Policymic lies about gun advertising.

Policymic clearly has an agenda with their blog, “0% Of Gun Ads Mention Protecting Your Family, So What Makes People Buy Guns?”. My suspicion began when they referred to a study from 2004 about gun advertising with the following claims:

“The study — by public health scholar Elizabeth Saylor and two colleagues — asked what tactics marketers use to sell guns in a single month of advertising. In contrast to what you might imagine, only a small minority of gun ads emphasized self-protection (3%) or a Western cowboy lifestyle (5%). 0% mentioned protecting one’s family. Only 15% of gun ads linked ownership to patriotism. The most common substantive theme was hunting, but even that was a theme in only 20% of ads.”
Source: http://www.policymic.com/articles/24462/0-of-gun-ads-mention-protecting-your-family-so-what-makes-people-buy-guns

Really? I guess someone hasn’t picked up a copy of the magazine above and looked at the ads inside. Or what about this classic ad from the 80s?

Image Source: http://thebluereview.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/02/figure-4-1993-beretta.png

Even if they don’t use the term “self-defense,” the picture of the family plus the gun plus “Tip the odds in your favor” make it clear to everyone but liberals who failed to do their own research. Ironically, I got the ad from an anti-gun website.

Here’s their most egregious claim:

“In other words, guns are not evenly distributed across the U.S. population. They are concentrated in the hands of a minority. Most people that don’t own a gun are never going to buy one, so the best strategy for gun manufacturers is to convince people that they need lots of guns.”

What nonsense. Yes, all marketers preach to the converted because it’s cheaper to sell meat to a carnivore than a vegetarian. However, every marketer seeks to expand the market whenever possible, it’s just that budgets are limited and gun manufacturers face many challenges. They can’t advertise on Comcast, I doubt magazines like Rolling Stone and Vogue are going to accept ads from Beretta and Colt, even the magazine of the Boy Scouts reject gun advertising in spite of all the money they get from the NRA.  I’m not sure what Facebook and Google’s policies are with advertising guns, but I doubt they’re friendly.

The good news is that there are plenty of ways the unarmed can discovered the joys of gun ownership. My local ABC station runs TV commercials from Shooter’s Depot, I’ve also heard pro-gun spots on talk radio, and lastly, life events such as becoming a victim of a crime might lead someone to investigate the issue and become a gun owner.