Shooting first: charity not an innocent bystander in T-shirt fundraising.

In comedy, timing is everything. In nonprofit marketing, it can be pretty darn important too.

The Washington, D.C.-based Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence in January ordered bright orange T-shirts with the words "Innocent Bystander" emblazoned across the front, and stop the "shoot first" law and Web site on the back, as part of its public awareness campaign.

No problem, right? Except that the T-shirts arrived just days after Vice President Dick Cheney accidentally shot Harry Whittington while quail hunting in Texas this past February 11.

By the time the T-shirts arrived, on February 13, "it would've been in really poor taste," Brady Campaign Spokesman Zach Ragbourn said. While the Brady Campaign has had its criticisms of the vice president, this "would have been tacky."

"We didn't even want to take a chance of looking like we're capitalizing on someone's shooting, especially when we didn't know" Whittington's condition, Ragbourn said.

"It would've become peripheral to the issue," he said, adding that the campaign was "purely about 'shoot first' laws."

So the dozens of T-shirts were tucked away for about a week before being sent, including several to the White House.

"Strangely, we haven't received a thank you note, but we understand getting mail to the White House takes some time," Ragbourn said. "We hope they receive it in the spirit it was intended.

Florida's shoot first law allows a public citizen to use deadly force in a public place if they perceive a threat, before trying to escape. "The new law eliminates a citizen's duty to avoid the threat, and allows the use of deadly force before other options," according to the Brady Campaign.

The Brady Campaign started with "a fairly targeted approach, talking to tourists going into Florida," Ragbourn said, and launched a Web site shortly after that. The T-shirts were an outgrowth of a campaign that began last fall to raise public awareness of Florida's 'shoot first' law that went into effect Oct. 1,2005.

"It was mostly educational, for people who wouldn't have heard of the law," Ragbourn said. "Knowing what's going on with the law helps increase safety because it changes the way people interact."

The Florida campaign was accompanied by some billboards, as well as a creative pitch to the media: sending boxes of California oranges to target newspapers and crime writers. Letters attached to the oranges explained that Florida oranges were not in season, but "something else is about to become in season come October."

It was a colorful way of launching the Web site and campaign, Ragbourn said, "because we're the budget organization in this fight. We're the guys who have to ... put dollars to work in a smart, innovative way because we can't just flood the market with ads."

Supporters of the law then took the legislation national, Ragbourn said, so the Brady Campaign "had to start thinking how to raise awareness in more than two cities in Florida." The campaign had targeted Miami and Orlando, hoping to target the most tourists to educate them. "We don't have the resources to go to every major city in America ... and talk to people about the law," he said, thus the T-shirts were conceived.

Ragbourn said the National Rifle Association (NRA) has taken its shoot first proposal to 20 states around the country where legislatures are considering it. "We're never going to change the NRA's mind, but we can raise awareness with people's constituents and talk to lawmakers, which is what we're trying to do," he said.

"People genuinely are needing the education campaign we've been doing," he said, because the shoot first law "is not something the normal person would've thought of.

"People are a little stunned by it," Ragbourn said of the law. "The overwhelming majority response is, 'I didn't know. Thanks for telling me.'"

Ragbourn said they're hoping the T-shirt phase of the campaign will drive people to the Web site, www.shootfirstlaw.org. And while the law is still in effect in Florida, he's hoping to see it repealed or amended. "There are things we don't mind. There are things we hate (in the law). We think it can be salvaged. We're sticking it out in Florida ... We would like to see it stopped dead in its tracks" in other states.

The $20 ask offsets most of the cost of printing and mailing the T-shirt, Ragbourn said, but is "first and foremost a donation to the campaign; the shirt is secondary."

The organization is trying to transition a state campaign to a national campaign without a budget. "That's not easy to do," Ragbourn said. "We're pleased that it's working. We're just gonna keep doing what we're doing."