What if Colt made a big show of offering Senator Obama a custom engraved 1911 to celebrate Heller? If he accepts it, his base is up in arms, no pun intended. If he declines it, well, let's just say that 5-4 vote will look a little more frightening to everyone not in his base. Seem like a win-win to me.
DOWNDATE: An Instalanche! Thank you, sir. One subsequent thought -- I know this is a cheap theatrical stunt, but isn't that basically what the presidential campaigns are made of these days?
A Barrett .50 would be too easy to turn down or ignore, I guess.
Awesome idea, though.
Posted by: Scott at 09:44 PMGreat idea - suggest it to Mr. Barrett, I would be surprised if he didn't go for it.
Posted by: Fidel, MD at 01:48 PMGreat idea.
To keep it from looking like a stunt, they ought to offer one to McCain as well.
Posted by: Clint at 02:07 PMThis is priceless. One step further -- make it a quadrennial tradition. After all, we pardon a turkey every Thanksgiving. Why shouldn't Colt (or the NRA, or someone else with a little gravitas) put on a show that actually means something?
Posted by: CaptainVictory at 02:58 PMGreat idea, but Colt is too PC. Springfield Armory, Kimber, Les Baer all make great 1911s and might step up and do this.
Posted by: Scott at 03:12 PMColt would make more sense than any other manufacturer. An engraved Colt (or a set) was one of Sam Colt's favorite presentation gifts to politicos and magnates of all sorts. In fact at one time it was very difficult to get a plain old Colt if you were a famous person - the factory would fill the order with a fancy engraved gun as a matter of routine.
Posted by: tom swift at 03:55 PMDefinitely make it a Springfield Armory .45, that way it can be tied into JFK's commemorative National Match Garand.
Yeah, I know, two different entities. But would Obama know that? :)
Posted by: Exurbankevin at 04:04 PMHappy Insta-lanche.
I congratulate and commend you on your marvelous idea. But wait. Doesn't Effendi Obama live in Chicago? Doesn't Chicago have some kind of D.C.-type gun law which would keep him from being able to own that Colt?
Of course he could always go to court to assert the right he now says ne believes in. It just gets better and better.
Posted by: Lou Gots at 05:25 PMLou,
You forget that in Chicago, only the little people obey the gun laws.
Posted by: ExurbanKevin at 05:40 PMi'll second the belief that colt wouldn't ever go for this, but that barrett or a smaller manufacturer would go for it.
colt sucks off the DOD teat and i doubt they care about civilian sales; they'd be much more concerned about what a stunt like this would do to their contracts.
Posted by: sigstoat at 07:05 PMSTI.
They, like Barrett, decline to sell to California due to their restrictive laws.
They'd make a great vehicle for this one.
Great idea. How about a Browning High Power? They could also give him a shotgun and invite him to go hunting. He needs the votes from red state, redneck, gun owning rednecks like me.
I want to see Obo borrow John Kerry's LL Bean hunting clothes and go duck hunting with VP Cheney and Justice Scalia.
Posted by: T Wendell at 07:45 PMHe can not have a gun in the Windy plus he did dope so he could not fill out the ATF form with a straight face?
Posted by: JR at 08:38 PMThe idea is great, but let's get serious about the choice of gun to be presented.
While the 1911 or the Colt SAA are the all around sentimental favorites, their historic and classic status might render them, oddly enough, acceptable while being wrapped in meaningless liguistic gobbeldygook about military heritage, historic significance and the like.
No, what's needed is an Evil, High-Capacity Magazine in a Compact, Easily Concelable package, featuring also Tritrium Night Sights, and of course, a (supposedly) X-ray proof Polymer Frame
All suitably engraved on the slide, course.
Something a gunnie might love, and which represents everything that the Aunties love to hate about pistols, and handguns in general.
Hmmm....maybe toss in a nice concealment holster and a box of Hornady TAP ammo.
*chortle!*
Jim
Sloop New Dawn
Galveston, TX
Would you like to toss in a Bible and a bag of Fried Pork Rinds and make it a meal?
Posted by: Uncle Ralph at 10:41 PMAin't gonna happen. Colt is deeply invested in Obama and the Democrats. They have spent a lot of money on Jack Murtha (which has not only led to sole-source earmarks for US weapons, but a sole-source contract for M16s and M4s for the Iraqis that the Iraqis don't even want (they're going into warehouses and gathering dust).
Colt had to do it as its weapons lose head-to-head against competitors like FN. Right now, the Army has no problem with M16s (mostly FN made in the USA) but reliability, durability and build quality issues with M4 and M4A1 carbines (sole-sourced to Colt... thank you Murtha).
As his donors know, a dollar slipped to Mad Jack comes back a thousandfold. That's how he's become a multimillionaire on the merely upper-middle-class salary of a Congressman.
Colt's new lobbyist is one of Obama's generals -- or whatever the gelding version of a general is. Colt is not now, and was not ever, on the side of 2nd Amendment activists. It wants to sell big batches of arms to governments and disdains the individual consumer.
Posted by: Kevin R.C. O'Brien at 12:02 AMMake it an M4 and invite the candidates to a BBQ and target shoot at the factory; hang out with real live blue-collar types and take part in a great American tradition.
Watch Obambi make a fool of himself trying to operate his rifle while McCain announces that perhaps the prospective DFL CinC should know more about such things.
Posted by: BrainTown at 02:32 AMI like the idea of companion gifts.
Especially if the Obama version came disassembled, with a trigger-lock, and in a secured case, while McCain's came locked-and-loaded.
Posted by: Ymal Brucker at 08:02 AMHe couldn't accept it unless they give him a month or two to apply for and receive an Illinois Firearm Owners I.D. card. But then I'm assuming he doesn't already have one.
Posted by: mike at 10:01 AM