Screen Shot 2014-02-10 at 7.31.47 AM

According to 12 News an unnamed man was cited by Beaumont, Texas police on Saturday while standing in front of a gun store and wearing a banana suit…with an AK slung across his back. Nothing to see here, officers: the man was working for the store’s owner. Notice I said cited, not arrested: the man was also waving a placard with an arrow, directing customers to the ‘Grand Re-Opening’ sale for the Golden Triangle Tactical store. This open display of commerce apparently violates a Beaumont municipal ordinance, which bans soliciting business while on or alongside a roadway . . .

The tropical fruit hawker was also questioned about his rifle (duh), which was equipped with a 50-round drum magazine. The rifle was eventually returned to him, but the matter was referred to the DA’s office for possible charges.

Let me pose this question: is this an IGOTD, a political statement, or just a slightly goofy marketing campaign? Beaumont apparently doesn’t have any Liberty Tax Service outlets, or similar businesses.

I was going to go with ‘slightly goofy’ myself, but this story goes a little deeper than Saturday’s spectacle. Remember that just last month, Golden Triangle Tactical left its prior digs at Parkdale Mall, after owner Derek Poe was charged with disorderly conduct for slinging a rifle across his back as he walked to his own store.

If this is a political statement by Poe, this might be just the time to make it. Republican Greg Abbott is the odds-on favorite to be the next governor of the Lone Star State according to Real Clear Politics, and he’s already voiced his support for repealing Texas’ ban on the open carry of handguns. And gee, even Democrat Wendy Davis has jumped on board the open carry bandwagon. If open carry is ultimately enacted in the Lone Star State, the next civil rights issue to address may be legalizing human tree fruits.

RELATED ARTICLESMORE FROM AUTHOR

73 COMMENTS

  3. I think it’s probably best chalked up to slightly goofy, that or he was late for peanut butter/jelly time….

    • I thought peanut butter/jelly time involved baseball bats, not firearms. Did I miss a memo or something ? Because I’m all for peanut butter/jelly time with an AK-47.

  5. Daniel tosh posed the question on his show a few years back.

    Knife or banana? Which will you choose?

    Banana in this case.

    Lame pun ahead: I see why they have him back his gun, he wasn’t stalking anyone.

  8. As a regular TTAG commenter and Libertarian, I’d like to point out that Kathie Glass is also a candidate for Texas Governor. There are options, folks.

    (cue all the don’t waste your vote hate, in 3…2…1…)

    • How about taking over the Republican party from the inside out instead? Less likely to get anti-gun folks elected that way.

    • Let the Libertarian Party build itself up at the local level first. As long as they keep going for big offices they’re never going to get, to the detriment of building a legitimate grass roots party with consistent, actual electoral successes, people will forever regard them as kooks and vanity candidacies and not take them seriously.

      The LP has been around since the early 1970’s and hasn’t done squat. The Tea Party, which isn’t even a real party, has accomplished more in four years that the LP has in forty. Peel away the druggies and the too-cool-for-school libertarian know-it-alls, and the LP’s raison detre shrinks to near vanishing.

      So, yeah, throw away your vote. It’s not hate, it’s just reality.

        • Yeah, well, some are worse than others, I’ll agree. I’m currently funding five different upstart candidates against inveterate, defeatist Republicans. Try to remember that one of the penalties for refusing to participate in politics (in a meaningful, impactful way, let’s say), is that you end up being ruled by your inferiors.

        • “My conscience is not for sale to some compromising Republican asshole.”

          +∞ Me, Too!

          (but please refrain from insulting the human anus by comparing it to a politician!)

        • If you can’t live with Cruz and Lee you’re not going to be happy with anything/anyone.

          Tea Party is a movement or idea not a political party. 2014 is going to be bigger than 2008 in throwing out dems and Rinos. Are you going to be part of the solution or going to sit on the bench (smoking a joint) and pouting?

          • “If you can’t live with Cruz and Lee you’re not going to be happy with anything/anyone. ”

            I didn’t name anyone, did not speak to any individual would-be candidates. I prefer to wait until I’m at the bridge before attempting to cross.

