HOUSTON - A Texas real estate
agent looking to add more bang to her business is offering clients in law
enforcement a free Glock pistol if they buy a home from her.
 A man walks by the Glock handgun billboard at the 132nd
Annual National Rifle Association Meeting in Orlando, in this April 27,
2003 file photo. A Texas real estate agent looking to add more bang to her
business is offering clients in law enforcement a free Glock pistol if
they buy a home from her. [Reuters]

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Julie Upton, a Houston-area
real estate agent, spurned traditional buyer incentives like free gasoline cards
or home improvement store gift certificates.
Instead, she placed an advertisement offering a pistol with the purchase of
any home worth at least $150,000 in the city police department's monthly
publication, "Badge & Gun."
The free guns are only for those in law enforcement, said Upton, who is
married to a police officer.
"We thought it would be a good way to entice other police officers," Upton
said. "And whether people want the gun or not, it has stirred up a lot of
attention."
Upton has given away two pistols to police officers who purchased homes from
her. The guns cost about $500.
And so far the advertisement has not generated negative attention from the
anti-gun lobby, she said.
In Texas, no license is required to own a rifle, shotgun or handgun, but a
permit is needed to carry a concealed weapon, according to the National Rifle
Association.