Ad for Smith & Wesson M&P15 Sport (courtesy week.com)

“Readers of The Oregonian have received an unusual Christmas offer from outdoor retailer Cabela’s,” Oregon’s Willamette Week reports, “the same type of military-style rifle used in this month’s mass shooting in San Bernardino, Calif. The advertising insert, placed last week in Oregonian print editions, features as its central item the Smith & Wesson M&P15 Sport, a semiautomatic rifle.” And this is a problem because? Because guns! Like this . . .

“I personally found this ad totally insensitive to what happened in Roseburg, Southern California and every place that has had mass shootings,” [WW reader Doug] Menely writes. “This weapon that is displayed is clearly not a hunting rifle.”

Whether the M&P15 is a hunting rifle is a matter of some debate. But the gun was used by killers in two recent mass shootings.

“I personally found this ad totally insensitive to what happened in Roseburg, Southern California and every place that has had mass shootings,” Menely writes. “This weapon that is displayed is clearly not a hunting rifle.”
Whether the M&P15 is a hunting rifle is a matter of some debate. But the gun was used by killers in two recent mass shootings.

Eschewing the debate over whether tens of thousands of Americans use AR’s to hunt – they do, debate over – following his journalistic instincts, writer Coby Hutzer reached out to Cabela’s to see how the insensitive sporting goods giant could possibly justify selling a weapon that inspires/enables spree killers [/sarc] . . .

Calls to local Cabela’s retailers were redirected to voice mail and the chain’s communications office in Sydney, Neb. The company’s spokesman has not returned a call from WW seeking comment.

Never mind. wweek.com’s readers had a few choice things to say about Coby’s conundrum in Cabela’s stead:

Nick A. Zukin • 19 hours ago
Next thing you’ll be telling me is that the Oregonian was running an ad for Oldsmobile, the kind of car used to run down all those people in Las Vegas.

i5guy • 6 hours ago
More people have died from sugar, fat and alcohol than will ever die from guns – I see no articles about how insensitive those ads are.

HowardD • 12 hours ago
If you find that insensitive, maybe you should go hide in your safe space, that is what I did when this one time I saw a cigarette add on the front of a store, and then I realized that it was the same cigarette that has killed millions of people world wide….. Honestly you need to put a little more effort into trying to find a worthwhile topic for an article.

Laughing At Liberals • 17 hours ago
I get Sportsman Warehouse ads all the time in my mailbox, and they advertise guns right on the cover. The fact that someone did something stupid with a gun is not the responsibility of Cabela’s, Sportsman’s Warehouse, or S&W. After all, those companies follow every law there is regarding gun manufacturing and sales. But in the mind of left collectivist, everyone is responsible for the actions of everyone else, and no one is responsible for their own actions.

Steve Kratz • 18 hours ago
It would be a tacky ad if it said “AS SEEN IN SAN BERNARDINO!” It’s one of about 1000 different brand of a rifle that shoots 5.56 or .223 ammo.

But this is my favorite.

Summary.exe • 19 hours ago
Still overpriced.

There’s just no pleasing some people.

49 COMMENTS

  1. Willamette weekly is about as liberal as it gets around here. The reporter probably graduated from Reed College with a degree in some social arena.

  2. So, if somebody runs down a sidewalk full of people in a Malibu, that means Chevrolet dealers are never again allowed to advertise a sale on Malibus?

    • I was thinking this too. “My mom got ran over by a driver in an Oldsmobile Bravo 99 and now the dealer the 15 miles away sent out an ad selling the same model car! How insensitive of them!”

      And I know there’s no car by that name, also my mom is alive and well. I saw here today, actually.

  3. ” Menely writes. “This weapon that is displayed is clearly not a hunting rifle.”

    1. It can most certainly be a hunting rifle; trust me, I’ve done it.
    2. The 2nd A isn’t about hunting. If it were, why didn’t the founders expressly say so or just secure the right to keep and bear bows and arrows, to avoid confusion…

  4. Here we go with the hunting rifle bs again. Does a Springfield 1903 still qualify as a hunting rifle? You know, because snipers.

  5. Wow, just wow.
    What a weenie publication.

    I’m waiting for them to ban the one with baseball bats, since so many people are killed by them each year.
    And of course, those space heaters. They kill so many people and are responsible for so much property loss.

    And then there are lying liberals…responsible for so much death and carnage. They need to be banned, stat!

  6. Hey ahole, nobodys putting a gun to your head telling you to buy it. Get a life. Its idiots like you who keep the gun shops filled with new buyers.

  7. The hyper-offense super-sensitivity industry in high dudgeon. Fortunately, that card has been played so many times that nobody in his right mind really gives a crap anymore about what offends America’s little twinkies.

    • I’m offended by your comments…

      My blog readers, all seven of them, and my cats, all seven of them, will hear about this injustice.

      • I used to live in a house with seven cats. My big cat used to beat up all the other cats and steal their lunch money.

        • Once had a kitten who would stand in the food bowl to make sure he got a full belly. Don’t know why the adults didn’t kick him out of there. A few weeks after they were weaned he was the largest kitten by a wide margin.

