The anti-gun rights forces against whom we work on a daily basis — think the hoplophobic harridans at Moms Demand Action and brain-dead, know-nothing politicians whose dearest wish is to remake America in the image of our more sophisticated European betters — love to use euphemisms to hide what it is they’re really doing.
They can’t call it “gun control” because that smacks of a net reduction of freedom and doesn’t poll well. Instead, they use weasel words like “gun reform” or, our favorite, “gun safety,” to mask their campaigns.
Yet actual safety has nothing whatsoever to do with what it is they really want. They’re not out in flyover country (or anywhere else) promoting safe gun ownership, preaching The Four Rules, or teaching children what they should do if they come across an unsecured firearm.
And the mind-numbed millennial whiz kids who run our increasingly slanted social media platforms wouldn’t know a firearm from a firewall. All they know is, if it has anything to do with guns, they don’t want any part of it.
The Wall Street Journal documented some of this last week. In an article titled, Gun Safety Devices Get Caught in Online Advertising Bans, the WSJ described how makers of gun locks and other safety devices can’t get past social media’s blanket prohibitions on all things ballistic.
The WSJ’s Zusha Elinson notes the trouble gun lock maker Zore (read our review of their gun lock here) has had in trying to promote their gun safety products.
Digital marketing giants including Facebook Inc. and Alphabet Inc.’s Google often reject marketing from companies like Zore, the maker of a high-tech, quick-release gun lock, due to policies intended to forbid ads for the firearms themselves, manufacturers of the devices say.
“It really blocked all the ways we wanted to get people,” said Eytan Morgenstern, Zore’s director of communications. “We’re selling to gun owners and they have to understand why it works.”
These companies are getting “swept up in the general prohibition on advertising firearms,” said Chuck Rossi, a former engineering director at Facebook.
“All of them are eligible for ads, but it’s a constant battle to get their ads through,” he said.
Apparently the geniuses who run Google and Facebook can’t manage to distinguish between an actual firearm and a device designed to secure one.
Now a maker of accessories for gun safes is having similar problems. Illinois-based Gun Storage Solutions makes products designed to make your gun safe more efficient and useable. That should encourage gun owners to keep (all) their firearms stored securely in a locked container when not in use, right? That would be something anyone would want to encourage, right?
Gun Storage Solutions doesn’t make guns, ammunition or anything else that might frighten a fragile millennial’s sensibilities. So you’d think the company would be able to advertise their products via the big book of faces. You’d be wrong.
Gun Storage Solutions has issued this press release . . .
Bloomington, IL – Gun Storage Solutions, manufacturer of gun safe accessories, has been shut down from advertising on Facebook.
Gun Storage Solutions manufactures products that aid in the safe storage of firearms within a gun safe. Their products Rifle Rods and Handgun Hangers will store a growing gun collection efficiently and safely within a small, secure space where the real estate is in high demand.
“The status of our advertising account with Facebook has been hit and miss for years because of confusion with whether or not we violate their policy on guns.” says Katie Stephey, Gun Storage Solutions VP of Marketing. “Ultimately our account has been blocked without further opportunity to appeal for our ads.”
It is no surprise that a privately owned company like Facebook has a strict policy against advertising the sale or use of firearms. However, Facebook is now discriminating against companies that provide products to help safely and securely store firearms.
With a mission to safely store firearms in a locked safe, out of the hands of criminals and curious children, why take away an advertising outlet from Gun Storage Solutions?
Gun Storage Solutions, and other companies that create products that work to preserve our civil right to bear arms, are all being swept up in this ban. Facebook is not the only culprit. Other large corporations give the illusion that they are doing what is necessary to fight gun violence. However, their answer is to undermine the Second Amendment by including manufacturers that increase the safety and security of gun ownership.
Gun Storage Solutions creates products that move us forward in retaining both our civil right to bear arms and to do so safely and responsibly. This advertising ban on gun safety products must end.
About Gun Storage Solutions
The mission of Gun Storage Solutions is to help gun owners develop a safe, usable, maximized storage space for your gun collection. Since 2008, this family owned and operated business has been making gun storage products for gun safes and display stands for gun retailers. Their products are made in Illinois and that is also where the family operates their business. Gun Storage Solutions is an American dream come to life.
This is a problem with which we can relate. TTAG and other firearms content publishers have had to deal with similar restrictions for years.
We don’t sell guns, gear, or anything else here. We just write about gun-related topics and review products. All of which is completely beyond the pale for young Master Zuckerberg and his multifarious minions. In their world view, that constitutes promoting the sale of firearms.
That’s why they throttle back distribution of our content on their platform to our 400,000+ followers and prohibit us from paying to promote it. Oh, and our tweets are also “shadow banned” on Twitter.
Such is life in the “progressive”-owned social media jungle.