…I can imagine saying to this:
“There’s necessarily no reason to open carry,” he said. “Rosa Parks didn’t really need to sit where she did.”
That’s the owner of that Beaumont, TX gun shop that sent out a signboard guy wearing a banana suit who happened to be open-carrrying an AK-47.*
I get it.
Actually, I don’t.
Wondering around the streets with a high-powered rifle is just like refusing to accept the explicit tyranny of the Jim Crow south….
Uh…
No…
WTF do you do with that?
I got nothing.
*The idea behind the banana costume, by the way, “was so he would look less alarming.”
Ponder that for a moment.
Maybe I’ve led a sheltered life, but if I saw some guy in a bright yellow cone-topped costume out on the street, gesticulating with an assault rifle to hand, I’d find that…
…a tad perturbing.
Just me, I suppose.
Image: Dezső Czigány, Still-life with Bananas, Oranges and Fishes, c. 1910
Phylllis
I…..got less than nothin.
Laertes
I think what he’s saying is “If black people are gonna go rubbing everyone’s noses in the fact that they got rights, I’m gonna do it too.”
What an asshole.
Comrade Jake
What was the point of the banana suit? Some kind of elaborate slippery slope metaphor?
BGinCHI
I’d say the guy needs to be committed, but he already lives in Texas.
jl
If I see somebody carrying a big gun down the street, dressed really weird, or otherwise acting a little odd and maybe crazy, “oh, obvs a gun store promotion” is the first thing I think of. Get a grip, people.
Higgs Boson's Mate
I have a bit of something. I fired (And carried, occasionally) an AK-47 when I was in the service. The AK’s notorious barrel whip meant that it was more a weapon for laying down fire than for accuracy.
dmsilev
@Comrade Jake:
(TPM)
The chain of “reasoning” involved is fascinating to observe. From a safe distance.
Cassidy
I think this years GOTV campaign should also include applications for people of color to get their CC license. I’m sure some groups can sponsor them with an NRA class, maybe at church on Sunday.
ruemara
Laertes got it by post 2. I picked the wrong life to have never huffed glue.
Just Some Fuckhead
Southerners ain’t like normal people.
Comrade Dread
Yes, pity the poor white male gun owner. Truly they are the modern slaves.
I would have solved this by running and screaming to all the other armed citizens of Texas that I just saw the escaped lunatic from the asylum wearing a banana costume and waving an AK-47 around. Let nature take its course.
aimai
@Comrade Jake: Gun not enough of a penis extension, I guess.
Villago Delenda Est
@Higgs Boson’s Mate:
The entire idea is to get the people on the other side to duck and thus be at a disadvantage while returning fire.
Which is why wanting these obviously offensively oriented tools for “defense” is so fucking stupid.
aimai
@jl: Maybe if he’d dressed as a clown, with those huge floppy feet and John Wayne Gacy style tears? Because I find Bananas kind of scary.
Onkel Fritze
Bananas have to sit in the back of the bus unless they’re armed?
boatboy_srq
@Laertes: More like “nobody (who didn’t deserve it) ever got killed just by being Blah.”
@efgoldman: If you kill one, you’re a murderer; if you kill one million, you’re a
conquerorpatriot.JustRuss
When bananas with guns are outlawed, only outlaws will have……something.
Brendan in NC
@Higgs Boson’s Mate: @dmsilev: So what’s a safe distance out of range of an AK-47??
Suffern ACE
Well, I guess. As long as the banana suit inhibited the wearer’s mobility and wasn’t made out of kevlar, I’d be convinced that it wasn’t some fool trying to rob a bank.
Amir Khalid
Story doesn’t say if the bright idea to wear the banana suit was the worker’s idea or the boss’. Either way, the suit doesn’t reassure people about either man’s good judgement, or knowledge of guns.
Zam
I know whenever I see photos and videos of a city where multiple people are wandering the streets with big ass weapons I think “damn that looks like a place that’s got its shit together maybe I should vacation there”
Brendan in NC
@aimai: Nope – the clown suit is reserved for the owner of the gun shop…
p.a.
Wonder what he was carrying under his peel?
dmsilev
@Zam: But those people weren’t wearing banana suits, now were they?
Brendan in NC
@Zam: It’s a holiday in Cambodia (circa 1970s)
Suffern ACE
@Amir Khalid: As a cultural comparison, what would a guy have to wear in Malaysia to be viewed as harmless while carrying a gun while at the same time drawing attention to himself?
SatanicPanic
First they came for the bananas and I did not speak out
Matt
The banana costume: last resort when even the open-carry AK can’t make Johnny Teabagger forget the punchline in his pants.
Amir Khalid
@JustRuss:
Once, on the BBC, I saw Jeremy Clarkson try to shoot a van with an AK on full auto from a fairly short range, I’d guess 10 metres or so. Clarkson emptied the clip and didn’t even ding the van.
Ajabu
“There’s necessarily no reason to open carry,” he said. “Rosa Parks didn’t really need to sit where she did.”
Could someone who speaks fluent wingnut parse that into English?
