Frank Manuel didn’t expect a photo he posted on his Montgomery Indoor Shooting Complex Facebook page to draw so much attention, says the Montgomery, Al., Advertiser. Manuel said he posted a picture of an infant surrounded by guns and holding a pistol to draw attention not only to his business, but to youth gun violence. “We needed to get people’s attention to the issue, so we put up a controversial photo,” Manuel said.
Manuel said a friend, Jessie Davidson, had fallen on hard times after his 13-year-old son was accidentally shot in the side and required hospitalization. “In light of my worker’s son getting shot, I said ‘Let’s put this picture here, let’s get this conversation started, and once we get people’s attention, now we can draw some attention to Project ChildSafe,'” he said. Project ChildSafe, which was first launched by the National Shooting Sports Foundation in 1999, is a national program that emphasizes correct handling and storage of firearms through safety education. Manuel said that after the first day of the picture being posted, he decided to delete it because he had gotten his point across and then posted a link to Project ChildSafe. “It wasn’t until the television stations picked it up that they whipped it into a frenzy,” he said.