By Kate Plummer Newsweek
Autumn Fry is not a typical influencer.
To more than 270,000 YouTube subscribers and 49,000 Instagram followers, the beaming Pennsylvanian 11-year old shares videos and photos of her latest purchases and makes suggestions for what her fans should buy too.
But it is not dolls or makeup that interest the tween. Instead, Fry exclusively reviews guns and gun paraphernalia.
It is a striking example of how America's firearms culture has permeated to younger generations, but Fry is not alone in possessing a precocious awareness of Glocks and Colts. Indeed, children as young as 10 say they are seeing firearm content online, including advertising.
According to polling conducted by Sandy Hook Promise and KRC Research, exclusively shared with Newsweek, 82 percent of boys between 10 and 17 said they have seen at least one gun advert online, while social media is flooded with firearms branded with children's cartoon characters and influencers like Fry promoting guns to children.
Federal law prohibits people under the age of 18 from possessing a handgun but there are no nationwide regulations regarding who firearms can be advertised to, despite some intervention from lawmakers.
The U.S. has one of the world's highest rates of firearms deaths outside a war zone. According to latest available data from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), 48,830 people died from gun-related injuries in the U.S. in 2021, including nearly 21,000 homicides as well as more than 26,000 suicides.
Recent incidents include a mass shooting in Memphis which left one dead and five others injured in April. In March, a man was treated for injuries having been shot twice outside Chicago O'Hare International Airport after an altercation.
KRC Research conducted a survey of 250 male children aged between 10 and 17 from March 6 to March 12, 2025 for Sandy Hook Promise, an anti-gun nonprofit founded and led by family members whose loved ones were killed at Sandy Hook Elementary School on December 14, 2012. The margin of error for the poll is +/- 6 percent.
According to the polling, 82 percent said they had seen at least one gun advert online and 38 percent said they had clicked on gun advertisements they saw online.
Meanwhile, 32 percent of young boys said they followed influencers on social media who feature guns.
Thirty-four percent of young boys said there are too many gun adverts in places where children could see them, though the same proportion disagreed.
Sandy Hook Promise also found examples of guns shared on social media with designs that appeal to children including a gun with the Batman logo and ones with Hello Kitty branding.
Deana A. Rohlinger, a sociology professor at Florida State University told Newsweek advertising guns to children was "a serious problem" in shaping young people's attitudes to guns. "Yes, this is a serious problem, and developmental research makes clear why," she said.
"Children and adolescents, especially boys aged 10 to 17, are in critical stages of cognitive, emotional, and social development. During this period, they are actively forming their identities, learning social norms, and developing the ability to distinguish between fantasy and real-world consequences.
"When they are exposed to gun advertisements, particularly those that are stylized, gamified, or sexually charged, they are more likely to associate firearms with status, power, or even fun, rather than responsibility.
David Rosenbloom, professor of public health at the Boston University School of Public Health said marketing to children was "a real problem."
"It normalizes the role and desirability of guns and gun violence," he told Newsweek. "Associating owning a gun and shooting with being a 'real' man is particularly harmful to kids who are searching for clues about manhood in their early and mid teens."
"The gun industry knows that if it hooks people when they are young it will have customers for their entire lives," he added. "They learned marketing to kids works from the tobacco and alcohol industries."
Lawmakers have previously moved to regulate the extent to which the firearms can entice children. In 2023, Democratic Senator Edward Markey introduced the Protecting Kids from Gun Marketing Act which would create rules against advertising firearms in a way that would appear attractive to a minor if passed.
In August 2023, Illinois Governor JB Pritzker signed the Firearm Industry Responsibility Act, a law which included banning firearms advertising that appeals to children.
However, in September 2023 a U.S. appeals court blocked a California law banning gun marketing to minors citing freedom of speech concerns and arguing the law was unlikely to reduce gun violence.
Speaking to Newsweek, Emma Brown, executive director at anti-gun group Giffords called on Congress to address these marketing practices.
"For years the gun industry has egregiously targeted young boys and men in their advertising," she said. "We've seen it with ads telling buyers to get their 'man card' and marketing that stokes fear and hatred. The gun industry CEO's don't care if they fuel violence, they just want to make more money. Congress must take action to address these marketing practices."
Rohlinger added: "Legislators have several tools available at their disposal. First, they can regulate firearm advertising the way we regulate other products harmful to minors, including banning marketing that targets or features children.
"Second, they could insist on stronger digital advertising standards, especially on social media platforms. This would make companies like Meta more responsible for their content and digital partnerships.
"Finally, legislators could treat the promotion of gun violence as a public health concern. Given that, as of 2024, gun violence remained the leading cause of death for children and teens, this is something public health professionals have been calling on elected officials to do for years."
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This story was originally published April 23, 2025 at 5:00 AM.
