I must be getting old. While the Miss America pageant’s swimsuit competition was all well and good, I couldn’t wait for the Q&A session. That’s where the contest gets real – in a fake sort of way. At least that’s how it used to be when the words “world peace” were never far from a contestant’s lips, even when the question was about cheating in the NFL. OK, Deflategate was a modern question. And so was “Do you support a ban of military-style (as opposed to Ferragamo-style) assault weapons?” Playing beat the, uh, clock, Miss South Carolina’s answer lacked a certain je ne sais quoi . . .

I don’t, but I think it’s because we need to increase education. We have to go back there (?) and teach people proper way to use guns reduce the risk of having gun-related, um, gun-related accidents. It starts with education.

Great landing, wrong airport. Firearms education is all well and good, but it’s no reason to oppose an “assault weapons” ban. A better reason would be a ban violates Americans’ right to keep and bear arms. But that’s easy for me to say when I haven’t paraded my ass all over national TV wearing heels so high they have their own weather system.

[h/t Alex]

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52 COMMENTS

  1. The correct answer: First, please define “military-style assault weapon”. Second, why are we talking about a ban on a sub-type of rifles, but not talking about a ban on hammers or baseball bats?.

    • Alternative correct answer:
      No I don’t support such a ban. Murder, assault, rape, etc. should be banned, not the tools innocent people use to defend themselves from being murdered, assaulted, raped… oh wait, those things ARE already against the law.

  2. A little harsh? It’s a much better answer than any cookie cutter answer all the other contestants share. She could have easily meant education such as NSSF or Eddie Eagle.

    You won’t find many people preaching the Constitution on this type of stage.

    • I agree not the answer I truly wanted to hear, but let’s get real, we need more support like this. Especially when it comes from a young gorgeous woman.

    • A niggling criticism. Give the young lady a break. These contestants often flub the answer; she was in the ball-park.

      So, the question was aspect A about guns and she answered about B aspect about guns. Maybe she thought that if the question was about guns then the first thing to consider whether aspect A was important-enough to consider; perhaps she thought aspect B was more important. And so, she addressed aspect B.

      Have you ever seen a professional politician use such a tactic when being questioned by the press or a panel? When the politician uses it it’s called staying on-message; the message the answer-giver wants to advance. Maybe this young lady decided that she wanted to address training-to-arms as more important than firearm cosmetology.

      • Word. She did pretty well for being on the spot. RF runs a gun blog, and she runs on a treadmill, and looks damn good for doing so.

        Meanwhile I’m out on a nature hike with my 226.

      • Agreed. I got the feeling the questioner was peeved she answered no, and did such a good job off the cuff, considering the typical air-headed “world peace” answer the progtards preach and expect regurgitated on command.

    • Yeah, I’m all about a good fudd-pariahing or snarkng on the anti-gunners. I love the torches and pitchforks, but this is harsh, and undeserved, and counterproductive.

      She doesn’t owe it to the pro-gun community to toe the GOA line and say nothing else. She’s not a leader in the movement or part of the industry… that I know of. The fact is she broke pro-gun without flinching. Good for her. I for one am thankful for her open-mindedness and resolve and impressed by it.

  3. sorry but im clueless how they are choosing the winners now. is this the PC judging crew. she was no way the most beautiful, not the smartest or the most talented…… anyone got any ideas.. hmmm.

    • Judging from the headlines I saw yesterday, Miss SC lost, in part because she said this instead of some variation of “ban them all!”

  4. The young lady took a stand and didn’t cave in to what looks like a litmus test question. I think she gave a good answer considering the circumstances.

  5. Wow, a Miss America finalist is asked about gun-control and responds with a “no” and then encourages education … and gun rights groups get upset b/c she wasn’t even more supportive??

    Her answer wasn’t perfect, but most of them aren’t. Maybe you don’t think she hit the bullseye but IMO that answer was definitely in the right area.

  6. That was a decent answer. I don’t know how well I would do on the national stage with cameras pointed at me from all directions. Plus she wasn’t there to defend the 2a, she was there to win a beauty contest. ..

  7. The mind does get discombobulated under pressure, while in front of thousands of people, like a deer in the headlights.
    That her instinctive response was no says enough, fumbling to justify her response is to be expected under the circumstances

  8. While I’m sure we would have loved for all of those beauties to say, “Absolutely. As an American citizen, it violates my natural, civil and Constitutionally-protect right to keep and bear the best tools available for defense of myself and others against the tyranny of government and crime.” her answer was still pro-rights. Was it somewhat weak tea? Sure. But it was still a vote for our side. Was it a political answer? Of course. Neither too hot, nor too cold. Props to her for it.

  9. OK, joining the growing consensus here–hell, guys, she said she doesn’t support a ban and she thinks people should know more about guns and how to handle them. Come to think of it, if people knew more about guns they wouldn’t be bandying meaningless terms like “military-style assault weapons” about, would they? For a generally hopelessly PC event like the pageant (well, considering it features pretty women being showcased in revealing clothes) I think she did just fine by us.

    • If your not willing to strip naked to reveal your NRA, 2A and complete Bill of Rights tattoos while flawlessly reciting the “natural, civil and Constitutionally protected” line your against us, simple as.

      I like my lines hard and completely free from any possible gray areas. If there is any fluffing of the line or an illegible part of the tats, then as far as I’m concerned your a Bloomberg puppet.

      I could just take it as a show of support and put the rest down to the pressure of being on a world stage during what is probably the culmination of years of work, sacrifice and pressure with no childhood to speak of to get to where she is. Winning quite possibly guaranteeing a comfortable if not privileged life, losing meaning it was mostly a waste. Not my style though.

