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Comment by DIVx0 | Hacker News Reader

I'll pile on an anecdote. I still have a facebook account but its not something I use very often except the past week given the situation in the USA.

My facebook account is very old, when i was more of an active user I did all the usual posts/photos that a lot of liberal urban types contribute.

Anyway, after posting some anti-insurrection posts I start noticing all sort of "tacti-cool" gear ads or targeted T-shirt s with some very macho-man hyper masculinity phrases on them.

This is very much _not_ me. Now I keep facebook on a tight leash (FB container, privacy settings turned to max) so my guess is that someone out there is spending a lot of money on a huge ad target or somehow facebook thinks anyone who is posting about a US insurrection would like to participate with some neat military cosplay kit.

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> so my guess is that someone out there is spending a lot of money on a huge ad target

I think this is really it. The profit margins on this stuff is insane. And the volumes of money typical people spend on this stuff is also insane.

(speculation here) The insurrection is probably opening the door for new customers. I would not be surprised to hear a people in zero-gun households are now seeking to acquire their first one. That allure of "protection" is strong. And urbanites represent a huge untapped market for guns and tactical gear. So it makes sense to push ads on these people.

Going from zero to one is the biggest leap. I bet there's usually some event for people that primes them to pull the trigger. You buy that first one for protection, but the next ones are because they are fun, fashionable, or an investment. I know a fair number of people with gun+related collections which exceed the value of their cars. The fact that gun collecting has become fairly profitable in the past few years seems to have really spurred a frenzy of buying. If you can buy something for $800, and sell it for $1300 in three years, then why not buy as much as you can afford? This then fuels shortages, raising prices.

So yeah, it might be very much _not_ you, right now, but I bet they are hoping enough ads will change your mind. I mean, you want to be the cool, macho person that you family and friends turn to for protection in these trying times, right? /s

> I would not be surprised to hear a people in zero-gun households are now seeking to acquire their first one

This happened all summer when the crowd that paid big bucks to live in inner suburbs realized that the peaceful protests were uncomfortably close.

>And urbanites represent a huge untapped market for guns and tactical gear

Minorities are a far bigger untapped market demographic.

> I would not be surprised to hear a people in zero-gun households are now seeking to acquire their first one.

About 40% of sales in 2020[1] were to first time owners, I think it's a fairly safe bet 2021 will increase those numbers.

[1]https://www.nssf.org/first-time-gun-buyers-grow-to-nearly-5-...

Exactly, there is a massive amount of money, and tons of fear.

There has been an epic increase in gun, ammo and armor sales this year to people of all political persuasions. Gun folks are bad with this anyways due to the political cycle and ammo shortages and bans of various types of items, but there is a genuine shortage where people who are afraid of riots and violence in their cities across the US have been buying up anything and everything.

Not every city got looted, but a lot of major downtown areas did, and the police in a number of cities are going through real attrition, to the point where a lot of crime will just not be dealt with. Not to mention it will be extremely difficult to hire more police officers after they spend a year demonizing them and forcing them to deal with riots that they effectively are not allowed to stop (especially Seattle- where I live- and Portland).

Now, I have a different theory with a lot of the tactical shit. I think a huge amount of it it is hypebeast/instagram-driven fashion for a large segment of young American men with disposable incomes and no bars and sports open. Cosplay, if you will- and it's openly admitted.

PS: Assholes who are buying all the .22LR, please stop/go for a different caliber. Some of us like target shooting and want to continue our hobby.

I've seen a lot of reports published lately that indicate that 2020 saw massive purchases of guns by people who weren't already owners. Its been a rough year with a lot of uncertainty and plenty of motivating examples for people of most political leanings to justify buying one, or two or some level 4 plates and Nods.

Ammunition has been difficult to get since April and its going to stay that way for some time I think. Lots of popular models of firearm have been non stop sold out. The tactical gear industry has seen a huge boom in sales. What used to be very small and niche is now massive. Before 2020 most people already in the hobby didn't own plate carriers, battle belts, helmets etc. Now that stuff is just as scarce as anything else.

I think your last assumption is correct. I've had something similar happen to me. I participate in ex-evangelical groups because of my childhood. And other groups highly critical of American conservative Christianity. Facebook floods my ads with appeals from conservative churches, conservative religious organizations, and for some reason thinks I'm deeply interested in Calvinism.

It's oddly reassuring. This shows FB doesn't know anything about what I want. At least, their ad algorithms don't. Feels like a very primitive response on their part.

Had something similar happen with journals of all things. Around 6 months ago, a friend of mine shared her new physical journal that she was proud of. Said she wanted to get back to writing her novel. I hit like or love to show support. Ever since then, there's been a massive deluge of ads for journals and various writer creativity tools. Even though I've never once sought out anything related to journals or creative writing.

Ever since I started getting involved in Tarot/Reiki/Pagan groups, Facebook has started showing me advertisements for products very clearly designed for females despite me being male in both biology and identity.

What do they say when you click the "Why am I Seeing This Ad" button?

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