The printer’s manuscript uses the word buffeting, which really doesn’t make much sense here. The verb buffet means ‘to beat or to strike’ and, if correct here, would imply a punishment from Satan. In fact, the word buffet is never used elsewhere in the Book of Mormon text, although it does occur five times in the King James Bible (all in the New Testament). And there the meaning is, as expected, ‘to beat or to strike’ (although used figuratively when referring to Satan’s or the Lord’s buffeting).
On the other hand, the 1830 edition has puffing here in 3 Nephi 6:15, which does make sense. There are nine references in the text to people being puffed up, of which four refer to being puffed up in pride:
Except for the one case here in 3 Nephi 6:15, the verb “to puff up” is not used in the active voice in the Book of Mormon. This same finding basically holds for “to puff up” in the New Testament of the King James Bible; there are six instances of the verb in the passive (“to be puffed up”). But there is one instance, in 1 Corinthians 8:1, where the verb is in the active voice: “knowledge puffeth up but charity edifieth” (that is, knowledge causes one to be puffed up). Thus the text here in 3 Nephi 6:15 can be interpreted as meaning that Satan caused the people to be puffed up with pride.
Internal evidence therefore argues that the correct verb form here in 3 Nephi 6:15 is puffing (the 1830 reading). The form buffeting (the reading in 𝓟) is visually similar to puffing, so Oliver Cowdery could have misread 𝓞 when he copied this passage into 𝓟. It is also possible that this error occurred when Joseph Smith dictated the text, with either Joseph misreading puffing as buffeting or Oliver mishearing Joseph’s puffing as buffeting. If 𝓞 read buffeting, then the 1830 compositor would have been responsible for emending buffeting to the correct puffing.
Summary: Maintain in 3 Nephi 6:15 the 1830 reading “to the puffing them up with pride”, which makes sense and was undoubtedly the reading of the original text (if not 𝓞 itself ); the use of buffeting in 𝓟 is apparently the result of either misreading or mishearing the original puffing as buffeting during the early transmission of the text.