The Brits are amused by a Missouri car dealership that is rewarding buyers with either a $250 gas card or a gun. According to owner Mark Muller, everyone chose the gun, "except one guy from Canada and one old guy." Muller, whose sales have quadrupled since the start of the offer, explains to the BBC: "We're just damn glad to live in a free country where you can have a gun if you want to." [BBC] (Thanks to Jodie!)
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Uh-oh, better not let Michael Moore find out about this. Otherwise, there will soon be a sequel to "Bowling for Columbine". Apparently, getting a free gun for opening a bank account was only the tip of the gun-toting iceberg. Now it's for buying a car. What's next on the NRA agenda, I wonder.
The gun is the smart choice. With the card you get $250 worth of gas. With the gun you get as much free gas as you want!
That town must have a car theft problem or something.
@Coles_Law: Ha, good point. You can kill two birds with one stone...or with your two new guns if you prefer. Get a new car and fill up your gun racks at the same time. What could be better? LOL!
But hey, I'm not gonna lie. I'd take the gun too. I would never go out and buy a gun myself, but if an establishment is going to give me one instead of a toaster or floor mats, I'll take it.
It's a political statement and a brilliant sales strategy. Anti-gun zealots are, of course, very concerned for several reasons.
1) it's legal to own a gas-guzzling car
2) it's legal to own one of those hideous, evil firearms as long as you pass a government-mandated background check
3) you cannot be a criminal and get a firearm (insert any figures from any scientific study showing the correlation of crime to local legality to own a firearm)
4) you must be a US citizen to get a firearm (insert any number of conversation-stopping terms here like racist, xenophobe, hate-monger, etc)
5) you cannot be the subject of a restraining order (see #3, above)
I can definitely see why they're pissed: somebody is simultaneously exercising their rights as US citizens but profiting by doing something completely overt and legal. Obviously, The People will go for the gas over the guns...
Right? Um, right?
Yeah, I'd prefer a Ruger LCP380 over the Kel-Tec anyway.
I love America.
I live in Missouri and I am proud of this! Wait, nope, I'm ashamed.
It's funny when stereotypes turn out to be true.
now if they were giving away Five seveNs...
we could have a special consumerist two for one deal!
I'd take the handgun. I already carry, but that'd be a decent backup for the glove compartment or console.
An interesting discussion of this took place on talksport yesterday around 11pm BST. The station called up the dealership and the presenter (RESPECT MP George Galloway) basically made a fool of the chap who answered the phone. I'm sure there's a recording of it somewhere.
I think we're disdainful rather than amused.
I'm so freaking proud to be living in Missouri!
What most of us foreigners find so odd isn't so much that Americans are "free" to own guns, but rather that they seem so damned obsessed with them.
@zentex: Hey hey hey! I have a Hi-Point C9 and it's reliable as all hell. I know people who have put 2000 rounds thru a Hi-Point and only had 5 or so misfires. Sure, they used to be bad, but they've been vastly improved.
Also, LIFETIME warranty. Problem? Ship it to Ohio and you get a new one. Also, they're made in the USA.
The problem isn't owning guns. How else are you going to fend of tyranny of a government? With paperclips and rubberbands and hoses?
The real problem here is that we don't really need people in the south really don't need to be armed.
@chewiemeat: With civilized discussion paired with reasonable voter turnout?
...oh wait, we're talking about america here. as you were.
Also, what you're not being told, is that this guy is related to the dumbshit "radio personality", Eric "Mancow" Muller. The owner Mark, is his older brother. Mancow has called him a few different times and had him on the radio and Mark is getting a total kick out of all the publicity he's got from it.
I think the point of this is, when we Missourians get upset, we had nothing to cling too. So we are not picking the gun for safety or for rights, but it's kind of like our Teddy Bears. We cling to them.
@snoop-blog: Eh. The two nice things about the Kel-Tecs (I have a PF-9) are that they're very small and that they're cheap. For all of what people demonize the dreaded "Saturday night special", inexpensive firearms simply mean that they're within everyone's means, not just the rich. And while mouse guns aren't exactly what you'd take to a tournament, a nice 1911-type won't exactly fit in a pants pocket.
@SMSDHubbard: Kel-Tec has the same policy. Actually, in my case, they shipped me a new part the same day, and the guys over at the local shooting range put it in for me for free.
Gotta love the USA. I think the Brits are pissed that we kicked their empire's butt twice in less than 50 years. Also if it wasn't for us they would have been creamed in WW I and WW II. Its called envy folks.
Gas card worth more. Besides, shooting is expensive hobby. used to do a box or two. Adds up.
I would take the gun hands down. And I pray to God I will never have to use one.
@mycroft2000: I find your statement amusing because it's always the British and other European papers that go into apoplectic fits over unusual publicity stunts such as this.
I always strikes me as funny when I watch British crime shows that everyone seems armed but the police. Armed crooks are shooting and the unarmed police are ducking. I know England has special police squads that are armed but I do wonder how the average UK beat cop gets anything accomplished without a weapon for protection and as an enforcement tool.
A couple of interesting perspectives:
Should British police carry guns?
Gun Control Myths: The Case of England
Disarm the Police
Britain's Gun-Control Folly
England and Gun Control --- Moral Decline of an Empire
This is a common practice in the south and probably midwest. A dealer close to my hometown in Arkansas regularly offered a 'promotion' giving away 12 gauge shotguns with the purchase of a new truck. GOD BLESS AMERICA!!! *removes tongue from cheek*
@mycroft2000:Well said. It's the gun-obsessed stereotype being fulfilled here that's amusing to us, not the gun ownership itself... Note that we don't have the same stories about Canadian gun owners.
@Lambasted: Just because you can't imagine how it's done, that doesn't mean that it's either impossible or undesirable. There are also specially-trained armed units if they're required, and even these can lead to horrible miscarriages of justice e.g. Jean Charles De Menendes. I'd hate to think what would happen if we start arming every redneck who wears a badge - I get the disastrous consequences of that from US crime shows btw...
Gun issues aside,
why would people willingly choose the "Free" item that is the option of LESS WORTH?
So strange.
@Lambasted: you know that the point of Bowling for Columbine wasn't entirely about simply owning guns. The movie proves that countries like Canada where most of the people there own guns (actually per-capita more than U.S.) they almost never have the type of gun violence as we do.
He really offered no explanation as to why that is.
Personally I'd rather the gas card.
@chewiemeat: Missouri is in the south? It's just west of Illinois and in the middle on my maps. Plus don't worry about giving guns away to people in the south, we already have them.
I'd choose the gun, simply because it's more fun than driving around. Besides, there's a range within walking distance from my house. :)
@weakdome:
The gun may have a dollar "cost" of less, however to them a value of more. To you it has less of a value. The gas will be used up with a few tanks and a couple of hundred miles. The gun will be possessed for possibly many years and will have a longer useful life.
@alice_bunnie: But could be purchased down the street for less. That's like saying irrational economies are rational; nobody denies that they exist, they just don't pretend they're intelligent.
The gas card could DOUBLE in value the way things are going. Think about it.
Jebus, I'm really sad I live in Missouri.
20 bucks says this dealership owner is from the Ozarks. You know -"Li'l Abner" country?
The value I was referring to was a perception. A consumable versus a keepsake.
And, the gas card will actually be going down in value because each day as the price of a gallon gas goes up you're getting less and less gas for the money.
the kel-tec 380 is a pussy gun. I can find them used for 50-60 bucks.