Valentine’s Day is meant to celebrate love, intimacy, and connection. But each year, as February 14 approaches, gun manufacturers and retailers begin rolling out a different kind of campaign, combining roses and chocolates with AR-15s and silencers.
This year was no exception. The gun industry once again flooded social media with a similar message: Your “special someone” doesn’t want roses, they want more firearms.
From silencers posed like bouquets to handguns arranged in heart shapes, gun manufacturers and retailers leaned heavily into romance-themed marketing that reframed lethal weapons as tokens of affection. This trend is hardly new. In recent years, companies have posted Valentine’s Day cards featuring AR-15s and other military-style weapons — even depicting .50-caliber sniper rifles as substitutes for engagement rings — and encouraged followers to complete Second-Amendment-themed love poems.
The reality behind this aesthetic is far less romantic. The statistics surrounding firearms and intimate partners, particularly women, are grim. More than two-thirds of intimate-partner homicides in the United States are committed with firearms, and more than 70 women are shot and killed each month on average by an intimate partner. Access to a gun also makes it five times more likely that an abusive partner will kill his female victim.
This Valentine’s Day also marked eight years since a 19-year-old armed with a Smith & Wesson AR-15 shot and killed 17 people and wounded another 17 at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, on February 14, 2018. That anniversary did not stop gun makers from using the holiday to promote AR-15s and other military-grade weapons and accessories, however.
romanticizing Military-Grade Firepower
Barrett Firearms, which produces .50-caliber sniper rifles for military and civilian customers that are powerful enough to down helicopters, disable vehicle engines, and penetrate armor at great distances, posted a flashing red and white graphic on Instagram showcasing three such rifles with the text “Be Mine.” The caption called them “His & Hers.”
CZ posted a photo of dozens of firearms — including several assault weapons — arranged in the shape of a heart with the caption “New guns, same LOVE.” This image mirrors last year’s post in which the company created a heart out of firearms on top of a pink background.
To fend off sluggish gun sales, the industry has rallied around silencers, or sound suppressors, which are now tax-free due to President Trump’s “One Big Beautiful Bill.” The industry’s trade group recently stated that silencer sales in January were up 121 percent compared to the previous year, and several companies used Valentine’s Day to advertise their models.
For example, Gemtech Suppressors, a subsidiary of Smith & Wesson, created a Valentine’s Day card pairing a silencer with the line “i cannot suppress my love 4 u.”
EOTech, an optics manufacturer that just recently got into the silencer game, posted an image on Instagram of a rose tucked inside a silencer with the caption “Make sure you get your special someone what they really want. Like a new DCBL suppressor.”
more cringe-worthy posts
The National Rifle Association’s Valentine’s Day post featured a pastel candy heart that says, “I’D STAND MY GROUND FOR YOU,” alongside the silhouette of a pistol — an obvious reference to the “shoot first” laws the organization helped enact across the country. The caption encouraged followers to give their loved ones “the gift of freedom.”
Smith & Wesson produced perhaps the cringiest Instagram post for the holiday. The company posted a carousel of Valentine’s Day cards that used sexual innuendos to advertise Smith & Wesson M&P and CSX pistols and J-frame revolvers.
More examples from this year and previous Valentine’s Days are below. To learn more about the gun industry’s toxic marketing tactics, click here.
