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Gun Show Billboards in North St. Louis

September 13, 2011 Crime, Featured, North City 23 Comments
ABOVE: Orange billboard on N. Florissant advertises a gun show in St. Charles

Billboards for a gun show in St. Charles appeared all over North St. Louis, but some objected:

“We have a lot of momentum going, so to see an advertisement for a gun show really struck a major nerve,” James Clark of Better Family Life said.

After all, Clark’s mission is to encourage teens to put down the pistol and settle beefs by talking instead of shooting.

“This urban core where citizens go to sleep hearing gunshots — we do not need to have that image in these neighborhoods,” Clark said. (KMOV)

Residents got CBS Advertising to removed the billboards in one neighborhood but they remained in many others.

ABOVE: Hard to miss these billboards with images of guns.

Should the community be able to set standards for such advertising or does that violate the free speech of the show’s organizers?

– Steve Patterson

 

Currently there are "23 comments" on this Article:

  1. RyleyinSTL says:

    For better or worse this nation has decided to be fully in love with guns.  You can legally own as many weapons as you want.  Some….weapons designed from their conception as tools to kill people exclusively.  Even better, you can legally walk around in public with these things in your pocket.

    I hate to say it but based on that I can’t see how anyone can object to a few gun show billboards.

     
  2. RyleyinSTL says:

    For better or worse this nation has decided to be fully in love with guns.  You can legally own as many weapons as you want.  Some….weapons designed from their conception as tools to kill people exclusively.  Even better, you can legally walk around in public with these things in your pocket.

    I hate to say it but based on that I can’t see how anyone can object to a few gun show billboards.

     
  3. Fenian says:

    I can see how some in the community would be upset, but the truth of the matter is that law abiding citizens would purchase guns from those dealers. Thugs aren’t going to a gun show to buy a gun that would be linked to them. Before anyone brings it up, the ‘Gun Show Loophole’ is more fiction than reality.

     
  4. Fenian says:

    I can see how some in the community would be upset, but the truth of the matter is that law abiding citizens would purchase guns from those dealers. Thugs aren’t going to a gun show to buy a gun that would be linked to them. Before anyone brings it up, the ‘Gun Show Loophole’ is more fiction than reality.

     
  5. W Kruse says:

    There are serious time/matter/place first amendment issues if someone is expecting the local or state government to step in.  Furthermore, I don’t think the guns themselves have much to do with the violence in Mr. Clark’s neighborhood.  I can only summize that there are zip codes in Missouri with far more guns per capita and far fewer murders.

     
  6. W Kruse says:

    There are serious time/matter/place first amendment issues if someone is expecting the local or state government to step in.  Furthermore, I don’t think the guns themselves have much to do with the violence in Mr. Clark’s neighborhood.  I can only summize that there are zip codes in Missouri with far more guns per capita and far fewer murders.

     
  7. youaredumb says:

    firearms are not the problem, nor are gunshows. crime and violence are socioeconomic issues that need to be addressed on the national level. certainly, the average, legitimate gun owner would never consider using their weapon to commit a crime. firearms are an important part of our society and history, and they provide us with the ability to protect ourselves, our families, and to revolt in a violent capacity if necessary.

    great blog steve, i appreciate the topics you address. keep up the good work. thanks for letting me post anonymously.

     
  8. youaredumb says:

    firearms are not the problem, nor are gunshows. crime and violence are socioeconomic issues that need to be addressed on the national level. certainly, the average, legitimate gun owner would never consider using their weapon to commit a crime. firearms are an important part of our society and history, and they provide us with the ability to protect ourselves, our families, and to revolt in a violent capacity if necessary.

    great blog steve, i appreciate the topics you address. keep up the good work. thanks for letting me post anonymously.

     
  9. youaredumb says:

    firearms are not the problem, nor are gunshows. crime and violence are socioeconomic issues that need to be addressed on the national level. certainly, the average, legitimate gun owner would never consider using their weapon to commit a crime. firearms are an important part of our society and history, and they provide us with the ability to protect ourselves, our families, and to revolt in a violent capacity if necessary.

    great blog steve, i appreciate the topics you address. keep up the good work. thanks for letting me post anonymously.

     
  10. Anonymous says:

    Three issues.  One, should legal products be allowed to be advertised?  Two, are billboards acceptable in neighborhoods?  And three, are either the government and/or “concerned neighbors” a better judge of free speech than an individual?  Personally, I see little link between gun show billboards and crime in the streets.

