It was because he was not brilliant at golf that Marty Daniel started shooting an assault rifle. At the end of the 1990s, this boss of a garage door and window SME was increasingly frustrated by his faulty swing. A friend suggested he try shooting an AR-15, a semi-automatic rifle. A real revelation, if we are to believe the portrait dedicated to him on his website. “Each time he pulled the trigger, he was filled with a satisfaction he had never experienced before.”
He buys this object of pleasure and begins to design accessories himself: a rail to mount the telescope, a laser sight… Then everything accelerates: in 2002 he founds the arms manufacturer Daniel Defense; and its products immediately catch the eye of a Special Forces agent at a trade show. In the process, he won a 20 million dollar contract to supply the Pentagon. A turning point took place in 2009, when this salt-and-pepper goat boss, always dressed in a chic jacket, turned towards the general public and began to produce assault rifles. If it remains much smaller than the giants Smith & Wesson or Remington, it continues to gain notoriety. Thanks to his formidable art of communication, and for sad reasons, since it was he who provided the weapons for two massacres: four AR-15s to the man who killed 58 people at a concert in Las Vegas in 2017 ; and the DDM4 used last month by young Salvador Ramos to shoot 19 children and two teachers in Uvalde, Texas.
“Daniel Defense is emblematic of the changes and the radicalization of the industry”, explains Ryan Busse, a former executive in the sector who has become very critical. Starting in 2004, manufacturers went all out on combat weapons and military equipment. More than 500 firms now manufacture AR-15s decked out with poetic names like “Urban Super Sniper”, painted in sand color on the model of the rifles of the GI’s in Iraq…
The Bible, Rambo and video games
At the same time, the National Rifle Association (NRA) and the manufacturers, working hand in hand, did everything to exploit and stoke the fears of Americans. “The industry has worked very hard to sell the idea that a civilian needs a semi-automatic weapon with a high capacity magazine to protect themselves and that the world has become very dangerous. Daniel Defense is particularly adept at convincing people to buy one,” said Timothy Lytton, a Georgia State University law professor and industry expert. “The group has pursued a much more aggressive marketing and advertising strategy than Smith & Wesson and the old established manufacturers. It is an example of the new generation that is focused on assault rifles and is ready to use no any marketing technique without qualms,” said Josh Sugarmann, director of the Violence Policy Center, a group that advocates for restrictions.
People hug in front of the improvised memorial to the memory of the victims of the Uvalde massacre, May 30, 2022.
afp.com/CHANDAN KHANNA
His advertisements mix militarism, patriotism and the glorification of weapons of war, as before him the tobacco industry touted cigarettes, with images of Rambo armed to the teeth. “Use what they use,” advises one, which features a soldier firing into the desert. “Let’s make freedom,” suggests another. All this shrouded in biblical themes because Marty and his wife, also involved in the business, are practicing Christians. For Easter this year, Daniel Defense posted on Instagram a photo of a gun and a cross resting on a bible, with the slogan “He is risen!” It also targets young people with references to video games, characters from Star Wars and images of kids learning to shoot… A few days before the Uvalde massacre, the company tweeted a photo of a little boy holding a gun bigger than him.
Its hype is paying off: it sold more than 52,000 rifles in 2020, and it’s one of the leaders in the AR-15 category. And even if it weighs less than 1% of market share – out of a total of nearly 20 million weapons sold last year in the United States, according to the research institute Small Arms Analytics and Forecasting – Marty Daniel is a top. He sits on the federation of industry and pays hundreds of thousands of dollars to elected Republicans. He is also a fervent Trumpist who advised the ex-president on armaments. It is obviously hostile to any regulation. At one time he briefly supported a bill to strengthen the criminal record check system, but NRA activists became so outraged that Daniel backtracked, writing: “I am convinced that any law on weapons that limits the rights of law-abiding citizens is unconstitutional.”
These days, Congress is mulling over proposals to curb the epidemic of violence. “Even if limited measures pass, this will not solve the problem of the free circulation of assault rifles, nor of high capacity magazines”, estimates Josh Sugarmann. A few months ago, the firm Remington, whose AR-15 was used to massacre 26 people in the Sandy Hook school in 2012, agreed to pay 73 million dollars in damages to the families. Further legal action, including from Uvalde’s parents, is ongoing against the manufacturers. Will they succeed? No one knows, because “the Supreme Court will first have to rule on several complex legal questions”, explains Timothy Lytton.
In the meantime, Daniel Defense is keeping a low profile on Twitter and has pulled his booth from the NRA convention. On its site, the firm offers its “thoughts and prayers” after “the tragic events”. One thing is certain, she does not have to fear bankruptcy. After the Sandy Hook massacre, his sales soared.