  8. I mean it says right there on the ad, “not legal in CA”. Isn’t that what all those whiny people want?

  9. OMG, I am trying to understand if this writers bio is satire or not. Anyone?

    “About Coby Hutzler

    When he’s not busy neglecting his section’s marijuana plant, News writer Coby Hutzler writes about whatever he can, including the environment and energy. After working as News editor at the Portland State Vanguard, Coby moved to Baker City, Ore. for a Charles Snowden internship at the Baker City Herald. He’s at WW after spending a year “finding himself.”

  10. Heck my local “Shopper” in South Holland,ILL. had an editorial against rifles with over 5 rounds.As if anyone care what a free paper says. I saw this-sold out in Hammond,IN Cabelas-not a bad deal. I see prices rising …anyone see the GEN 2 S & W Sport? Has a forward assist/dust cover. Looks like they take Ruger Ar556 seriously…

      • Oh he thinks hunting and target shooting are fine-just no evilmodern sporting rifles. Fudd…or putz. And he’s dutch…

  11. Oy vey, somebody call the WHAAAAmbulance!
    Mumble grumble idjits raffling mumble…

    “There’s no pleasing left-wing nuts in Oregon.”

    FIFY. 😀

  12. “Readers of The Oregonian have received an unusual Christmas offer from outdoor retailer Cabela’s.”

    Yeah, I don’t think “unusual” means what you think it means. A Cabela’s ad without an AR-15 in it would be quite unusual.

  13. That reminds me, I need to buy a few more “assault” rifles before all the executive order gun control BS hits the fan between now and SOTU.

  14. Sugar, fat, alcohol and cigarettes are all things people freely choose to do to themselves so comparing those to getting shot with an AR15 by an Islamic extremist is a pretty dumb analogy. A better one would be if someone spiked Christmas punch with rat poison and killed a dozen innocent people, then the local Ace Hardware ran a sale on discount cases of rat poison. Legal? Sure. Blame the rat poison? No. A smart idea? Nah, probably not.

  15. I have the same (non-Kalifornistani compliant) model as used in that shooting. Doesn’t bother me at all despite mild surprise when it was IDd. Knowing marketing, Cabela’s probably approved and printed this offer weeks before the shooting anyway. Given this “logic” most cars and alcohol would be unmarketable for similar reasons.

  16. I completely misunderstood this article and original advertisement.

    At first, and even second, reading, I thought the objection was to Cabela having inserted the tag line in their own advertisement “the same type of military-style rifle used in this month’s mass shooting in San Bernardino, Calif.”, as if that was a selling point Cabela was pushing.

    Had to read it again and look closely at the ad to see that no such thing happened. It’s just some reporter whose panties are in a wad that a legal business is selling a legal product, of the same type that some criminal illegally purchased, illegally modified and illegally used. Just another hyperventilating, hypersensitive hoplophobe, I guess.

  17. Oh boo hoo big deal. Where does it even mention hunting in the 2nd? No place. If someone wants a gun they can buy one. What difference does the model matter? I just bought myself a Ruger AR for my combo Xmas Hanukah, birthday present. I didn’t have one in what Im sure that author would consider my rather impressive personal arsenal. I have no real use for it on top of just wanting one. So there p.

  18. My cousin shot a buck this season, in Oregon, with an AR that looked remarkably similar. So yes, it is a hunting rifle. It’s also a self defense rifle so get over it Willamette Weak!

  19. Willamette weekly is a well known propaganda paper from Portland. I have not seen one article from that paper that did not spew some talking point from the Liberal Fascist play book.

  20. Most hunting rifles throughout history have been based on military designs and the use of military guns for hunting dates back to the colonies.

  21. I want the rifle and 30 round mags the cops used to kill the douchebags in San Berdoo. And I want the full cap mags for my 9mm like the cops in this douchebag of a state carry.

    • This is the only time of year you’ll find a “good buy” at Cabela’s.

      And you’ll have to plug your ears if you hang out near the guns for too long. The cliche’ gun crap you hear is enough to slowly kill your soul.

      • I’ve found a lot of good gun deals at Cabelas. Just check the gun library every week or so and wait for used guns in great shape to show up. I found stuff like a Remington 03A3 for $550 in excellent shape and an Inland M1 Carbine for $525 when even the private sellers and the LGS around me wanted $750+. I’ve also bought a few used CZ pistols which were nearly new for $75-100 off of what they wanted the guns new for.

  22. “the same type of military-style rifle used in this month’s mass shooting in San Bernardino, Calif. The advertising insert, placed last week in Oregonian print editions, features as its central item the Smith & Wesson M&P15 Sport, a semiautomatic rifle.”
    I want a Tiger tank just like the one in Fury.

  23. What I find offensive is the price of the MP15-22. Insulting. Have “too good price to pass up mags, “need” the rifle.

  24. LOL “Still overpriced.” That brought me a chuckle. That’s my favorite, as well.

    In answer to the original comment, my immediate response to “it’s obviously not a hunting rifle,” might go something like, “Wow, you must be some kind of genius. If I see an ad for a Mercedes-Benz SLK, can I complain and demand the ad be pulled because it’s obviously not a minivan?”

  25. I also saw and advertisement by a car dealer near me and they were selling the same kinf of car used in Las Vegas last week when some lady drove into a crowd, killing someone and hurting 37 others. Shame on that car dealer for selling such assault autos.

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