Speaking of Fruitcakes …
In Houston, Texas.
A guy named Derek Poe decides that a great way to advertise his business is to hire another guy to stand at a busy freeway intersection while dressed to get noticed and carrying a sample of the product.
Free enterprise and advertising. We love it.
Only problem was that the dress-up was a giant banana and the product was an AK-27.
They were stunned, stunned I tell you, that passing motorist were a bit frightened by this and that police were a tad upset, too, when they discovered that the attached drum magazine held 50 rounds of ammo.
It took me a few minutes to wonder what bananas had to do with gun owners. Oh yeah, I forgot, the gun alone is not near phallic enough.
Thanks to Cheryl and Jeanette for the head up.
You know, the Gun Nuts can argue all they want, but this kind of public, potentially dangerous stunt didn’t happen, prior to the advent of the fixation on assault rifles like AK-47’s and AR-15’s. Insert the word “tactical” into the conversation, and their brains revert to Neanderthal-era levels. Never, ever believe the propaganda about the type of firearm not making a huge difference: nobody’s running around in banana costumes—or elementary schools— with a Remington 700 bolt action like your Daddy used to hunt deer in the Hill Country.
1I think the banana is a reference to their mental state.
2This stunt was a major slip-up.
3Pardon the pun.
I so agree with SteveTheReturned and Mike.
I’m wondering how long this “open carry” thing will go on before there is tragedy. And how many tragedies will there have to be before we can put a stop to it?
4Love the pun, Maryelle.
Would it have made a difference if he dressed up as a nut?
5My son is still laughing. Something about how his dearly beloved late father taught him.
6Banana clip. Large capacity magazine for automatic weapons.
7“. . .the teen was cited for violating a city ordinance that prohibits soliciting in and alongside roadways.”
Well, I guess that solved that problem.
8Easy to see why this guy keeps “moving his business”, from one location to another.
One has to wonder if he’s smart enough to run a business at all.
As far as “the banana” thing is concerned. Somebody already has dibs on “the clown” thing, (which probably would have been more appropriate). JMHO.
9OldMayfly: Having thought it over for a while, I’m gravitating toward open carry. In fact, I don’t like “concealed carry” because with it, I don’t know where the idiots are, but if they *had* to have their guns in the open, we could see real fast where they are, who they are, and how ridiculous this whole Yosemite Sam thing has become.
Even better if they all wore banana suits…
10djw, you make a good point. One possible solution is to treat gun totin’ like smoking. It’s okay to do it at home, but it is rude in many public places.
When gun owners are forced to stand outside the back door in cold wet weather just to get their fix of gun totin’, maybe this hysteria will subside.
11I don’t think it’s happenstance that the open carry yahoos are almost uniformly white. I suspect, like Reagan all those years ago in CA, when black and Hispanic folks start wandering around with an assault rifle slung over their backs and flashing a holstered 9mm on their hips their tune will change…or a tragedy will ensue.
12And just to get thoroughly carried away on my previous point,
It’s not just second hand bullets we need protection from. What about bullet allergies. Consider the lengths that schools go to to protect kids with peanut allergies. Why can’t we get the same protection for those with bullet allergies. At least label the bullets so people who are allergic can avoid them.
13Holy gohmerts! Only 50 rounds in his clip? Medical tip of the day: switch to boxers for that low count.
Registered perverts are required by some local ordinances to remain 1 mile from school zones. How about a 5 mile perimeter for the potential gohmert assassins?
14I’m with djw. Ban concealed carry except for law enforcement and public safety. Require all other weapon bearers to have permits and to carry firearms of any kind in plain sight. As a private citizen, I am exercising my right NOT to carry a weapon and to be able to observe and avoid the vicinity of anyone who is. Why should my safety and life be imperiled by trusting that any armed person will not go bonkers and use a weapon in my presence?
15Great ideas in here. These are actually things that it would be cool for a legislator to show kids how to write a bill that would be introduced in their legislature. Kids could go watch at Legislature when it is introduced. They could do one or all of the ideas:
16Firearms in plain sight, with permit in wallet.
Registered gun carriers must stay at least 1-5 miles from all schools.
Bill protecting people from gun allergies.
Somebody on here must know how to write a bill to introduce to Legislature. How would you write that up? and would you mind us using it?
