Gunmakers reveled in the success of major first-person shooters as it gave them the chance to market Guns to a market that was escaping them, namely kids. New documents show Activision Blizzard signed a deal with gunmaker Remington Arms more than a decade ago to feature its guns in gaming megahits like Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2.Freedom Group, which recently declared bankruptcy and has been broken up for sale, made a secret deal with Call of Duty’s publishers to stick the Adaptive Combat Rifle, AKA, the ACR, in the 2009 smash hit, according to a report from The Wall Street Journal Monday. It was just one example from a series of memos from the late 2000s and early 2010s detailing how Freedom Group, Remington’s then-parent company, repeatedly tried to promote its guns to a younger audience.Activision Blizzard and Remington reportedly didn’t exchange any money in the deal, and who got what from the deal was kept confidential. Still, the gun was featured heavily in some of the game’s most popular levels, such as “Cliffhanger.” The gunmaker’s execs were, of course, over the moon that MW2 sold 22 million units by 2013. The ACR also appeared in the China-centric Call of Duty Online in 2012. Gizmodo reached out to Activision for comment, but we did not hear back.That’s just one example taken from a swathe of documents obtained thanks to a lawsuit filed against the company by the parents of children killed in the 2013 Sandy Hook school shooting. The AR-15 used by the shooter was crafted by Remington. The parents received a $73 million settlement from Remington late last year. The Journal received the documents from Josh Koskoff, a lawyer for the parents involved in that settlement. He said he would be posting some of these documents over the coming weeks.The company explicitly referenced marketing to youth in several of its documents. Remington wanted to “win our fair-share of these young consumers,” and “create brand preference among the next generation.” Remington Arms’ CEO at the time, John Trull, told other execs in 2010 that the ACR was getting its own following because it was such a popular gun for CoD players.At the same time, the gun didn’t actually sell too well in the real world, and it even faced a recall in 2010 after gun seller Bushmaster Firearms—also a company under the Freedom Group umbrella—discovered the gun could shoot multiple rounds continuously, otherwise known as slamfire. Trull told the Journal that CoD fans were “the only positive thing anyone had to say about the ACR.”The story of the ACR is just one piece of Remington’s push to sell guns in games. One memo detailing the company’s “Gaming Strategy” suggested that with “urbanization and access to shooting/hunting areas in decline, a primary means for young potential shooters to come into contact with firearms and ammunition is through virtual gaming scenarios.” The memo says how important it was to distance itself from the game, saying “A lack of direct branding helps to shield us from implications of a direct endorsement while still receiving benefit from inclusion in the game.”Gun companies advertise to young people all the time. Last year, gun maker WEE1 Tactical launched its JR-15, a version of the AR-15 rifle that was standardized for young people. The JR-15 was marketed alongside a cartoon skull and crossbones with pink and green pacifiers in their mouths. The company caught a lot of flak for that marketing, but it hasn’t stopped trying to promote the gun with marketing focusing on “American Family Values.”Video game publishers have had a hush-hush relationship with gunmakers to port some real-life weaponry into games. It’s ostensibly for the sake of realism, but in cases like these, the gunmakers’ objective was clear. There’s also a concerning connection between the U.S. armed forces and developers of first person shooters. Electronic Arts announced back in 2013 it would stop paying gun companies to depict guns in games.Remington was once owned by private-equity company Cerberus until that group filed for bankruptcy in 2020. Since then, Freedom Group rebranded to Remington Outdoor Company. Activision Blizzard, on the other hand, is looking forward to its $69 billion buyout by Microsoft. The developers of the next Modern Warfare reboot, Modern Warfare 3, have effectively confirmed we will see the return of the ACR.