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Bexar County commissioners on Tuesday voted to move forward with a gun safety campaign, "Bexar Responsibly," that rolls out visual elements beginning next week.
The campaign plays off the constitutional right to bear arms. The campaign focuses on gun rights coming with great responsibility and not on politics over gun control.
The campaign aims to curb gun violence, which is the number one cause of death now among children and teens in the U.S., according to Texas Creative, the firm hired by the county to work with community-based organizations to put together the campaign.
The campaign will include a 30-second PSA for television, digital media, and billboards, all with the theme of "Bexar Responsibly," encouraging residents to lock up guns and keep them away from children.
Texas Creative CEO Ashley Landers said the campaign will reach out directly to gunowners, who largely believe themselves to be responsible, according to the results of a survey used to build the campaign. She said their answers to other portions of the survey countered those beliefs.
"Nearly all surveyed gunowners view themselves as more responsible than average, despite many self-reporting actions that could be considered risky," she said. Things like keeping a loaded, easily accessible gun in their home, keeping a loaded, easily accessible gun in their car, neglecting to inform visitors with children that there are guns in the house."
Landers said three-quarters of those surveyed said they had a gun in the home for protection of their families, so part of the messaging includes the phrase: "Your gun protects your family. Protect your family from your gun."
The very visual messaging is phase two of the county's $900,00 gun safety campaign approved by commissioners last year. Phase one of the campaign saw the free distribution of hundreds of gun cases and gun locks.
Half of Bexar County residents, around 800,000, are gun owners, according to Landers. Many reported owning more than one gun — putting the number of guns in Bexar County around 1.5 million.