Marge Wood, the legislative answer is simple and ironic. We steal it from ALEC. Take one of their fruitcake laws, reverse the gohmerts in it and submit the polar opposite of the ALEC plan.
17Guns are a legitimate hobby, but like most hobbies there are places where the hobby doesn’t belong. Guns on private property, at target ranges, in hunting areas, etc. are a hobby. Guns worn in public to intimidate others are a threat, not a hobby.
18Open carry is a very, very bad idea. Anybody that can’t be satisfied with concealed carry, who feels compelled to strap on a weapon in plain sight, is signaling a mindset that’s moved from legitimate self-defense concerns to wishful thinking that a violent altercation will take place, with plenty of unhealthy public intimidation in the mix, as well. Like I say, it’s a very, very bad idea.
19I agree with SomedayGirl. It’ll be funny to see the types of legislation that will be written trying to limit carrying guns to white males only.
20Sorry, Steve, but in my mind physical danger trumps intimidation. If someone is carrying a lethal weapon near me, I want to know about it. Then at least I’ll have the chance to head the other direction.
21Molly Ivins recommended that gun toters be required to wear beanies with propellers. Not very 007 suave, but we’d know who was who.
22How about these gohmerts either prove they are psychologically fit to carry or they have copies of their permits nail gunned to their heads, front and back.
23JJ.
FTW! – You win the innertubes today for:
“It took me a few minutes to wonder what bananas had to do with gun owners. Oh yeah, I forgot, the gun alone is not near phallic enough.”
They really are “hung” up on their teenyweenies…
24Good help is hard to find. It was supposed to be a 30 round banana clip in the AK and the drum was to get people’s attention.
25The gun store owner wanted his employee to look ‘Less Alarming’ while carrying an AK47 http://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/banana-ak-47-less-alarming
26Good catch, Kyle! Imagine that, a gohmert carrying an AK47 is less threatening wearing a banana.
What the Gohmert? For real, whatever the clown suit, forget the weapon.
Can’t speak for everyone, but some gohmert strutting our streets carrying a weapon with no known purpose other than mass killing shouldn’t concern us?
Just a thought. but the 50 clip gohmerts and the beyond an elephant gohmerts need to be roundel up, administered psyche evals and shipped to an island of their own. Or, maybe Somalia or Iraq? Still plenty of room on the Bush/Cheney flight to Iraq.
27Is that an AK in your banana costume or are you just happy to see me!
28Kool, this is for you, Marge Wood. Even the crazy buttgun nuts are not as dangerous to us as the gohmert morons in Congress pushing the trap of TR – kiss and kill us away Trade Treaty, aka NAFTA on steroids.
What am I missing? Failed Trickle Down, endless wars, corporate welfare. So, according to the GOP, I should support snatching food from children to pay for failed Republican policies?
29,
You win Juanita Jean. For real. i’m not a hater, but yeah, these Repukes have changed the game. i hate them.
One mile from a school is not far enough. Kid in McAllen (my home town) was shot and left permanently crippled by a shooter a mile away. Modern firearms and ammunition have way more range and penetrating power than most people are aware of.
30Okay, first let me admit that I thought the fellow was in a giant condom. I felt a bit better when I read it was a banana.
31Then a bit disappointed.
On the open or concealed debate. No concealed weapons. Open Carry under seriously restricted conditions, for instance: A well regulated militia.
Terri
Elizabeth, you remind me of an old story from my little Aunt Lucy. She told me one day about a kid whose mother told him to go shoot the coyote that was getting into their chickens. He took a .22, not a huge gun, just a little ol’ .22, and shot the varmint. The bullet went through the coyote, ricocheted off a big rock, and killed a man driving a tractor a mile or more away.
32I’d suggest a series of YouTube videos showing folks dressed up as drug dealers, terrorists, etc. thanking the NRA for making it easier for them to attack.
For a bonus video, a demonstration of what would happen if someone threw a string of firecrackers into the crowd and yelled “Gun!”
33Next week, after they forget about this “outrage” on their rights to be scared, a tobacco shop will try the same stunt.
The next time from crazy shoots up a school the police photos of the carnage needs to go viral. THAT will change the debate into an actual conversation. Maybe then kids won’t be dying just so some crazy can feel secure and the gun/ammo companies can sell their products.
34The police understood the joke, but thought it didn’t have much a-peel.
35