Legal Commentary

The Dale Peterson Ad

By David Kopel

I don?t live in Alabama and I?m not a registered Republican. But if I were, this ad would convince me not to vote in the primary for Dale Peterson for Agriculture Commissioner.

Somebody who?s been  a Marine, a cop, and a farmer ought to know elementary gun safety. Yet when Peterson takes out a rifle near the end of the video, he puts his trigger finger inside the trigger guard. I realize that the gun in the commercial is just a prop, and was almost certainly unloaded. However, the Agriculture Commissioner should model good behavior, and the viral ad itself, with over a million views, is a model of unsafe and irresponsible gun handling. Perhaps most of the viewers know better than to handle a gun in the dangerous manner than Peterson does, but at least some viewers won?t know that what Peterson is a violation of gun safety rules; some of them may think that he?s showing the normal way to carry a gun, and some of those viewers might one day attempt to carry a gun the way Peterson does. Accordingly, Peterson?s ad itself increases the possibility of accidents from unsafe handling of firearms.

Full post as published by The Volokh Conspiracy on June 01, 2010 (boomark / email).