RANGER AGAINST WAR: Better Dead than Red <

Thursday, February 21, 2013

Better Dead than Red


When buying and selling are controlled by legislation,
the first things to be bought and sold are legislators 
--Parliament of Whores, P.J. O’Rourke 
________________________

In Ranger's recent, "Man With the Golden Gun", we considered President Obama's love affair with skeet shooting.  But we ignored Obama's choice of weapon may be the most suggestive part of the picture -- a foreign-made over-and-under shotgun.

This foreign gun was bought and paid for with good American tax dollars. Meanwhile, Mr. Obama is cheerleading for the return of manufacturing jobs to America. How does one bemoan the loss of American jobs and petition for their return unless one is willing to walk one's talk?

Further, the United States government has spent hundreds of billions of dollars on foreign-made firearms purchased for the use of Afghanistan, Iraq and god knows who else.  The president is now a bully pulpit kind of guy giving lip service to resurrecting U.S. industrial capacity, yet the presidential compound at Camp David buys foreign-made shotguns for our president's use.  This is insulting to American gun manufacturers, who create a fine product.

While we can't bang Obama for the foreign guns because we don't know when it was purchased or who owns it, but the point is valid: We should buy American products, especially if paid for by U.S. tax dollars. (As an aside, most U.S. presidents have chosen U.S.-made firearms as their personal weapons.)

The good news is that China does not have the expertise or machine tolerances to produce a fine over-and-under skeet shotgun. At least that, yeah?

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2 Comments:

Blogger BadTux said...

It may have been a foreign-made gun, but somebody dropped a bagful of money on an American gunsmith to port it and put aftermarket sights on it. Count it as a 50% flub.

Friday, February 22, 2013 at 12:00:00 AM GMT-5  
Anonymous jim at ranger said...

BT,
Your observations may be correct, but they are still assumptions.
The fine shotguns are all ported now.
I find it interesting that the POTUS was shooting a 12 guage which beats one pretty bad, even when ported.Why wasn't he shooting a 20 or a 28 like Cheney used to shoot.
BTW , Cheneys guns were all top end imports, but i assume that he bought them out of personal funds. Even so that didn't support US industry.
As for after market porting this is often impossible due to the barrel wall thickness of a particular gun. Fine US SxS guns often have thin walled barrels and it's impossible to even put choke tubes in them.
I'll bet money that BHO's photo op piece was factory ported, but we'll never know.
I appreciate your participation at RAW and find your comments to be incisive.
Now as for your Amie gunsmith cmt that you tossed off. My gunsmith recently died and he was a good friend so i knew his history. Canadian trained by a old world German guild craftsman. He and ALL gunsmiths NEVER finish a project when it's promised.
I hope that there's a special level for them in hell.
I guess i'll never customize another old firearm. All my projects were old 1870's single shots and Colt and Winchester relics.
NO KILL YOUR NEIGHBOR GUNS.
I know- more than you needed to know. My point is that some of us love the artistry of firearms(and Guitars)and do not adaore on the altar of the violence model of the industry.
I do understand your points and your logic and i respect what you're saying.
jim

Friday, February 22, 2013 at 8:26:00 AM GMT-5  

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