          • Hey! Don’t use smoking pot as some kind of insult! Some of us potheads are pretty clever, you know, and after all, what does the 2nd Amendment secure your power to protect? Freedom, right? Nobody’s Free until Everybody’s Free!

            Well, that’s a little extreme, but after all, I am the Radical Libertarian Loon – I believe that the Constitution means exactly what it says and I’m exhorting people to sign my guestbook.

            If I can get 67,000,000 people to write-in my name, we can do it! 😀

        • “If you don’t take care of politics, politics will soon take care of you.”

          You don’t sell your conscience when you vote. You pick the lesser of two evils. It has nothing at all to do with conscience. But, if you don’t vote and the greater of two evils keeps winning, you should feel guilty.

          • ” You pick the lesser of two evils.”

            The lesser of two evils is still evil. I don’t wanna show up at the Pearly Gates and see St. Peter looking in his Permanent Record and say, “Hmmmm. Says here that on [date], you voted for evil. ‘Bye!” BZZZZT!<trap door opens>

            • Rich,
              I hear what youre saying but sometimes you have to hold your nose and vote for the guy who will do the least damage. To many republicans stayed away from the poles and we got this idiot twice. The republican candidates bot sucked but not as bad as this guy does.

              • Unfortunately the 2 parties keep putting up totally worthless candidates that are basically the same. Example McCain-Obama no difference.
                However we knew what McCain stood for but people didn’t know shit about Obama.

              • That’s what I[m trying to tell you! vote against both of the crooks by writing me in. Go to my webpage, sign the guestbook, and when 67,000,000 people write me in, the Ministry of Truth won’t be able to ignore us! I’ve even got a drop down box so you can say how big a herd you’ll need to follow many people you want to sign up before you to convince you to cast a vote for Liberty and World peace once and for all!

  11. Crikey! Bananaman taken down by The Heavy Mob. Where was Chief O’Reilly while all this was happening?

    Fans of obscure English comic strips will get the references. Others will naturally assume that I have overdosed on Chunky Monkey.

    • Anyone wearing a banana suit needs to be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law!! Undoubted stolen from the THE BANANA SPLITS prop room…

      Remember that show? It was slightly hip.

      • Did the banana peel obscure his face; if it did he could have been suspected to be the notorious masked banana bandito from Columbia (or wherever else they grow bananas).

        At least none of the coppers slipped and fell during this impressive take-down.

  19. It was the giant Banana Clip he had on him that got him in trouble.

    Why is it that in every state the liberal politicians try to deprive us of our civil and Constitutional rights because idiots that live in the city can’t control themselves.

  23. I was just in Beaumont (and Orange) TX last week for business. The entire town is “alongside a roadway.” Seems like a carefully engineered ordinance.

    Any way, the continued harassment of open carriers doesn’t contribute to Texas’ seemingly undeserved reputation as a gun-friendly state. I really don’t understand why TX still carries that reputation.

  25. The E! True Hollywood story of bananas in pajamas… after the cancellation of the beloved children’s show the cast struggled for work one even taking an advertising job for Texas firearms store (gasp) where he was quickly frisked before being cited for a little known town ordinance against soliciting a business on or near a roadway.

  27. A subversive move to change The Republic of Texas into a Banana Republic? I wont argue ceramics.

  28. Just practicing “How to disarm someone armed with a piece of fruit”, or should it be “how to disarm an armed piece of fruit”

  30. This has to be a well thought out political statement…

    By dressing as a banana they couldn’t charge him with “carrying a firearm in a menacing manor” as Texas cops have previously done.

    They’d get laughed out of court if they tried to say that a man in a yellow banana suit was menacing. Maybe this will become the only way we can open carry long arms in the Lone Star State without fear of unconstitutional persecution.

  32. Someone who is walking around in a banana with an assault rifle should be observed and/or talked to to see if they’re going looney. But I don’t see a crime, except one of style.

    • Heard the cops said “Is that a banana in your pocket or are you glad to see us?”
      No actually in obamas gay America all of those cops couldn’t wait to feel up another guys banana in public.

Comments are closed.