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“Well, you know, some people get toys and stuff like that for Christmas. Other people, when I was growing up, I got guns from Santa Claus. I mean, it’s just a matter of where you’re from.” – Steve Dyke in Billboard for Butte County Gun Range Shows Santa Holding Gun [at sacramento.cbslocal.com]

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50 COMMENTS

  1. And there is supposed to be something wrong with this?

    My kids all have gotten guns for Christmas…. If Santa wants to bring my a new shooting stick, he may do so at my invitation and pleasure 🙂

  2. I tried for an AR this year, because even at 30 my folks insist on a huge Christmas.

    Unfortunately, the only “gun shop” they’re aware of is Dick’s…..

    • Dick’s no longer carries ARs, they moved them all to their outdoor sports store, whatever they call it.
      Try Academy if you have one nearby, best prices around, better than Bass Pro.

  3. My wife gave me an early Christmas present this year — a Sig Sauer p320. It sits by my last birthday present — Sig Sauer 229. These special days are a great time to show your loved ones you care enough to give them the means to better protect themselves.

  4. Two things:

    1. It’s “ARs” not “AR’s”

    2. I have seen that Santa photo a LOT this Christmas. I’m guessing some photographer is missing out on some royalties.

      • I assume the style guide would actually indicate to use the proper name of the product, i.e. AR-15. In which case, the correct formation would be “AR-15s”.

        Any style guide that indicates the use of an apostrophe to indicate a plural noun is wrong.

        • The one I’m thinking of, specifically, is the NYT guide.

          Of course, I’ve never actually accused the Times of being right.

      • The apostrophe is wrong in this instance. It’s a commonly perpetrated mistake. The correct spelling is ARs, not AR’s, and style guides have no bearing here. It is about the proper usage of the English language, which in this time of The Internet could be considered analogous to the proper usage of firearms. Both are dangerous in negligent, incompetent hands.

        • Except the “proper” use of the English language has changed significantly over the last several millenia.

          There are several grammarians that would suggest using an apostrophe at ALL times when using abbreviations and acronyms.

          Research before claiming incompetence is a good thing.

    • Normally, an apostrophy will indicate possession or contraction. Whether it may combine with an “s” to form a plural is an evolving standard and both with and without are generally considered correct. Foregoing the apostrophy has been trending for maybe several decades now. So which approach one takes has less to do to with which is correct and more to do with when one learned grammar. If you learned it in the 1960s, you would write it as “1960’s.”

      The non-apostrophy version appears to have the momemtum, though, and ARs would strike younger readers as correct. This isn’t to suggest that use of the apostrophy in plurals is old-fashioned or outdated, just that English is an evolving language and there are opposing schools of thought on this point at the moment.

      The exception, which hasn’t changed, pertains to single letters and numbers, where you still use the apostrophy to create the plural. You would write “His sloppy handwriting makes his r’s look like n’s and his 6’s look like b’s”, for example.

      • You’re a hundred percent correct, either than one teeny-tiny detail. It’s spelled “apostrophe.”

        • And Larry? For piling on for no good reason other than you saw a chance to do so, over a fat fingers cell phone flub, prepare to have your lame ass comments eviscerated mercilessly going forward.

        • That’s your big time fail “gotcha” on me? A misspelled word? I give a lengthy explanation on a finer point of English grammar, while you sit your no talent ass on the sidelines, as per usual, with nothing interesting or material to say, then pounce on the slightest of details?

          I’ll cop to my inattention to detail. Yes, I know it’s “apostrophe.” I screwed it up while typing while grocery shopping and discussing something else, while commenting. I flat out neglected to proofread. Mea culpa. Seriously, though, THAT’S the best you can pin me down on? After lo these many months, nay, years on TTAG? Wow. Just wow. Come back when your balls drop, boys.

      • Folks, please ease up on him. I know I often disagree with J-H but this time he got all his facts right except one. (It just so happened to be a rather visible one.) You don’t need to know how to spell “apostrophe” to use one.

        • Oh, yeah.

          Just ask them…

          Lots more than a knuckle-dragging mouth-breathing wife-beating toothless inbred hick dumbsh!t like you and me…

          (And that’s our better side, mind you.)

