I have a beautiful photograph of my great-grandfather Jonathan Edmund Browning working on a model of a gun designed by his brother John Moses Browning, one of many models John built for submission to the U.S. Patent Office in the process of patenting the Browning designs. The craft and the genius behind those designs have been justly celebrated for more than a century.

Today, in a world where random gun violence destroys so many young lives, shatters so many families, blasts the hopes of millions through the assassination and disabling of inspired leaders, it is stunning to learn that adults — let alone elected legislators — would seriously propose the glorification of firearms by designating an “official state firearm.”

However brilliantly designed, however effectively the Browning M1911 has performed its role, those thoughtful men who designed and built that and so many other fine guns, as tools to be respectfully deployed by hunters and soldiers in military operations, would be shocked.

It is no honor to the Browning achievement to exploit it in a crassly political gesture at the very moment when the dreadful abuse of firearms has so tarnished that achievement.

Robert Pack Browning

Berkeley, Calif.

RELATED ARTICLESMORE FROM AUTHOR

15 COMMENTS

  2. I think dear ole JMB would be turning over in his grave if he ever heard what his wussy grandson thinks about guns (this kid must have been adopted).

  4. Berkeley? Figures. It’s the only city in the world, to my knowledge, that ever had a billboard advertising the virtues of colonic irrigation.

  5. So? I have it on good authority that John Moses Browning’s nephew’s stepson’s landscaper’s daughter thinks it’s a great idea.

  6. Whats he bitchin’ about? Didn’t that cornflake in Arizona use a Glock? Ol’ Robert Pack surely didn’t aquire any of the good Browning genes.. Berkeley…WTF???

  7. My question is why we don’t have a state gun in Arizona. Seriously. Something like a Model 1894, or a coach gun. Any suggestions?

  8. Dear Robert Pack Browning,

    It is a good thing that your great grandfather is not alive to see that you are his great grandson. Even though you are entitled to your opinion, invoking the Browning name does not make you an expert on what a man you have never met would have thought about the proposed Utah State Gun. Please go back to your home and never speak to us again.

    Sincerely,
    All real Americans

  9. As big a pimp as I am of AR’s I think the official state firearm of ND would end up being one of these two: Remington 870(pheasants) or a Remington 700 chambered in .270 or 30-06(deer & antelope). I know the 2A ain’t about huntin’, but to a lot of people up here it is and that’s why I picked those two firearms.

  11. If John Moses Browning were alive today, he wouldn’t think much of the state firearm deal — that’s pretty clear. And he would especially despise the ridiculous phrase, ‘in the name of John Moses Browning.”

  13. The Winchester Mystery House was built as a result of the widow fearing the ghosts of those killed by the namesake rifle.

    Perhaps RP Browning can build something wacky in Berkely as his legacy.

Comments are closed.