Does a Texas ‘Gun Safety’ Initiative Try to Shame Gun Owners?

The gun control lobby has been moderately effective at co-opting the phrase “gun safety” and using it as a synonym for gun control, to the point that I automatically assume I’m about to hear an anti-gun proposal whenever I hear it bandied about. 

So I was skeptical when I heard about a new “gun safety” campaign making its debut in south Texas next week. According to the advetising team behind the campaign, the program is designed to target existing gun owners, which is good. Some of the messaging itself, however, is likely to cause those gun owners to roll their eyes and tune out the message. 

Bexar County commissioners on Tuesday voted to move forward with a gun safety campaign, “Bexar Responsibly,” that rolls out visual elements beginning next week.

The campaign plays off the constitutional right to bear arms. The campaign focuses on gun rights coming with great responsibility and not on politics over gun control.

The campaign aims to curb gun violence, which is the number one cause of death now among children and teens in the U.S., according to Texas Creative, the firm hired by the county to work with community-based organizations to put together the campaign.

The campaign will include a 30-second PSA for television, digital media, and billboards, all with the theme of “Bexar Responsibly,” encouraging residents to lock up guns and keep them away from children.

Texas Creative CEO Ashley Landers said the campaign will reach out directly to gunowners, who largely believe themselves to be responsible, according to the results of a survey used to build the campaign. She said their answers to other portions of the survey countered those beliefs.

“Nearly all surveyed gunowners view themselves as more responsible than average, despite many self-reporting actions that could be considered risky,” she said. Things like keeping a loaded, easily accessible gun in their home, keeping a loaded, easily accessible gun in their car, neglecting to inform visitors with children that there are guns in the house.”

Landers said three-quarters of those surveyed said they had a gun in the home for protection of their families, so part of the messaging includes the phrase: “Your gun protects your family. Protect your family from your gun.”

The phrase “Bexar Responsibly” is cute (Bexar is pronounced “Bear”, by the way; a fact I learned the hard way when I mispronounced it as a young radio reporter decades ago and was chastised by my news director). Telling gun owners to protect their family from their firearm, on the other hand, sounds like it could have come from the folks at Everytown or Giffords. 

I’m curious if Landers and her team bothered to talk to any of those gun owners they surveyed to get their thoughts on the messaging, or the specific behaviors they’re trying to get gun owners to adopt. Telling visitors with children that there are guns in the home, for instance, strikes me as downright weird. My kids are older now, but back when they were young enough that I would take them on play dates or drop them off at a friend’s house I never once had a parent tell me that they had guns, knives, prescription pain medicine, or anything else that could harm my child in their home. 

It’s my responsibility as a parent to teach my children what to do if they see a firearm, and imparting the advice of the NRA’s Eddie Eagle program is a much better way of keeping kids safe than outing yourself as as gun owner every time a kid comes over to play. And with gun ownership so widespread in Bexar County, it seems like it’s the rule, not the exception, so folks should probably assume that every home their child spends time in has at least one gun inside and instruct their kid that if they see one lying around they should stop, don’t touch, run away, and tell a grown-up about it.  

I also take issue with Landers talking about “easily accessible” firearms. Accessible to who, exactly? I agree that if you’ve got young kids in the house, either full-time or as visitors, you shouldn’t be leaving a firearm in places where those kids can get ahold of it. But there are plenty of parents who have educated their kids on real gun safety who feel comfortable with their teenage son or daughter being able to access a gun for self-defense if necessary, and we’ve covered plenty of stories here at Bearing Arms where juveniles have used a firearm to fend off home invaders or intruders. 

Keeping and bearing arms responsibly is a something every gun owner should strive for, but what that means in practice is going to vary from home to home. I’m sure there are good intentions behind the “Bexar Responsibly” campaign. I’m just not convinced that the messaging here is on target.