A gun store just opened in Manhattan – but it doesn’t sell any guns.
In a two-day social experiment on Manhattan’s Lower East Side, in a city with some of the strictest gun-control laws in good old ‘Merica, “Guns With History” set out to make a major point with a fake gun shop.
It came in the wake of a Gallup Poll that revealed that less than half of Americans favoured stricter gun laws.
Conducted by States United to Prevent Gun Violence, the experiment was designed to make people think twice before they purchase a firearm and to question the mentality that having a gun makes you safer. As we’re reminded by one tragedy after another South of the Border, having a gun in home actually makes you far less safe against things like domestic violence, homicide, accidents, and suicide.
As opposed to a traditional awareness campaign, the organization decided to hit home with the bogus gun shop filled with hidden cameras and a mock website claiming to sell guns.
First-time gun buyers were the target.
In case potential gun buyers had forgotten the risks associated with owning firearms, each sales pitch for every gun offered a chilling reminder. Each gun was used in accidental shootings and mass deaths, as potential buyers were reminded in each gun’s description.
Sales pitches may include details like how one revolver was used by a five-year-old boy to shoot his five-year-old brother, a 9mm semi-automatic that a toddler used to shoot his mom at a Walmart, the gun used to kill 21 people in a US McDonald’s, and the same type of gun used in the Sandy Hook tragedy.
You know, just in case you were questioning its effectiveness.
The reactions of the gun buyers – who claimed they were seeking a gun for protection and safety – were captured via hidden camera.
Check out how it went down:
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Cover image from: States United To Prevent Gun Violence
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