I have no fucking idea what this moron is even trying to convey.
He might as well have said, “There’s necessarily no reason to open carry”,
A) “Grandma drives a Toyota.”
B)”Things go better with Coke”
C) My crayon box stepped on my tapioca”
How does one sentence relate to the other??
To the dismay of some on the left…
Cacti
Contrary to the prevailing mythology, the “civilized” towns of the old west had much stricter gun laws than would have ever been tolerated among the wannabe Wyatt Earps and Doc Hollidays of today.
In Dodge City, carrying of firearms was prohibited on Front Street by 1878. You can find historic photos of the prominent sign reading “The Carrying of Firearms Strictly Prohibited”. In 1882, concealed or open carry of a firearm or bowie knife was banned in public for the entire city limits, and punishable by a fine of 25 to 100 dollars ($500 – $2,200 today).
In Tombstone, the city council passed Ordinance no. 9 in 1881, that prohibited the concealed or open carry of firearms, bowie knives, or dirks except upon immediate entry of town, prior to depositing them with law enforcement, or after retrieving them on your way out of town.
jl
@Suffern ACE: Never been to Malaysia, but I think an over ripe durian would be work well.
No offense to durian intended, I think they taste as good as they smell bad.
boatboy_srq
@Amir Khalid: All that says is that Clarkson is a p!ss-p00r shot. Which you’d expect from a British civvie.
jl
@Ajabu: Maybe he meant that the costume store was out of extra large peanut suits.
PurpleGirl
@Comrade Jake: It wasn’t even a full suit — it was the top portion of a banana costume. Just the hood and torso section, it could have been a new KKK outfit for all anyone knows.
Cervantes
If there can be a saving grace here, it may be that Rosa Parks is not around to be subjected to this nonsense.
On the other hand, the lady didn’t do subject very well. One wonders what she might have said in response to Mr. Poe’s activism.
JPL
In the early seventies, I lived in Beaumont, TX for awhile. It was during that time that I discovered the Klan was rampant. Jasper, TX is not that far away.
Baud
@Cacti:
Everyone knows those old cowboys were hippie liberals. Don’t mean nothing.
jl
@Cacti: So what? Out in those isolated western communities you could be imprisoned, or even hanged, for supplying adulterated or contaminated food and water too. How would a fine patriotic company like Freedom Industries have survived?
Those wild west towns were almost as commie as the Founders. Shame on you for even bringing that up and endangering the virtue of the fine innocent youth who read this blog.
chopper
@dmsilev:
Yes, because what could be less alarming than a man in a banana suit carrying an AK-47.
Cacti
@Zam:
This fine fellow and his associates enjoyed open carry, as well as giving merchant sailors friendly tours of the horn of Africa.
Baud
@PurpleGirl:
KKK — The Gay Blade.
Amir Khalid
@Suffern ACE:
Army combat fatigues would not do it. In October 1987, an Arrmy ranger was issued an M-16 and 500 rounds for a marksmanship competition. On his way to the base where the competition was to be held, he stopped off in Kuala Lumpur and went amuk in the Chow Kit bazaar, killing five civilians, before the cops arrested him. People here still remember this incident.
A police uniform might not do it either. A decade later, the military started phasing out M-16s. The police got them as hand-me-downs, and in a genius move issued them to beat cops on patrol. An M-16 might be okay to carry in the jungle, but not if you’re on foot in a crowded city or riding your police-issue motorcycle (as some cops here do). And the awkward way they carried their rifles was hardly reassuring to the public. This experiment was abandoned after a few months.
PurpleGirl
@Suffern ACE: Nope, it wouldn’t have hurt his ability to move. The banana top had armholes for his arms and must have had eye holes so he could see.
As I said… new kind of KKK hood.
IowaOldLady
A lot of my neighbors own guns. They lock them up and take them out for hunting season. They feel no need to wave them in my face as I shop.
jl
@Cacti:
From your link
“After being in piracy for eight years,” Big Mouth told a press conference (!) in Somalia on Thursday, “I have decided to renounce and quit, and from today on I will not be involved in this gang activity.”
That man’s decision could be a fine example for some of our Masters of the Universe.
IowaOldLady
I forgot to say my neighbors also don’t wear banana suits. At least, not in public.
eric
Let me break it down for you libs cause you are too busy jamming your gay cocks down america’s throat. Guns are good because they will allow ordinary americans to stand up to the tyranny of the american military once obama orders martial law and tries taking our rights and forcing us to have health care just like nazi russia!
Villago Delenda Est
@JPL:
Old joke:
Boyfriend: Where do you want me to kiss you?
Girlfriend: Kiss me where it’s nasty!
So he took her to Beaumont.
Villago Delenda Est
@eric:
Fail, eric. “Nazi Russia” is run by their hero, Putin.
Trollhattan
@Brendan in NC:
Safe distance: > two states from Texas.
Trollhattan
@Villago Delenda Est:
Dang, we told it as a Tacoma joke.
Amir Khalid
@eric:
Not sure if that’s a parody or the real thing.
