Once upon a time, Teen Vogue stuck to what they knew. They told girls what shades of lip gloss were in style this year and what the teen celebrities were wearing. They might also include the odd interview with heartthrobs and famous young women, but it was much like its older sister, a publication about styles and tastes.

Somewhere along the way, Teen Vogue got into the business of trying to discuss politics. That wouldn't be an issue except that they tend to discuss it in a manner completely consistent with what you'd expect from a teen fashion magazine.

A heavily biased teen fashion magazine at that.

And the latest doesn't really dispel that, either.

BT: Woof. It’s sobering to think we might be 50 years past a point of no return.

AM: Yeah, kind of dark to say. Still, I think gun control activists are doing good work today, and that the legislation Joe Biden signed into law in the aftermath of the Uvalde killings was a good step, too.

BT: Though as you point out, the 2022 bill had limitations.

AM: Yes. While we think of laws like the act in 1968 or even New Deal legislation targeting guns before then as doing something about guns and gun violence, what they're really doing is protecting gun capitalism. The laws establish the guardrails in which legitimate gun capitalism can take place. They protect the rights, if not the convenience of the “law-abiding citizen” — an artificial construct that the NRA created in the 1930s.

So gun capitalism is legitimized through the kind of bill President Biden signed into law in 2022. The bill authorized things like new money for mental health and red flag laws — which are good, but also inherently signal that gun consumerism is perfectly legitimate and can continue so long as we make sure the guardrails are there.

The U.S. is one of the few if not the only country in the world that approaches gun policy in that particular way. I think that until we are ready to confront gun capitalism, we're going to continue in the cycle that we find ourselves in.

AM here is Andrew C. McKevitt, who has been trying to push a narrative that America's gun culture is a relatively new phenomenon. He tends to act as if it matters.

But the term "gun capitalism" is a new one for me, and it's downright hilarious.

See, this is nothing more than a...well, I can't call it a dog whistle because it's way too loud for that. It's definitely a signal to many of gun control's natural allies, people who tend to lean leftward in their economic politics, because it tries to demonize both guns and capitalism.

But the underlying premise, that this is somehow a bad thing, is flawed.

The Second Amendment specifically applies to the private ownership of firearms. That means we have a right to buy or make firearms, which means there's going to be a market for them to be made and sold.

That means capitalism.

"Gun capitalism" suggests the idea of something like "gun socialism" or "gun communism," none of which sound particularly appealing--unless, of course, "gun socialism" involved the government giving me a machine gun free of charge. Then, I might be open to considering it--especially in a nation where products are bought and sold every day.

But let's also understand that the availability of firearms in the legal market isn't what's fueling our issues with violent crime. It never has.

What drives violent crime is violent criminals. They want guns and are willing to pay for them, so someone is going to meet those demands. This happens in every nation on Earth, including non-capitalist nations, it should be noted.

The truth of the matter is that "gun capitalism" is nothing more than capitalism, the system of economics that has raised more people out of poverty than any other in the history of man. Guns are merely a good that is bought and sold in the free market and has no volition of its own, despite what McKevitt keeps trying to sell to the American people.

Guns don't make people violent. Guns are simply misused by violent people.

Teen Vogue should stick to what length skirts are in today and leave gun politics out. Staying in one's lane is a virtue and Teen Vogue doesn't even remember where its lane is anymore.