Texas gun store under fire for advertising a ‘back-to-school’ sale offering 50 percent off its weapons just days after El Paso shooting left 22 dead
- A gun store and shooting range in Texas has been lambasted for advertising a ‘back to school’ sale offering huge discounts on its firearm
- Boyert Shooting Center displayed a promotional sign outside of its store, reading ‘Back to school sale August 13 through 18. Up to 50 percent off firearms’
- The gun store also promoted the week-long sales offer on Facebook, including a $999 discount on a 50. Caliber sniper the store referred to as a ‘beast of a rifle’
- The range has since defended the sign, insisting it isn’t offensive and instead serves as an appreciation for local teachers and educators
- Last year, the range poked fun at competitor Dick’s Sporting Goods after it announced it had ceased the sale of AR-15 assault rifles
A gun store and shooting range in Texas has been lambasted for advertising a ‘back-to-school’ sale offering huge discounts on its firearms just days after a mass shooting in El Paso left 22 dead.
Boyert Shooting Center in Katy, just outside of Houston, displayed a promotional sign outside of its store, reading ‘Back to school sale August 13 through 18. Up to 50 percent off firearms.’
The gun store also promoted the week-long sales offer on Facebook, including a $999.99 discount on a 50. Caliber sniper they referred to as a ‘beast of a rifle’.
Katy resident Michelle Simmons said she was so shocked by the ‘jarring’ advertisement, she stopped to take a photo of the billboard and then sent it to local media.
Boyert Shooting Center in Katy, just outside of Houston, displayed a promotional sign outside of its store, reading ‘Back to school sale August 13 through 18. Up to 50 percent off firearms’

This isn’t the first time the Boyert Shooting Center has made headlines for its controversial promotional offers. Last year, the range poked fun at competitor Dick’s Sporting Goods after it announced it had ceased the sale of AR-15 assault rifles, in wake of the Parkland School shooting, which left 17 students and teachers dead
‘It seems so obtuse… as a marketing strategy was it intentional?’ She told KTRK. ‘They want to get attention from a sign like that? Or did they really not think about what they were doing?’
‘In the current climate and in the current culture where we’ve got school shootings just constantly, mass shootings just constantly, it seems like a real poor choice of words,’ Simons added, before asking, ‘What does back to school have anything to do with getting guns?’
Others have since criticized the advertisement online, calling it ‘tasteless and tone-deaf’.

The gun store also promoted the week-long sales offer on Facebook, including a $999.99 discount on a 50. Caliber sniper the store referred to as a ‘beast of a rifle’


Others have since criticized the advertisement online, calling it ‘tasteless and tone-deaf’ (pictured: Other advertisements of Boyert’s relating to the sale)
However, the range has since defended the sign, insisting it isn’t offensive and instead serves as an appreciation for local teachers and educators.
‘We have friends and family who are teachers and our way of reaching out and saying thank you is by offering a summer long promotion of discounted training courses, firearms and accessories,’ a spokesperson said in a statement.
‘A lot of Texans are not aware, but it is now legal to conceal carry in some colleges, and for teachers in certain school districts to conceal carry as well. We are wrapping up the program that we have been running since the beginning of June, with a huge sale to benefit everyone.’

This isn’t the first time the Boyert Shooting Center has made headlines for its controversial promotional offers. Last year, the range poked fun at competitor Dick’s Sporting Goods after it announced it had ceased the sale of AR-15 assault rifles, in wake of the Parkland School shooting, which left 17 students and teachers dead
This isn’t the first time the Boyert Shooting Center has made headlines for its controversial promotional offers.
Last year, the range poked fun at competitor Dick’s Sporting Goods after it announced it had ceased the sale of AR-15 assault rifles, in wake of the Parkland School shooting, which left 17 students and teachers dead.
On March 2, 2018, just two weeks after the massacre, the Boyert changed the sign of its marquee outside of the store, which read, ‘We’re not all Dicks. We still sell AR’s’.
Despite the insensitive subject matter, Boyert Shooting Center program director Travis Clark claimed the sign was received positively.
‘It was meant to have people react to it and hopefully most understand that we are referring to the company and not an individual. We have had a lot of people come in and tell us they love the sign.’