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Gun rights advocates are, by definition, pro-liberty. “The Second Amendment protects the First,” is the common refrain. This bedrock belief requires tolerance for the worst kind of free speech, from racist rhetoric to anti-gun agitprop. I’m not sure South Florida Gun Supply jefe Andy Hallinan’s decision to declare his store a “Muslim free zone” is an example of the former. Nor do I reject his attempt to defend the Confederate flag from cries of racism out of hand. But one thing’s for sure . . .

Andy’s poking the bear. Most recently, Hallinan’s decided to team up with George Zimmerman, the nationally vilified Floridian who shot and killed Sunshine State teen Trayvon Martin in self-defense. The gun dealer obviously knows that adding Zimmerman to his political crusade is a red rag to the mainstream media bull, an animal that’s already demonstrated its determination to gore gun rights but good.

Selling Zimmerman’s painting of a Confederate flag? That’s just asking for it. And so the Washington Post answered. Does this make all gun owners look bad by association? Why else would they run it?

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100 COMMENTS

  4. Unfortunately the bad must be protected every bit as much as the good. This iswhyy Jewish ACLU lawyers went to court to protect the Illinois Nazis right to wave swastika flags in front of Holocaust survivors in Skokie.
    So, yes we have to protect Andy Hallinan and George Zimmerman’s right to say and do stupid things, but we also have our own first amendment rights to call them stupid assholes and boycott their business.

    • “So, yes we have to protect Andy Hallinan and George Zimmerman’s right to say and do stupid things, but we also have our own first amendment rights to call them stupid assholes and boycott their business.”

      “Protecting” their rights does not include being passive when it comes to pointing out a couple of dumb-assed. . We can condemn them as being bigots and as being instigator of controversy that is not in our best interest.

      • The consensus is that antis don’t know what they’re talking about factually, and don’t care to know intellectually honestly. Haters are going to hate regardless. When they don’t have any material to work with, they’ll lie, deny, distort and fabricate their way to some hateful talking points, regardless. So the effect of stunts like like Zimmerman thing doesn’t even register.

        And, no, not even with alleged fencesitters. So-called fencesitters are equally uninformed people who can’t be moved to get educated, not without a personally jolting experience, anyway. The blurb that is this story will fade in a few moments from the minds of the minuscule number of fencesitters who even are aware of it.

  5. It’s almost like they got together to purposely make gun owners look bad. They are both Manchurian canidates, they have to be, no one is this dumb.

      • Which one? The one banning terrorists from his business or the one painting a symbol that supported the basic human right of self determination as later recognized by the UN Charter?

        Don’t forget. There is no such thing as a moderate muslim.
        Radical muslims want to kill you and rape your goat.
        Allegedly “moderate” muslims want the radical muslims to kill you and rape your goat.

        • Wow I can’t even right now.

          So what about the Moderate Muslims I saw kill the radical Muslims? Was that them being super meta, really getting into the role so one day they could come back and kill me and I’d never see it coming?

        • Don’t quote the Maxims in this, it’s a comic. Real life is different. I’ve been to Jordan, Oman, Afghanistan, Djibouti and UAE and in only one country has anyone ever tried to kill me, and we invaded them so I didn’t take it personal. I watch the Muslims in UAE make rude hand gestures to the Muslims from Iran. I listened to Jordanians talk trash on Iraqis, and taught a Muslim what an Irish car bomb was in UAE, and wrestled with a Djiboutian for fun. Honestly never felt unwelcome in Jordan, Oman, Djibouti or UAE, or by the Muslims in France who made an Awesome Afghan red chicken. If these people all wanted to kill me, someone should give them Oscars, because they are all, from the kids to adults, are excellent actors.

        • ^His frequent tirades would be disturbing if he hadn’t outed himself as some twentysomething anime fan from the get-go.

        • “…or the one painting a symbol that supported the basic human right of self determination as later recognized by the UN Charter?”

          I’m pretty sure the slaves owned by the folks who waved that symbol might disagree with you that they supported the basic human right to self-determination.

          And for the record, the South seceded a few weeks before Lincoln even took office because he campaigned on a platform of no new slave states, not getting rid of existing slavery. There is a certain irony in claiming that it’s a symbol of self-determination when it was created by a group trying to preserve their right to enslave another race and rule them as property.

        • >> There is a certain irony in claiming that it’s a symbol of self-determination when it was created by a group trying to preserve their right to enslave another race and rule them as property.

