In an effort to encourage people to call the Gun Tip-Line, city cops sponsored a bumper sticker contest. The winning slogan (pictured) — penned and designed by an Advocate duo — - reads: “I’d Rather NOT Be Shooting a Gun.”
The project was spearheaded by Officer Joe Avery, pictured with slogan scribe Chris Arnott, managing editor of the New Haven Advocate.
“The chief asked me to come up with a bumper sticker. I threw around some ideas but then I thought, ‘Let’s make this fun and get the public involved,’” Avery said.
The contest and Tip-Line are part of a larger effort to stop gun violence in New Haven. The contest was completed a couple of months ago, but there was too much going on in the city (gun violence, armed patrols, etc.), said Avery.
“This went to the back burner.”
Twenty-five designs were received and posted on the third floor of the police station. All officers and passers-by had the opportunity to pick the one they like, fill out a secret ballot and drop it in a box. Over 200 votes were cast.
The design was entered by the whole staff of the Advocate. Arnott wrote the text and Production Manager Matthew Ford did the design. Arnott rolled up with a stroller for two and said a few words before affixing a sticker on the bumper of a newly washed police cruiser, with the help of his daughters, pictured.
“It turns out the police department has the same sense of humor that I have,” said Arnott, in reference to the double meaning of the sticker. With the sticker on a police car, it’s also implying that the police officer would rather not be shooting a gun.
“That’s the way I read it,” said Avery.
“This is a genuine thing,” said Arnott. “Not a snarky Advocate thing.”
The bumper stickers will go on approximately 60 police cars, the ones that patrol regularly. They are also available to the public at 1 Union Avenue and at the substations. The Tip-Line number is 203 – 946-8244.
Just curious but when exactly will people be calling this line? When they stumble acrosss a discarded weapon in the park? When they see a group of kids obviously under the age of 21 "playing" with one on the street corner? Or will they be calling when they see me through a window cleaning my guns? What about the individual seen through his window cleaning his illegaly owned guns? Should I be expecting the police to be at my door every few weeks to check my permit and my firearms or should I be happy to shut the lights off and pull the blinds to clean them?
If people arent calling the police for suspocious gun related behavior now they wont be because of a bumper sticker or they will be calling far too often for no reason like an old lady would call 911 for a late pizza delivery.
My mystic powers are telling me this campaign, if you can call it that, is largely if not completely useless and is only meant to serve as lip service to a paranoid public.