      • No apology needed. I usually like it when these grammar debates break out. They remind me that even in these dark days some people still care about getting things right.

        I’ll add my bit to it: if the plural S could be mistaken for part of the acronym, then you need the apostrophe. When you’re talking PhD’s or XDm’s, for instance, that little mark does yeoman’s work.

  6. Last Christmas my wife got me an M1 Garand. This year its baby brother an M1 Carbine. I love guns for Christmas!

  7. Baby Jesus with a baby Glock? That may be somewhat offensive, I have never seen a product Santa isn’t willing to hock.

  8. Yep. Santa bought me my first .22lr pump action rifle when I was eleven old. I was able to keep it in my closet and take out to shoot any time I wanted without parent permission.

    In California, In Santa Cruz, in Liberal Land.

    How times change, in this case, not for the better.

    • I got a Daisy 1894 for Christmas when I was eight. Best Present Ever! In NJ! Yeah, it was a LONG time ago.
      I shot it inside (50′ basement) and outside (3/4 acre), until I wore it out, sent it back to Daisy, they sent me another for no charge (THANK YOU to the guy in Rogers, AR that did that!). I wore that one out too, plus many more on my road to being a “PTOG”.

    • As noted by Erik, this was in California. Northern California to be exact.
      So why is some reporter hyperventilating over this? Despite the fact that we have some of the most draconian gun laws in the nation, as soon as you leave the liberal utopias of the Bay Area, or brainless Los Angeles, you might as well be in Nevada or Utah. It is like a whole different state really. Sadly our bid to break up California didn’t move forward, as we were only a few votes shy.. Maybe someday…

      • My former boss is from nor cal. Says the only thing he misses are the weather and outdoors activities. He couldn’t be more different from the LA and Bay Area transplants I have met.

      • Because he is from Sacramento, that’s why. Although Sacramento County is “shall issue”, the newspapers (and the Legislature) are dominated by liberals. Butte County and the surrounding areas are quite red, even Chico, notwithstanding the CalState campus and all the professors who live there. Beyond Chico and Redding, everything is grassland, farm land, orchards and mountains with not a whole lot of people residing there.

  11. I really doubt that; compare and contrast Connecticut, Vermont, New York and Illinois. Or California and Georgia, or Kansas and North Carolina. Florida and Hawaii, anyone?

    Nah; it’s not so simple.

  12. There are boxes under my tree that look a lot like a pair of LC9s with lasers. I think my wife assisted Santa to get them here early. There’s also a box which once held a Tac-Con trigger, we’ll have to discover where it is now.

  13. I’m not a fan in general of the crass commercialism of Christmas, but I do like the sense of wonder and whimsy that sometimes comes with it. Santa packing heat is as much a part of that as are the red nose and antlers that adorn my truck throughout December.

    I don’t have a problem with this sign. If someone else does, then perhaps they should pour a glass of that special egg nog we got at Sam’s Club, practice a little goodwill toward man (or woman, as the case may be), and just get over it.

  15. Talking about upsetting people by being non-PC, I thought I would add to that and wish everyone a Merry Christmas and have a happy new year.

  16. People often think that if you’re from California then you must be some liberal wuss from LA or the Bay Area. In fact though the rural areas of this state are just as gun-loving as Texas. Shame though that the Bay Area parasites are in charge :(.

  17. Hm…I’d have thought that Santa would’ve been armed with something of European origin…something along the lines of a SIG 550… well you learn something every day.

  18. The NFA up here in Canada put out a Christmas card of Santa handing a kid an AR15 with the caption “Don’t shoot your eye out” and the tagline “no ho ho compromise”. Oooh boy did that put a bee under the libs bonnet, two Liberal MPs wrote the public safety minister trying to get a condemnation of the card, thankfully Blaney knows what’s up, and he didn’t.

    Here’s a link if you want to see it for yourself, spread the Christmas cheer, piss off a liberal:
    https://www.facebook.com/NFACANADA/photos/a.347336092001160.74391.347295135338589/713448648723234/?type=1

  20. By the by, this story made it to the NBC News web site this morning. with a headline stating that the billboard “draws fire.” The video itself does not support the headline.

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