Gun accessories are mostly sold by companies that are either firearms or sports oriented. In the same way that the mainstream media has shunned firearms related advertising – a sore point for TTAG’s publisher – you don’t find too many mainstream manufacturers expanding their product line into the firearms fold. While the media ad ban has yet to be broken, the expanding firearms market has lured in some major players from outside the traditional sphere. Enter Northern Tool + Equipment Company . . .
Since 1981, the family owned and operated Northern Tool + Equipment has been an industry leader for value-priced generators, pressure washers and 40k other hardware style products. Many of their products are made in China, but they also support American manufacturers, some made in their own 250,000-square-foot manufacturing facility in Faribault, Minn.. And now the company is including firearms accessories in its product line.
Northern Tool has several items in their lineup aimed at guns used as self defense tools, including the new Tee Shirt holster shown above. (The pistol looks to be a Bersa .380.) They’re singing our song. From Their “Packing Tee page”:
Feel free to exercise your Second Amendment rights! Now you can conceal and carry your trusty handgun without the restricting discomfort of a typical holster. The Packin’ Tee T-shirt uses a heavy-duty hook-and-loop fastening system with attachment strips on both sides of the shirt, coupled with your choice of small or large black holster (right- or left-handed, sold separately, see below), to secure the pistol at your side. No need to wear jackets or bulky outerwear to conceal your weapon. Extra-long T-shirt is made of 100% pre-shrunk cotton with reinforced mounting pads, shoulder and arm holes to prevent sagging. Holsters sold separately; order by the hand that you draw with (using cross draw). T-shirt sizes: M–3XL; order compression fit for gun’s stability.
The gun-related products from Northern Tool + Equipment show how the new media is reasserting the gun culture as American culture. Guns and ammunition were commonly available in hardware stores when I was growing up. I could buy ammunition nearly anywhere, and a discount furniture store had barrels of Springfield surplus 03A3 rifles for sale at $29.95. Some of you may remember purchasing rifles at Sears, which used to America’s number one firearms retailer.
All that changed in the 1960s when the elite decided that Americans must be disarmed, pushing through the 1968 Gun Control Act on a wave of emotional appeals and media hype. We still have a long way to go.
I want to see gun mufflers (a.k.a., suppressors or silencers) available in hardware stores, for sale across the counter, just as they are in New Zealand. Remove the idiotic and draconian restrictions on gun mufflers in a reform of the National Firearms Act, and maybe Northern Tool will offer simple and effective .22 gun mufflers for $29.95. It could happen . . .
©2016 by Dean Weingarten: Permission to share is granted when this notice is included.
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