On July 30, 2012, Catherine Murch shot her two children in her St. Louis-area home and then killed herself, using a 9 millimeter handgun that she had purchased on July 28 from ontargetstl.com for $473. The tragic story of murder-suicide with a handgun was the top news story in St. Louis for days. Less than one week later, on August 8, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch dedicated the bottom half of page 3 of its front section to an ad by MidAmerica Arms, touting “Glock Days.”
I don’t go looking for gun-show ads. But I do read the morning paper, and this ad would have been tough to miss. I suppose I’m naïve, but I was rather shocked by the prominence of the ad, what it advertised, and how it portrayed and hyped the product.
Glock Days. It sounds so festive, it almost makes you want to pack a picnic lunch and head on over for some real wholesome, functional family fun. Glock’s own Facebook page calls Glock Days ” special events (similar to a department store one day sale).” And the ad copy is fun and celebratory,too:
“Come in to register for a free Glock drawing.” [Hooray, I can get a gun for nothing!]
“See us for a suppressor/silencer.” [We all really need one of those, don’t we?]
“Ammo deals!” [The more the better, right?]
“3,000 square feet of guns, ammo, apparel, accessories, safes, knives, targets, optics and more.” [That’s more square feet that my entire house, and it’s hard to imagine filling the whole joint with firearms and ammo.]
My favorite promotional line from the ad: “Choose the right Glock for you from our great selection.” [I can’t wait to have a professional gun profiler interview me to determine exactly which gun is right for my personality and purposes.]
And for those, like me, who have no clue as to how much money we need to stockpile in order to buy a gun, here’s some useful info from the ad:
- Glock Gen 3, 9mm, .40, S&W: $499.95
- Glock Gen 4, 9mm, .40 S&W: $539.95
- Ammo, 9 mm: $10.99/box
All the fun and special-event gun shopping was brought to us by MidAmerica Arms. It was on August 10-11, 2012 in South St. Louis County [6 miles from the site of the Murch murder-suicide]. And I forgot to put it on my calendar.