     
  11. JZ71 says:

    Three issues.  One, should legal products be allowed to be advertised?  Two, are billboards acceptable in neighborhoods?  And three, are either the government and/or “concerned neighbors” a better judge of free speech than an individual?  Personally, I see little link between gun show billboards and crime in the streets.

     
    • Moe says:

      Yes, legal products should be allowed to advertise.  Limited numbers of billboards are acceptable, but remember, it is residential.  And finally, the producer of the gun show probably gave little or no thought to neighborhood issues other than…..where is a good market for guns?  Why a high crime neighborhood, regardless of what the neighbors want.  Sad but true.  I do see a link, but it is cloudy.  The neighbors are struggling to improve their neighborhood and are grasping at anything that works.  I would think they see it as “we’re trying to clean up and here comes more trouble”…..like a parent saying no smoking to a child as they light up .

      I think the producers could have given or still give more thought to the neighborhoods, but from a business point, can you blame them for targeting their audience.  (and not all crime is commited by illegal guns).

       
      • JZ71 says:

        Pretty much agree, along with a fourth point – are billboards actually an effective way to spend one’s advertising dollars, in a digital world?  And I’m thinking that the promotor wasn’t targeting any neighborhood, they just wanted x number of billboards within y number of miles of the event and these sites were available.  And, in a perverse way, if the neighbors are complaining, the ads are working, because they’re being noticed!

        Look at the bigger picture.  You don’t find a lot of billboards in newer (and nicer) neighborhoods, they’re usually in older, industrial and, unfortunately, “mixed-use” areas.  I live in Lindenwood Park neighborhood, and there aren’t billboards, for anything, in the residential parts, just along some of the main arterials (Arsenal, Chippewa, Wabash, Watson) where there are also businesses, and I honestly can’t tell you what is or has been on any of them, other than one ad for a school-to-condos conversion project.

         
  12. Moe says:

    Yes, legal products should be allowed to advertise.  Limited numbers of billboards are acceptable, but remember, it is residential.  And finally, the producer of the gun show probably gave little or no thought to neighborhood issues other than…..where is a good market for guns?  Why a high crime neighborhood, regardless of what the neighbors want.  Sad but true.  I do see a link, but it is cloudy.  The neighbors are struggling to improve their neighborhood and are grasping at anything that works.  I would think they see it as “we’re trying to clean up and here comes more trouble”…..like a parent saying no smoking to a child as they light up .

    I think the producers could have given or still give more thought to the neighborhoods, but from a business point, can you blame them for targeting their audience.  (and not all crime is commited by illegal guns).

     
  13. Anonymous says:

    Pretty much agree, along with a fourth point – are billboards actually an effective way to spend one’s advertising dollars, in a digital world?  And I’m thinking that the promotor wasn’t targeting any neighborhood, they just wanted x number of billboards within y number of miles of the event and these sites were available.  And, in a perverse way, if the neighbors are complaining, the ads are working, because they’re being noticed!

    Look at the bigger picture.  You don’t find a lot of billboards in newer (and nicer) neighborhoods, they’re usually in older, industrial and, unfortunately, “mixed-use” areas.  I live in Lindenwood Park neighborhood, and there aren’t billboards, for anything, in the residential parts, just along some of the main arterials (Arsenal, Chippewa, Wabash, Watson) where there are also businesses, and I honestly can’t tell you what is or has been on any of them, other than one ad for a school-to-condos conversion project.

     
  14. Moe says:

    Very true..and it is perverse that they are working because they are getting noticed.

     
  15. StLRealEstateGuy says:

    I doubt that NoStLCity would be a target market for a Gun Show to be held in StChazCo.  As JZ71 pointed out the promoter got X# of billboards including some in places the promoter might not have personally selected.

     
  16. StLRealEstateGuy says:

    I doubt that NoStLCity would be a target market for a Gun Show to be held in StChazCo.  As JZ71 pointed out the promoter got X# of billboards including some in places the promoter might not have personally selected.

     
    • Moe says:

      There is a lot of traffic between the city and st. charles.  But you’re right, a lot of it is probably filler just to make numbers.

       
  17. Moe says:

    There is a lot of traffic between the city and st. charles.  But you’re right, a lot of it is probably filler just to make numbers.

     

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