An editorial in sltrib.com gets all wimpy about the proposal to name John Moses Browning’s 1911 as Utah’s state gun, despite being the birthplace of the world’s greatest firearms designer. “Naming a state gun is problematic because a gun is, after all, a killing tool. It’s not like honoring the state flower, state bird, or even the state dinosaur, which happens to be a rather nasty carnivore. A gun necessarily carries the connotation of violent death, not the sort of thing Utah would want to appear to celebrate.” You see what happened there? The editorial writer knew the state’s dinosaur, the Utahraptor, eviscerated his argument. And yet he plowed on in that don’t confuse-me-with-logic way that anti-gunners do. After a little JMB ass-kissing, he concludes . . .

But instead of naming a state gun, why not honor Browning with a statue at the State Capitol?

Utah already has an outstanding, though modest, state museum devoted to Browning and his firearms at Union Station in Ogden. If you’re interested in firearms and haven’t seen it, you should check it out. It’s wonderful.

Still, naming a state gun would be a public relations misfire.

A PR misfire to whom? Man up dude. Go fire a few rounds from a .45 or something. Jeez.

RELATED ARTICLESMORE FROM AUTHOR

5 COMMENTS

  1. This overly-sensitive columnist is several decades too late, because Utah already has a Browning-designed ‘State Gun’ in the Winchester model of 1894. State law designates the 1894 as the only weapon allowed to be used by state prison firing squads.

  3. The only kind of people who would be offended by this already regard Utah as a state filled with racist, homophobic Mormons who keep their 15 wives barefoot and pregnant at all times, so I don’t see the “PR Misfire” possibility as being a valid concern. And the mountain bikers and 4 wheelers are going to come to Moab as long as there are places for them to ride, they couldn’t care less about what happens in SLC.

  4. The 1911 is a tool..A tool of protecting freedom across the globe..Think WWII, you think of the 1911….and the M1..but yes a tool of freedom!

  5. John Browning s 1911 has been saving lives since its inception from soldiers to civilians you can’t fault the gun because it can be used for evil anymore then you fault an automobile for those who driver drunk

Comments are closed.