Fact Check

Fake Brady Campaign Ad Goes Viral on Facebook

A fake ad purportedly from The Brady Campaign — a group working to end gun violence — was widely circulated on Facebook.

Published March 5, 2016

 (The Brady Campaign)
Image Via The Brady Campaign
Claim:
An image shows a real ad from The Brady Campaign urging citizens not to fight back against home intruders.

In March 2016, an image purportedly showing an ad from the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence was widely circulated on Facebook. The above-displayed ad, however, was not created by the Brady Campaign, and does not appear on the Brady Campaign web site or any of their social media profiles.

The fake ad has been circulating since at least April 2015, when it was uploaded to a Wordpress blog called Madd Medic which frequently posted pro-gun rhetoric. While we can't definitively say exactly who created the image, this fake Brady Campaign ad was saved as "Brady Spoof" by Photobucket user "Ajinjax":

brady spoof ad

On 4 March 2016, The Brady Campaign took to Twitter to clear up any confusion about the above-displayed fake ad:

Screenshot 2016-03-05 at 3.56.49 PM

This isn't the first time that a fake ad has been created to smear the Brady Campaign. Another one purportedly from the anti-gun violence group (which stated: "A rape can last 30 seconds, but a gun murder lasts forever) generated outrage when it circulated in January 2013.

Dan Evon is a former writer for Snopes.

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