          Don’t forget that once they seceded, they proceeded to write much stronger protections for slavery on federal level into their new constitution. And one of the main reasons that were quoted in support of secession was that free states were sabotaging and outright nullifying the federal Fugitive Slave Act, which required them to basically enforce slavery on their territory on behalf of the slave states. “States’ rights” my ass!

        • Who cares what some dimbulb on Fox News says “they” supposedly “want.” No Muslim has yet raped any goat of mine. At least unless said goat liked it well enough not to come complain about it. Neither have one so far killed me. Or even made much of an attempt. And, none of them have even robbed me of half my income. Which is plenty more than I can say for those self promoting scumbuckets who claim I “need” to pay them to protect me from those supposedly scary virgins who haven’t done me a lick of harm. Nor have any Muslim so far prevented me from arming myself with whatever kit I reckon I may need to protect myself against scary goat rapists. Which is, again, more than I can say for the guys bent on robbing me. And banning me from getting them cool stuff.

          Just as they were a century ago, politically useful hobgoblins are still imaginary. All of them.

    • “Think of how stupid the average person is, and realize half of them are stupider than that.”
      ― George Carlin

  6. The same people who want to take down the battle flag of the confederacy also want to take away gun civil rights. They are intolerant of freedom.

    • IDK about that. I want you to keep,your confederate flag. FLAME DELETED

      BTW, I like guns. I support the 2A. I just don’t like traitors who are too stupid to do the math on military materiel production, and who confuse “states rights” with the right to own people as property.

      Before they all turned gay, the baddest dudes in America lived in New England.

      • You do realize that secession was and is perfectly legal under both the CotUS and the UN Charter? Right? It wasn’t the South that blockaded a northern port. Say what you want about the motives for secession, they had every legal right to do it. That means…

        1. It was not treason.
        2. The South didn’t commit the first act of war.

        I do so hate revisionist history.

        • @pwrserge

          Your views are completely ahistorical, and there is no legal method in the constitution for secession short of an Article V convention re-writing the constitution. Historically, secessions are only as successful as their ability to militarily maintain their new borders. In short, some rebels wanted to secede so they started a war, but they lost and now they need to move on with their lives. Everything else is a fantasy.

        • @whatever

          See the 10th amendment. Since secession is not mentioned in the Constitution it’s one of those powers reserved for the states or the people. That’s the beautiful part about the CotUS, if a power is not in it, the federal government does note have it.

        • Please, go ahead, tell me more about the right of secession and self-determination of the people of Mississippi and South Carolina, where slaves (who had zero representation in the political bodies that have announced said secession, obviously) constituted the majority of the population.

          No, slaver scum does not have a moral right to secede on behalf of the people that they own as property. And that is all that matters.

      • If memory serves, Chris T from KY has personal skin in that game.

        He’s taking the high road on that.

        Were I him, I don’t know if I could…

      • To all those who are driven crazy by a piece of cloth that represents a long ago dead nation I say stop being a fools.

        The gun store in Tracy California is fighting a 1st amendment battle over a picture of a gun the size twice larger than the battle flag. Let people have their silly flag. Don’t shop at his store. Try supporting another gun stores freedom of speech to display a giant size gun poster in the store window.

      • ” I fail to see”

        That much is clear. That does not make it untrue.

        Look around you; read the “news.” Visit a contemporary institution of “higher learning.” The evidence you seek is all around you.

        The people he was talking about is “Progressives.” They are arguably the most intolerant collective on the planet….well, top 3 at least. They just lack the nads to execute their wishes directly like some other groups.

        In other words, they are patient and are in for the slow burn.

  8. Right on the mark! We need to back all ammendments as they are integral pieces that fall apart without one another.

    That being said to quote Jake and Elwood I hate Illinois Nazis, and because you can do something doesn’t mean it is in good taste.

    Hopefully these guys stop hitting the snooze button soon and we can forget about them.

    • I don’t think we need to back amendments so much as we need to remind people that government authority is supposed to be fundamentally limited, and strictly so.

      Supporting a right is great, but useless if we forget that it can only be done by denying our government the power to violate that right.

  9. I get weary of the liberal media and politicians.
    I get wary of the liberal media and politicians.
    Yes to both.

  10. Does this make all gun owners look bad by association? Wait until you see the latest article by MSNBC in which we gun owners terrorize everyone in the various National Parks and turn them into free fire zones.

    • Maybe because Catholics, Jews, Hispanics, Native Americans and even some Africans-in-America supported our Second War of American Independence. Just sayin’.

      • “Second War of American Independence”
        Except for the whole slavery thing, right.? I mean it was a war of independence, except for the people enumerated as property, without the same independence as the white people, right? Maybe you meant “Second War of White American Independence”?

