When I ride on public transportation with my daughter, we don’t need to see @NSSF propaganda.

These look like gun safety ads but are subliminal ads for gun sales.
And they have no place in Philly.

My @PhillyInquirer piece:https://t.co/TFimTB7WEo

— Max Weisman (@AWeisman1ceSaid) August 29, 2022

From the OpEd linked in the Tweet:

While riding the bus, as we always do, my daughter and I were playing I-Spy as she spied “something orange” — an article of clothing in an advertisement. Upon closer examination, I saw that this ad was telling riders that buying a gun for someone who cannot legally own one will result in a 10-year prison sentence. While this seemed like a fine message that I would generally support, a few details of the ad didn’t sit right.

This ad, paid for by the Firearm Industry Trade Association, while factually correct, implies that illegal gun sales are the biggest factor contributing to the gun violence crisis in Philadelphia. The ad says nothing about legal gun owners or homemade, unregistered firearms. The lobby, by tying gun safety to the sale of firearms, is subconsciously pushing gun sales. It ignores the danger of firearms themselves.

Visually, the ad highlights the phrase “buy a gun” and uses the phrase “buy 10 years in jail” (a fairly uncommon phrasing for “go to jail”) — a marketing ploy that associates the action of “purchasing” with the product of “a gun.”

Illegal or “straw” gun purchases are wrong and it is important to raise awareness about this issue. But the firearm industry has a greater responsibility to keep guns out of the hands of dangerous people.

Advertising dollars are powerful and should instead be spent on advocacy campaigns in support of responsible gun laws, the promotion of programs that distribute gun violence prevention or intervention resources, recommendations for supportive spaces for those processing the trauma of gun violence, and much more.

This is one of the most idiotic and irrational things I’ve read.

Let’s go through this piece by piece.

“The ad says nothing about legal gun owners or homemade, unregistered firearms.”

This isn’t a problem.  Lawful purchasers represent only a small percentage of people who commit a crime with a gun.  Homemade guns represent a such a small percentage of guns used in crime that it was statistically insignificant.

On the other hand, straw purchases represent about 40% of the guns used in crimes.  Most of the rest are stolen.

So this is an ad that tells people not to engage in straw purchases, which accounts for 4 put of 10 guns on the streets.

And that’s bad…

“The lobby, by tying gun safety to the sale of firearms, is subconsciously pushing gun sales. It ignores the danger of firearms themselves.”

This is unhinged. The ad tells people not to buy a gun for the other person and this idiot says “it ackchyually says the opposite.”

And what danger are firearms themselves?

If he’s talking about kids finding a gun and hurting themselves or someone else, there is a different ad for that about locking up your guns.  This ad is about stopping straw purchases.

“The firearm industry has a greater responsibility to keep guns out of the hands of dangerous people.”

Like what?  The industry sells to distributors who sell to retailers. The NICS system is in place.

Straw purchasers allow criminals to bypass the NICS system.  How does the gun industry do more than it does?  What other responsibilities does it have beyond obey ATF regulations on sales?  He’s not even proposing a solution.  He’s just saying “do something” with extra words.

“Advertising dollars are powerful and should instead be spent on advocacy campaigns in support of responsible gun laws…”

Other groups do that.  The NSSF shouldn’t have to advertise for laws that threaten its existence.

The gun industry is in the right here.  They did a responsible thing.  Rather than praise it, this idiot says “it’s not good enough” because it came from the gun industry.  I would bet that if it had Moms Demand Action or some other anti-gun group’s logo on it, he wouldn’t have written this OpEd.

This is irrational hatred of the gun industry from an idiot and nothing more.