San Francisco Reverses Ad Policy, Gun Rights Posters Go Up Throughout City

For Immediate Release: 9/7/2010

San Carlos, CA - San Francisco Metropolitan Transit Authority, which operates the City's expansive bus and light rail system, ran into a wedge as the Calguns Foundation and Second Amendment Foundation partnered to challenge their ban on advertisements containing firearms.

16 large posters which show a woman peering out a window while holding a shotgun were installed at major transit stations throughout the City, including some just steps away from Golden Gate and AT&T Parks, respectively.  The controversial posters received national attention and significant local news coverage for their use of public advertising space to promote lawful use of firearms.  KTVU, the Bay Area's Fox television affiliate, has coverage of the story here.

Facing the prospects of a legal challenge, SFMTA elected to allow the advertisements to be installed rather than adhere to its own policy and suffer a loss in court; however, CGF and SAF remain prepared to litigate the issue if SFMTA reverses its new policy and removes the posters from the stations.

"We suspect the MTA is allowing our ads in San Francisco despite their policy because they believed we were prepared to file a lawsuit on First and Second Amendment grounds if, for any reason, the city didn't take them," SAF Executive Vice President Alan M. Gottlieb stated. "Knowing we were responsible for the McDonald victory over Chicago and the defeat of their own 2005 gun ban proposition, and probably aware of our litigation in New York, Maryland, North Carolina, Illinois and California, they did not want to lock horns with us again."

Click here to be taken to a map of the GRPC ad locations

Click here to download a copy of the poster in PDF format