        • Well heck, I may have missed the point there. But considering the name of the commenter, I don’t think I did. If so, I apologize.

        • No, I think you got his gist right.

          The problem with the commenting system here is that replies descend chronologically. While I was responding to his initial point of bringing up the “Second war of independence”, it looked like I was responding to you. The threading is just hard to follow is all (especially since I can’t reply to you, so I have to reply to myself to get this to stack).

    • Apparently not. There’s two of them right there. Betcha I could go on YouTube and find another fifty in about ten minutes, if I had the stomach for such stupidity.

  14. I knew the Zim Zam was stupid, but I didn’t know he was THIS stupid. I guess that knock on the sidewalk really did mess up his brain.

    Both of these morons are a waste of O2. Let them have their Battle Flag of the American Loser. It suits them.

  15. Yikes George-I betcha’ your rebel buddies kick the azzes of hispanic hispancis who don’t have a German surname. Or don’t know your backstory…BTW a brilliant bit of marketing manufacturing a “we ain’t sellin’ to moooz-lems” BS. I was standing in line next to a muslim gal and her several small children today and I wasn’t a bit sceered-in fact she was afraid to speak to me when I attempted to translate her question to a sales gal…oh well I guess being a rather large OFWG can be intimidating…

  16. Our Confederate Constitution closely parallels that of the original United States of America. Both of them have a guarantee of the right of the people to keep and bear arms. The main difference is that in our constitution the rights enumerated in the first ten amendments to the Northern Union’s bill of rights are included in the main body of our founding document. Thus, in the Confederate States of America there is no question of “incorporation” of our rights as to our states. They are all incorporated. Please respect our laws and traditions when you visit us, just as we respect yours when we are in your own land.

    • OUR constitution? And in what alternate universe is there a confederate constitution in force? Please respect the laws of reality when you visit-traitor.

      • The name says it all. Louis Marschalko was a holocaust denier and a devout racist. His book is a “must read” for the post war Nazi.

    • Article 4, Section 3 of the Confederate constitution:

      The Confederate States may acquire new territory; and Congress shall have power to legislate and provide governments for the inhabitants of all territory belonging to the Confederate States, lying without the limits of the several Sates; and may permit them, at such times, and in such manner as it may by law provide, to form States to be admitted into the Confederacy. In all such territory the institution of negro slavery, as it now exists in the Confederate States, shall be recognized and protected be Congress and by the Territorial government; and the inhabitants of the several Confederate States and Territories shall have the right to take to such Territory any slaves lawfully held by them in any of the States or Territories of the Confederate States.

  20. Does this make all gun owners look bad by association?

    Nope. Not even a little. And nobody really gives a sh1t about someone who wants to hang the Confederate flag, except a bunch of racemongers who go insane if someone says that all lives matter. Fvck ’em.

  21. “Does this make all gun owners look bad by association?”
    Still don’t get it. That train left the station long, long ago. To them, the bad association isn’t Zimmerman, it’s the gun. You can dis-associate yourseof from Zimmerman, from the open carry crowd, from anyone you think irritates them, but as long as you have a gun, you will be considered evil.

  22. I wasn’t sure of it the other day, but now I’m pretty certain that Mr. Hallinan’s business must be in trouble, and he’s desperately trying to gin up some kind of controversy so that half-informed gun owners will rally to his side and buy his wildly overpriced merchandise. Stir up shit that’s guaranteed to piss off liberals in the media, wait for them to denounce you, then exploit the inevitable “if the libtards don’t like it, I have to support it” backlash from the subset of conservatives who are driven by such blind idiocy.

    It’s almost a clever strategy, but his execution is pretty lame. Zimmerman *and* the Confederate battle flag? Come on, man. Too desperate by half.

  23. While it’s true some folks will believe guns are bad no matter what, if the goal is to pull middle of the roaders in to join the side of 2A supporters, those two are not helping.
    All it takes is a handful to change opinions from good to bad. Two cops and one Rodney King later, respect for Police *as a whole* plummeted to the lowest level Gallup has ever measured. It made no difference that the incident involved less than 0.00001% of the nation’s police force.

  24. I never thought I would see the day where people of the gun would turn into foaming at the mouth SJWs.

    Apparently that day has arrived. Pathetic.

    • It’s all part of the undercurrent “rights me, not for thee” that permeates everything. POTG are just as guilty of that as the anti’s.

      Cf: any OC related article where over 50% of the comments are people stating opinions about how OTHER people should carry, what they should wear, how they should groom themselves, etc.

