Much Ado About 1911

I feel thoroughly humbled after reading this article from Salon’s War Room, poking fun at a 9.12 Project event. First, here’s the real invite to a 912 member:

Dear Tampa 912 Member, Please join us at the Alfano Conference and Banquet Center on Tuesday, June 29th at 6:30 pm for a meet & greet and 7pm for the General Member Meeting.

LAST CHANCE TO BUY RAFFLE TICKETS FROM FAMILY FIREARMS!!!

7:00 Will Weatherford, State Representative in District 61 will discuss the re-districting constitutional amendments that will be on the ballot in November.

8:00 – FAMILY FIREARMS RAFFLE -SPRINGFIELD ARMORY MODEL 1911-A1 and a box of 9mm’s from Lime Valley Ammo -2nd Prize is a beautifully bounded Opus Americana Book

In response, Alex Pareene writes:

If you’re in the Tampa area a couple weeks from now, why not enter the Tampa 9.12 Project family raffle? Second prize is a copy of this awesome-looking movie. First prize is your very own 9 mm handgun — with ammo!

And a few commenters made sport of someone winning the raffle and shooting up the place. After all these posts on 1911s, I might have noticed that the ammo didn’t match the weapon, but fortunately this commenter reminded us:

So in no random order, here’s some thoughts on the article and some of the more ignorant comments:

* Good God, Pareene, did you get tarred and feathered as a carpetbagger in Florida or something? I ask because you forgot to somewhere include in your article a relevant point. Did you forget that research is a component of journalism? Or was Google not working in your office? You might have noticed how gun raffles aren’t all that uncommon if you’d spent a second or two looking it up.

* Liberals own guns, too. With it, we also get to enjoy being shunned by the ignorant among the left who are clueless about gun ownership and construct strawmen aplenty to knock down; that leaves us with either cozying up to right wing nutjobs or else just keeping it secret, as if owning a gun were somethign shameful or inherently reactionary. (It’s not. Y’all are just being as small-minded as the opposition in this case.)

* Even in Florida, the raffle winner would have to undergo a federal background check before the gun could be transferred to him or her.

* No, even if the winner were psychotic, he or she wouldn’t be able to immediately load and shoot up the place, given that a 1911A1 generally takes .45 ACP ammo, not 9MM.

* Even among the conservative wing of gun owners—and to be fair, that’s the majority of gun owners in the US—only a shrill minority actually believe in unlimited, totally unregulated gun ownership. And even those folks don’t think it’s a “God-given right” to shoot up whomever you want, whenever you want.

—Andalusi