Yesterday was another Moms Demand Action wear-orange “Gun Violence Awareness Day.” You’d be excused for missing the the annual sartorial atrocity this year as the ginned up event received far less attention and free ink from their willing accomplices in the mainstream media than it has in the past. It seems gun control advocacy in a post-Hope and Change world just isn’t as sexy as it used to be.
Besides, the whole “awareness” raising thing is little more than a useless PR event and thinly disguised virtue signaling by the Moms and their celebrity confederates. It accomplishes literally nothing.
Another organization that also cropped up in the aftermath of Sandy Hook has taken a different tack. Rather than curry favor with the media via meaningless press-friendly events and denying reality, Evolve has taken a non-partisan approach, putting on “Safety Sunday” events to promote responsible gun ownership and safe gun handling. Here’s their press release promoting tomorrow’s Safety Sunday event.
Evansville, Indiana – June 1, 2017 — Evolve USA and Uncle Rudy’s are re-launching their successful “Safety Sunday” campaign this summer to encourage individuals to take personal responsibility for gun safety. Focused on a simple and actionable mission — “Clear it. Check it. Lock it”
Last year, Evolve kicked off the ‘Clear It. Check It. Lock It.’ retail campaign at Uncle Rudy’s and took the piloted message to five markets around the country, including Texas. The mission being to give retailers and ranges – or anyone in the business of guns – the Clear It. Check It. Lock It. (CCL) merchandise and call-to-action to share with their customers.
After the Evolve message had been trumpeted around the world with tens of millions views of the entertaining and on-point PSAs, people had begun approaching Evolve with requests for more ways to take the message to gun owners and community.
The campaign was developed by southern-based Erwin Penland and ex-special military ops/creative director Con Williamson. It had many humorous and smart CCL ads that were locked-and-loaded retail-ready. ‘A message of positivity and putting the emphasis on people when they’re doing something good around guns – learning to shoot them correctly and handle them safely,’ was the reason Evolve co-founder Rebecca Bond was committed to take this message from the PSA air to the streets.
A former executive in the alcohol and sports marketing industry, she knew first-hand the business of ‘selling safety’ to consumers. ‘We know from analytics on promoting drinking responsibility and tackling drunk driving, the best way to take on a major social safety issue is to involve every person at whatever checkpoint in the world they live in. And safety marketing doesn’t have to be earnest and dull to be effective. You can make people laugh AND think.
In fact, that’s the sweet-spot of getting more people to care about this stymied topic. If we all participate in gun safety – or lack thereof when we see it – we will make a difference. And you can then go back to whatever other debate you want to have.’
Last year was a pilot between Uncle Rudy’s and Evolve to create a family-friendly afternoon that included live radio, face painting, gun safety instruction. Created in 2016, family-friendly “Safety Sundays” at Uncle Rudy’s Indoor Firing Range were designed to provide safety demonstrations, one-on-one instruction and resources for all ages in a family-friendly environment.
After opening the gun range in 2015, Uncle Rudy’s owners John and Melissa Rudolph established their leadership role in the Evansville community to educate on safe and responsible gun ownership. They have upheld the best-practices of safe handling in their business and are constantly looking for ways to partner and extend their message.
‘There are over 300 million guns in America. And while we may not agree on every issue, we can all agree on gun safety and the rules. We are really excited to have everyone out again this Sunday to have some fun and talk safety!’ says John Rudolph.
Evolve elicits gun owners and non-gun owners to support the common value of gun safety practices. Uncle Rudy’s, and John Rudolph, have been 100% committed to gaining the gun industry’s support of Evolve and this message. Meeting with business and trade organizations at the NSSF SHOT show in January to talk summer of ‘Safety Saturdays/Sundays.’ ‘We hope to continue the momentum around Clear It. Check It. Lock It.’
We hope everyone will take a look at how this message could be used at their range or in the community. Our community has been excited and 100% supportive of this message,’ says Rudolph. Meanwhile, Evolve will continue to remind people – with their brand of friendly and cheeky humor – to follow the rules of gun safety and some basic common sense.
About Safety Sunday
June 4th. Uncle Rudy’s Indoor Firing Range. 5000 Plaza East. Evansville, Indiana. 12-4About Evolve
Evolve (http://www.evolveusa.com/) is about promoting responsible choices about gun safety behaviors in America. Safety is not a side and that is something that gun owners and non-gun owners can agree on. We believe that gun safety should be as big and aspirational as a Nike ‘Just Do It’ message, motivating people to, well, just do it. Evolve is a nonprofit 501c3 organization founded by Jon and Rebecca Bond in 2013, made up of gun owners, non-gun owners, gun industry leaders, moms and dads, professionals, leaders, and NRA members.
Evolve has received positive coverage on its PSA work in over 12 countries, won service impact awards and been recognized by media sources such as The Huffington Post, The Truth About Guns, Forbes, Guns.com, FastCompany, Wall Street Journal, Pop Sugar, The Guardian, USA Today, and Gawker, Fox, CBS, CNN, Spike TV, Dana Loesch, Bold Media, MSNBC, Upworthy, David Webb Show, Bustle, Buzzfeed, Ammoland, Cosmopolitan, Adweek, NY Times, Washington Post
Oh look, another “awareness” program(The MDA program not so much the Evolve). This is about as effective as running an terrorist awareness program. Most people know they exist, just like murderers in Chicago. Unless your program targets the people responsible for the murders, it will be wholly ineffective. Of course that is what they want because their true goal is to demonize gun ownership and gun owners.
Don’t you know that Awareness is magical? If not for skeptics like you, we could have resurrected all the unicorns by now. Unicorn killer!
“It accomplished literally nothing.”
Except made TTAG their mouthpiece.
Incarcerate the lot of these hair brained flea bags, after all the trouble the orange robes caused for Veterans these SOB’s want to give Flash backs where you may want to see a Jihad on their bodies> Aloha bat bar!
If the group is just about safe gun handling and takes no money from Bloomberg Organizations this seems like an organization everyone can support.
Oh no! I wore an orange shirt Friday. (I just like the color.) If I had known that MDA was having a special wear orange day, then I would not have.
I wore an orange shirt to the range Friday. I paid attention to gun safety. The only holes made were in the targets.
A big step forward for gun safety would be the mandatory inclusion of firearm programs, including live fire events, for 13 year olds, in every school in the country. I’d love to see a curriculum where things like AP CQC is eventually offered.
Comments are closed.