      It seems that most people are completely blind to their own hypocrisy. Freedom an individual liberty are messy that way…they force you to really face what that means. It’s not about “me doing what *I* want” so much as it’s about “me not caring one whit what the other guy does.”

      That, apparently, is harder than it sounds like it should be.

  26. Oh look, they continue to make all gun owners look like racist idiots.

    Gee, thanks, South Florida Gun Supply, for totally ruining things for us.

    • “Gee, thanks, South Florida Gun Supply, for totally ruining things for us.

      What exactly did they ruin for YOU? I don’t mean some vague “they are making us look bad” comment; I mean…what has changed in your life as a result of this? Be specific?

      They haven’t hurt me or gun laws in any way. In fact, here, gun laws continue to improve (ie, become less restrictive). The process is slow, but then the build-up to the present state took many decades as well.

      So, what restrictions on guns exist for YOU today that did not exist before you knew about this story?

      I’m guess “None” and your comment is histrionic hot air.

  28. Apparently Freedom of Choice, Self defense and the right of a store owner not serving certain customer’s is out the window for political expediency,

  29. Florida Gun Supply’s video above threw me off pretty quickly, right when Andy said that he had to stand up for America because “No one else did.” No one. Zero patriots out there. I guess Andy just thinks it’s him out there by himself, protecting us all. Thanks Andy, thanks for nothing.
    But also, I’m confused on what he is raising money for, other than to line his pockets. He says its’ for his defense, but he doesn’t say, at least not in this video, that he is being sued, or otherwise what that money is being used to defend against.
    I’ve made my arguments why this entire “no Muslims” policy is wrong and patently un-American in other posts.
    But, as almost an aside, I actually like the battle flag with the slogan painted on it as art. The play on words and double meaning of “the second protects the first” when associated with the battle flag is conversation worthy. I don’t agree with it, but it is interesting and evocative, and that’s art.
    Reminds me a bit of another piece I saw, the confederate battle flag painted in the colors of African liberation. I’d buy that one, if I could.

  30. So much to say…
    I’ll bullet point it for easier readability:

    ·Andy’s (who’s from Massachusetts) is a bigot and a kinda silly one at that.
    ·Nevertheless, it’s his business and he should have the right to run it as dickishly as he wants.
    ·That said, I hope he fails spectacularly.
    ·The same way those of you who come on here claiming to know the secret plots of the Muzlims even though you probably never met one have clearly already failed at, well, everything.
    ·Zimmerman… it’s like he’s taking every bad move out of the OJ playbook and then some. HIs is a tale that is unlikely to end well.
    ·I really don’t care if someone wants to fly the Confederate Battle Flag. Wear it. Sleep under it. Dress their inflatable girlfriend in it. Or any other flaggot activity.
    ·In fact, I like it when losers are proud of losing. It’s almost poetic, in a hillbilly sort of way.
    ·But, really guys, it’s just a piece of cloth (probably made in China). No need to get all worshipy about it. Especially when you go into full-on pearl-clutching, panty-knotting mode every time a Muslim complains about their prophet being mocked. Symbols are either important or their not. (I’ll go with the latter, until shown otherwise)
    ·The preceding goes for all the Old Glory humpers as well.

    ·Lastly, my guns, the ownership thereof and my God given right to same are as unaffected by these idiots as my home brewery would be by a Black Panther bar owner and a drunk driver who beat a vehicular manslaughter charge joining forces to sell Zimmerman’s Zoom Zoom Zima at a drag race. In other words, not at all.

    • “·Nevertheless, it’s his business and he should have the right to run it as dickishly as he wants.
      ·That said, I hope he fails spectacularly.”

      See, there’s the thing. This is the sort of thing that ‘should be’ settled by the free market. If, in general, people think he’s running his business dickishly BOOLEAN AND they care about that sort of thing…he’ll go out of business.

      But, the Progressives don’t want it to get that far. They want to decide it for everyone else. They are SCARED that if it DOES go to a free market vote, people will vote with their dollars and support the living CRAP out of this guy…thus destroying their narrative.

      In other words…the short version: They want to control the message. It does not really matter WHAT the “real message” is…they want to control it. Even if 99% of potential customers agreed that he’s being dickish and thus “boycott” him, it doesn’t matter.

      They (Proggies) won’t let it get to ‘public vote.’

  31. I was under the impression that we lived in a democracy, so you have racist, anti Muslim, unpleasant views and that was OK.you may not agree, but you are entitled to have them.
    I am off to raise my confederate flag, lol

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