While other real estate agents are responding to the current buyers' market by offering extras like free appliances, televisions, or a weekend in a luxury hotel, one Texas agent is drumming up business by offering a free Glock pistol with any home purchase of at least $150,000 – if you're a police officer.

And Julie Upton, a Houston-area real estate agent, says her idea is working well. With the median single-family home in Houston selling for $146,000, Upton is targeting the center of the market.

(Story continues below)

"It's attracted a lot of attention," she said of her ads in Badge & Gun, the monthly publication of the Houston Police Officers' Union. Upton's husband has been a Houston police officer for 15 years.

She's already given away two Glock pistols.

"So (the ad) has already paid for itself," she told the Houston Chronicle.

For police officers, Glock offers its weapons at prices ranging from $450 to $550 on the company's website. Home buying cops who don't want another pistol receive a $500 American Express gift check from Upton.

Spokeswoman Franceska Perot of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms, said Upton's marketing scheme is perfectly legal as long as proper records are kept during the transfer.

"We don't want them falling into the wrong hands," she said

According to criminologist and researcher Gary Kleck, an estimated 2.5 million Americans use guns for defensive purposes each year, with one in six believing someone would have been dead if they had not resorted to their defensive use of firearms.

Special offers:

Why you should pack heat at church – New book tells of armed man who drove off terrorist attack

When it's time to shoot back – Get 'Armed Response,' the guide to firearms, self-defense

Perfect gift for pistol-packin' mama – 'Stayin' Alive' shows guns are indeed for girls

Related stories:

New use for schoolbooks: Stopping bullets

New Yorkers rally for 'illegal' guns

Clinton-era war on guns revealed

U.N. gun confab ends in frustration

The U.N.: Gunning for more power

NRA warns of U.N. gun control

Michael Douglas backs U.N. gun ban

Related commentary:

People power, not police power

Why citizens must own and carry firearms

Self-defense risky? Try the alternative

How often do Americans use guns for defensive purposes?