Written by @saywooord
In an effort to thank teachers, a texas gun store purchased a billboard promoting a “back to school sale,” but it was not received well.
Many were offset by the billboard, which read, “BACK TO SCHOOL SALE. AUGUST 13TH-18TH. UP TO 50% OFF FIREARMS,” due to the close proximity to El Paso mass shooting at a Walmart where 22 people were killed. The Dayton, Ohio shooting, which followed a day later also left the world shaken by such tragic events, leaving many confused as the billboard is seemingly tone-deaf and insensitive.
Their summer sale dropped the price semi-automatic .50 caliber gun by nearly $1K, this gun they’ve nicknamed, “beast of a rifle.”
However, in a statement made to the local news station KTRK, the Boyert Shooting Center in Katy, T.X. defended the promotion, saying, “We have friends and family who are teachers and our way of reaching out and saying thank you is by offering a summer-long promotion of discounted training courses, firearms, and accessories.”
According to a story in Vice News, Boyert Shooting Center has a history of making controversial advertisements after mass shootings. After the Parkland shooting, they posted on a marquee, in response to the franchise Dick’s Sporting Goods decision to stop selling semi-automatic weapons, stating, “We’re not all Dicks. We still sell ARs.”
Whether controversial or insensitive, the play on lost lives and mass murders has left many with questions.
