Was Vista Pawn in The Wrong?

If you happened to be driving down Vista yesterday, you might have done a double take when you passed Vista Pawn. The pawn shop displayed a message on their outdoor reader board that promoted a 20% off sale on shotguns. That’s not a bad thing and not what got people’s attention. Right above the shotgun advertisement, they posted the message “back to school sale now through August”. The way it looked when driving by, it was easy to assume the two individual messages looked like one message that read “Back to school sale now through August, all pre-owned shotguns 20% off.

Obviously, with the recent string of school shootings across the country, this got some attention and pictures of the sign were quickly shared across social media. Visa pawn also got numerous calls when lead them to post this statement on their Facebook page.

I’m willing to give Vista Pawn a pass on this one. I don’t think this business would intentionally post such a cryptic message to promote gun sales. I honestly believe this was an unfortunate oversite, nothing more. But not everyone agrees

Jennifer Cox- Arutiunov posted on my Facebook page

Regardless of your opinion, the sign was corrected, and Vista Pawn has apologized. I’m curious to see what you think about this story. Was Vista pawn wrong and should they be held accountable in the court of public opinion, or do you think this is an unfortunate oversite? Leave your opinion in the comments below.