence. . . Hey have you had a car aggresively pointed at you in a threatening manner? I have at least dozen times--as a pedestrian, a bicyclist, and as a motorist. Motor vehicles kill many more than guns, Cars pose a huge risk to me on my bicycle on a daily basis. If I am at the range I feel much safer than on a bike--because I am!!

Is the press reporting on the risk of cars to pedestrians and cyclists--not really. Are the dummycrats and the idiotcans calling for car control? Nope. In fact motorists can brandish an automobile in a crosswalk daily (not to defend their life but to expediently remove you as an impediment to their progress) and the cops do nothing, Motorists run people over and get away most of the time with no charges--unless they were drunk.

So for people like anne L where is the car ban proposal?

Cars (and local zoning ordinances) cause serious global warming which is in the process of indirectly and directly killing many many people and vast parts of the planet. Yet the party of gun control--the democrats--really dont give a damn. They are too busy subsidizing surplus car sales to the tune of 20k of taxpayer money per car so that certain people in the auto industry can pick up a few more shifts!

The democrats also did the stupidist political thing in the 20thc with the so called assault weapons ban. That misadventure in political thinking destroyed any possibility for health care "reform" for many years due to their wipeout in 1994. If the tale was told properly the democrats allowed many more women to die from cancer due to poor health care than were saved by the :"assault ban:"

There is no refuting that observation; assault ban=democrats loss of congress=no health care access progress.

Too bad third parties have no chance in america because anne l and the rest of the dummycrats need a lesson as bad as the power hungry idiotcans needed with the terry schiavo shenanigans.

Bottom line is I am a younger voter under 50 that cant be defined in any one set of cool aid policies of either party.

Namaste (but packing) [not a contradiction]

Anonymous replied on

The Dalai Lama said acts of violence should be remembered, and then forgiveness should be extended to the perpetrators. "But if someone has a gun and is trying to kill you, he said, it would be reasonable to shoot back with your own gun."

[Likewise if cancer is trying to kill you one could also resist.}

"God made man and God made woman, but Samuel Colt made them equal." ~Unknown Author

Thomas Jefferson In his Commonplace Book, Jefferson quotes Cesare Beccaria from his seminal work, On Crimes and Punishment: “Laws that forbid the carrying of arms... disarm only those who are neither inclined nor determined to commit crimes... Such laws make things worse for the assaulted and better for the assailants; they serve rather to encourage than to prevent homicides, for an unarmed man may be attacked with greater confidence than an armed man.”

[Mass shootings occur in "weapon free" zones.]

"Among the many misdeeds of the British rule in India, history will look upon the Act depriving a whole nation of arms, as the blackest." ~Mahatma Gandhi, "An Autobiography OR The story of my experiments with truth", by M.K. Gandhi, p.238

"To disarm the people is the most effectual way to enslave them." ~George Mason

"A free people ought not only to be armed and disciplined, but they should have sufficient arms and ammunition to maintain a status of independence from any who might attempt to abuse them, which would include their own government.” ~George Washington

The rifle itself has no moral stature, since it has no will of its own. Naturally, it may be used by evil men for evil purposes, but there are more good men than evil. And while the latter cannot be persuaded to the path of righteousness by propaganda, they can certainly be corrected by good men with rifles.
-Jeff Cooper

Peace.

Anonymous replied on

how about pink thermonuclear warheads from westinghouse? after all, nuclear bombs have killed on average fewer than 3000/year over the last half century, they saved the lives of thousands of GIs in WWII, and they kept the peace for decades through M.A.D. (although the jury is still out on whether The Bomb will get us all yet).

remember: handheld nuclear weapons don't kill people, people kill people. but a nuke makes it really easy.

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