NBC: Gun control group targets firearms owners with new ads, seeks common ground

NBC News has a report on a new ad campaign by the Brady Center to Prevent Gun Violence titled "End Family Fire." The term "End Family Fire" refers to "accidental shootings of children and other family members in homes across the nation".  The campaign attempts to reach gun owners with a message of safe storage, but massively fails at the attempt as it uses misleading statistics to try to make the point that 8 kids a day die (that's almost 3000 a year) each year from improperly stored firearms.

It's not surprising that this Public Service Announcement (PSA) campaign would take this approach as the campaign is produced by the AdCouncil, which was also responsible for a "safe storage" PSA campaign funded by the Obama administration and produced in collaboration with the National Crime Prevention Council (NCPC).  That series of ads included kids saying, if you store your guns safely "I won't be scared."  Based on numbers from the National Safety Council Injury Facts 2014 Edition, the total number of unintentional firearms related deaths in 2012 was only 600 - that 's total, not just children.  So to get anywhere near the number that the "End Family Fire" campaign uses they must be including suicides in the total.  Suicide brings a completely different set of issues with it besides just the availability of firearms.

VSSA supports NSSF's Project ChildSafe initiative which encourages gun owners to store their firearms properly when not in use.  It's successful and the record low numbers of unintentional firearm related fatalities is proof.  Brady and Ad Council should leave the messaging of safe storage to people who know guns and gun owners.

Update: NSSF has a blog post pointing out how the Ad Council and Brady have mis-fired in their new ad.