editorial

National Association for Gun Rights ad gone wrong

Posted on by Caleb

advertising gone wrong

Why is it that whenever someone does an advertisement supporting carry, the image is always some soup-sandwich dude with a Taurus in a flappy nylon sausage sack of a holster? Seriously, that is probably the worst holster I’ve ever seen, and for people who are serious about carry it’s kind of insulting for NAGR to represent us with that image.

I understand that not everyone is going to carry a Glock in a Raven holster, or a Colt 1911 in a sweat leather holster. But I just can’t imagine the pitch meeting that resulted in this ad. Here’s how I imagine you end up with that holster. The scene is with a dude walking into a gun store…

Dude: Sir, give me your finest holster for concealment!
Gun Store Employee: Okay, that’ll be $80.
Dude: Give me your five dollar-ist holster!

It’s just awful. The holster is actually a bad design, it’s not just ugly. It has the added bonus of being dangerous! First, look at the distance the butt is out from the body. That means where the holster attaches to the guy’s not-a-gun belt is weak, allowing the grip to flop out. Grip flop means the holster will snag on stuff. Sweet.

Secondly, the retention mechanism is terrible. While I do applaud him for open carrying with an actual retention holster, there is no way he’ll be able to deactivate the retention on that holster in a hurry, because it’s a left handed holster. Seriously, on those terrible “strap the gun in” designs, a right handed shooter should have the button on the outside of the holster so you can attempt to unbutton it as part of the draw motion. This guy has his retention button on the part of the holster facing his body, ensuring that it’s going to be a painfully slow process if he does need to unlimber that .38 in an emergency.

Ultimately, what bugs me the most is the the National Association for Gun Rights, despite being a 3rd tier organization should know better. Was there not one serious gun guy who saw this ad before it ran? How come no one internally said “whoa, guys this is a total soup sandwich. Let’s fix his gear up a little bit.”

Seriously, an XD in a SERPA would be an upgrade for this ad. NAGR, I award you with a D-. See me after class.

Caleb

19 Comments

  1. You’re presuming the strap catch is fixed. I’ve had a few of those (mea culpa, I was young, poor, and cheap) where the strap was adjustable, so you could configure it into a thumb break. . . which SHOULD be on the inboard side of a strong side holster.

    Still makes a crappy holster, but it beats jammin’ yo’ gat down your sweat pants (which I’ve seen).

  2. The only reason I can think of to buy one of these pieces of crap, is if you have handguns you don’t carry but need something to keep them safe and secure in your range bag. At least a velcroed up Passport will keep your gun from getting scratched and protect the trigger guard from intrusion.

    There’s no excuse to buy a Taurus, however.

  4. I’d give it a C, mainly because the target audience wouldn’t know a retention holster from a barrel shroud.

    A 1911 in a Safariland ALS on a 2″ rigger belt (says both ‘gun’ and ‘secured’) would be a vast improvement, IMHO.

      1. I can buy that, though I might give CCRKBA shared billing with SAF, given their size and the relationship there.

      2. You’ve got that right. Every time I’m tempted to spread it around by joining GOA, I hear Larry Pratt bad mouthing the NRA, trying to poach members and donations as if it were a zero sum game. After several minutes of his droning monosyllable voice, I feel an irresistible urge to lie down and take a nap.

  7. SAF and CCRKBA are two branches of the same tree. Both Alan Gottlieb outfits.

    Gottlieb promotes SAF/CCRKBA as compliments to NRA membership, not competition. I’ve met Alan at NRA functions and Wayne LaPierre at SAF functions.

    Both get my support.

    1. Any leather IWB south of the Mason-Dixon.
      I mean, before all this global warming kicked in.

  9. PDB — I’ll be honest, I still keep the cheap nylon crap around for two reasons.

    1. I do not mind sacrificing a $10 Bagmaster to make it into a readily convertible holster to help someone see if a gun at a particular angle and position is or is not “do-able”. No good for carry, but a great way to figure out if the gun is even REACHABLE at a certain location, or whether a particular location means it will automatically stiock out farther than anything else on their body. Then, they can look for a quality rig with the desired position, andgle, drop, etc. So, they have a utility (albeit limited) as a test bed for concepts.

    2. They are really great for keeping guns from clanking against one another if you toss multiple pistols in your range bag.

Comments are closed.