    • Considering that she wasn’t ‘prepped’ for such a ‘PC’ question, I think she did damn good!

      Remember this from ‘Miss Congeniality’ (2000)?

      Stan Fields: What is the one most important thing our society needs?

      Gracie Hart: That would be harsher punishment for parole violators, Stan.

      [crowd is silent]

      Gracie Hart: And world peace!

      [crowd cheers ecstatically]

      Stan Fields: Thank you, Gracie Lou.

      Gracie Hart: And thank *you*, Stan.

  10. She was clearly nervous because she knows her answer will eliminate her. (Carrie Prejean, anyone?) But she stuck to her principles and gave as diplomatic an answer as twenty seconds allowed.

    TTAG, she deserves a gun hero of the day award.

  11. Yeah, what everyone else said.

    She started her response with “No” holy hell what more do you want? This was obviously meant to be a “softball” type question for a contestant to give a well prepared talking point list courtesy of your Bloomberg funded group of choice. Instead what we got was an off the cuff response where she answered honestly, but realized she needed to appeal to the judges hence the emphasis on education. And for the record when has education about firearms been a bad thing?! Sounds like a great starting point to me.
    Gun Demystification = Plummeting Gun Control Support

    If we (PoTG) were smart someone at the NRA would sign her to a contract to appear on one of their women focused web series.

    Just sayin…

  12. I’m actually really disappointed TTAG isn’t supporting her more. Like I said in my earlier post the answer listed in RF’s post in the proper one. However I’m certainly glad she gave the answer she did.

  13. Any landing is a good one regardless of airport. Gonna go with the crew and relay deserves Gun Hero of the Day.

  15. I thought her answer was sufficient. She didn’t go the opposite way and say it’s for the childrens.

  16. I think TTAG is totally wrong this time. Given the time constraints and the idiots she knew who were judging an watching, she gave a good and simple answer. TTAG sounds like it would complain about the color if they were given a new truck.

  18. Everyone does recognize that a young, attractive, intelligent black woman just got on national TV and said she does not support an assault weapons ban, right?
    That is a very good thing for this country.

  19. The look on the hosts and question asking commie were priceless after her answer! Cut her some slack. She did pretty good with the time she had and little preperation.

  20. From the Miss Teen America Pageant 2007:

    Q: “Recent polls have shown a fifth of Americans can’t locate the U.S. on a world map. Why do you think this is?”

    A: I personally believe that U.S. Americans are unable to do so because, uh, some, uh, people out there in our nation don’t have maps and, uh, I believe that our education like such as in South Africa and, uh, the Iraq, everywhere like such as, and, I believe that they should, our education over here in the U.S. should help the U.S., uh, or, uh, should help South Africa and should help the Iraq and the Asian countries, so we will be able to build up our future.

    — Caitlin Upton, Miss Teen South Carolina

    Now that’s a direct, clear answer, unlike what Daja Dial said.

  21. I call her answer better than the suggested one, for a simple reason: she gave a “No” and hooked it to something everyone is supposed to support. For safety in just about everything under the sun, it’s hard to find anyone who won’t agree that education will increase safety. So by connecting that “No” to something people already know is a good thing, she gave an avenue many can follow to agreement — whereas if she’d talked about rights, minds would have shut down.

    Definitely deserves a GHotD award!

  22. Give the girl a break! She doesn’t want to ban a particular type of firearm and she correctly advises that people learn how to handle firearms properly. Be grateful she didn’t utter some claptrap that making them illegal would end violent crime.

  23. I’ll just quickly and concisely pile on TTAG: an imperfect answer on her part, but started with a nice “I don’t”, so I’m ok with the shaky rest.

  24. I give her a thumbs up. I also believe that most “assault” rifles are not assault rifles at all! Unless they are capable of full automatic fire.
    However, this is a beauty contest, not federal grand jury session. She had no time to come up with well thought out technical answer.

  25. She lost BECAUSE of her answer-EZ winner in a sea of cookie cutter white girlz. I like to see what all of us would say in 20 seconds or less-surprised she didn’t get the Black lives splatter BS ?…GUN heroine of the day-WAY off base here RF…

    • Agreed. As a regular TTAG writer I demand an interview with this young lady to set the record straight. Maybe over dinner and drinks…a little dancing, then maybe coffee in the morning if the interview goes well.
      I know, I know. But don’t call me a hero. Somebody has got to do it.

  26. Good for her. Was it the most elegant answer in history? No. Was it honest and positive? Yes.

    All I want to know now is how she likes her eggs in the morning.

  27. As a resident of SC please allow me to apologize for the beauty pageant contestant who represented my state for not offering a 15 minute diatribe worth of TTAG.

    Good Lord, talk about eating your own. There was a right way and a wrong way to cover this, and this was the latter. I think she deserves an award for seeing the futility and errors in an AWB.

    This is like Monday morning quarterbacking when your team won. This is being a grammar Nazi when someone says something you agree with. This is stupid.

  30. Robert I agree with one thing you said – yes you must be getting old.

    48 – care to reply to the angry masses?

  31. The 2nd Amendment was put into the Constitution so the people could protect themselves from a corrupt government. That is why it says “shall not infringe” so we can have what the government has to prevent a Holocaust. I believe the people should have what the government has including machine guns. The only gun control law there should be is that criminals can’t have any firearms. Thanks for your vote, pass the word mrpresident2016.com

  32. She is black an from South Carolina
    Wasn’t there a shooting there recently?
    I commend her, an think she had the best answer from the group. Sorry she lost…

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