Kids' Safety: The Monster at Home Is an Unsecured Handgun

From the Ad Council, Brady and Pereira O'Dell

Sometimes, you don’t need graphic images, pools of blood or screens of stats to make a powerful appeal for gun safety.

A child reaching into a drawer to grab a firearm is all it takes in the :60 below.

Brady: United Against Gun Violence, the Ad Council and Pereira O’Dell created the PSA with Partizan director Martin Stirling.

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Portraying the weapon in such a casual fashion feels understated and fresh. The narration—ostensibly by the gun itself—deepens our sense of unease.

It’s especially chilling when the kid—so curious and vulnerable—picks up the pistol.

“We wanted to make that scene impactful by implying the bad outcome and letting the viewer’s imagination fill in the rest,” POD creative director Matt Kappler tells Muse. “The hope is to feel, in that moment, that ‘Family Fire’ is just as much of a threat as a home invader.”

Filming that sequence “was a stressful thing,” he recalls. “Nobody wants to see a child mishandling a gun, even a prop.”

Naturally, the crew was mindful of best practices on set to avoid any chance of deadly mishaps.

“Martin Stirling created an extremely trusting and careful set. And our armorer Mariano was great in providing a prop that felt real in frame but created no actual danger,” Kappler says.

Breaking today, the work falls under the “End Family Fire” banner. In the past year, folks aware of the ads are three times more likely to enquire about safe gun storage than those who’ve never seen the campaign, according to the Ad Council.

“Given our country’s record-level spikes in gun-related deaths and injuries from with the home—including unintentional shootings of children and firearm suicide—it is crucial that first-time gun owners learn how to store their weapons safely,” says Brady president Kris Brown. “By sharing messages on safe firearm storage, we can prevent tragedies.”