WaterGirl
@Baud: I loved that movie! (Zorro, the Gay Blade, not the KKK version)
KG
@Ajabu: I’m pretty fluent in wingnut, and I’m struggling to figure it out. I think that it has something to do with exercising rights just for the sake of exercising rights. Of course, with his two examples, one isn’t like the other. Either that, or they see their god given rights being trampled by the government and therefore they are just like Rosa Parks or something. I mean, I picked up on the idea of how Monica was really Hillary’s fault and should be used against her in the campaign (Hillary was a bad wife, probably failed to do her wifely duties, thus Bill had to turn to other sources), but this? This I got nothing.
Trollhattan
@chopper:
I’m afrraid all the local dancing, spinny-sign advertising folks are going to get inspired to swap their signs for assault rifles, if they read this story. That’ll rent a lot of apartments!
WaterGirl
@Amir Khalid: Parody. I’m certain of it.
Woodrowfan
@Trollhattan: I thought it was New Jersey./..
KG
@Trollhattan: we told it as San Bernardino or Barstow.
By the way… how was it that nobody thought to call the cops on the guy in a banana suit carrying an AK?
MomSense
I’m totally channeling Peggy Noonan in my ” methodology” but it feels like the gun nuts have expanded their mission from resisting tyranny and defending their second amendment rights to include using their firearms to reassert dominance in any situation where they even perceive that they are not getting sufficient respect and obedience based on being a white male.
The more society changes, the more resentful they become. I don’t know if any of you have had run ins with them but my experiences have been really frightening. These are not the same gun nuts of even 5-6 years ago.
Mandalay
The headline from Michael Dunn’s trial today: Michael Dunn trial: ‘No choice’ but to shoot teen over loud music
Who do these thugs think they are, taking away choice from law abiding murderers?
Plus ça change, plus c’est la même chose.
boatboy_srq
@MomSense: 5-6 years ago there wasn’t a Blah President. That seems to have changed everything.
Amir Khalid
@KG:
The banana suit was perfectly legal, of course. And apparently, it’s also perfectly legal there to brandish one’s firearms in public — excuse me, to “open-carry”. The worker’s real offence was soliciting for business by the roadside without a permit.
boatboy_srq
@KG: Can’t you hear the 911 recording? “Um, there’s this guy, acting all weird, wearing some fruit costume… oh, and he’s armed…. Well, no, he hasn’t shot anyone as far as I’ve seen… oh… we-ell, alright then. Thanks.[click]”
Cervantes
So … 221-201.
Boehner got 28 Republican votes, including himself and Cantor. Ryan said no (cf. the recent hypothesis that he is running towards the middle).
2 Democrats voted against their party.
Brendan in NC
@Trollhattan: good – I’m covered then!!!
Baud
@MomSense:
Whatcha drinkin’, MomSense?
MomSense
@Baud:
Cabernet.
MomSense +2
/lightweight
greennotGreen
The banana suit is the official uniform of his “well-regulated militia.”
Gin & Tonic
I’m confused. I thought the AK-47 was a Commie weapon, not a Murkan one.
Baud
@MomSense:
Just +8 more and you’ll have drunk a whole quarter-Noonan.
Mandalay
@Cervantes: Name and shame:
Mandalay
@Cervantes:
Name and shame:
MomSense
@boatboy_srq:
Ayuh.
Suffern ACE
@Mandalay: Is this the one where the shooter was drunk and the kids were shot for grudgingly turning down the volume? I mean they muttered! And were grudging!
MomSense
@Baud:
Another +8?!?!
Damn but that explains a lot.
Bjacques
Banana Guy looks like a Klansman who pissed the bed and didn’t bother to wash the sheet before putting it on.
rikyrah
See..some folks just need an old-fashioned ass whooping.
Mandalay
@Suffern ACE:
Yep. But we can’t know whether the shooter was drunk since he fled the scene. He claims that one of the kids got out of his SUV and threatened to kill him, but that is contradicted by independent witnesses and evidence which showed that he pumped 10 bullets into a car full of teenagers.
So I guess he’ll get a $25 fine, and be warned that in future he shouldn’t get caught.
danielx
Guy’s carrying an AK around on a public street.
But he’s wearing a banana suit.
Well, I’M certainly reassured about the sanity and common sense of the AK carrier. How not?
Actually, these open carry guys really don’t understand or believe that the rest of us don’t applaud them for standing up for their rights or that instead we think they’re just a bunch of assholes.
Southern Beale
Texas Open Carry? These are the same people who want us to see a guy wearing an AK-47 and think it’s perfectly normal but piss their pants over a homeless guy with a garden trowel, right? Why yes, it is.
These people are fucking loons. Can’t take them seriously.
Jeffro
They’re going to keep up with these crazy attempts at civil rights era analogies until someone (the media? the Dems? me?) starts a) connecting all of them and pointing out this insane sense of victimization they have, and b) laughing at them hysterically in public.
the Conster
@MomSense:
Since Obama was democratically elected they’ve let their freak flag fly, which boils down to that they don’t believe in consent, because it wasn’t them that consented to being governed by the ni-clang. They’re “forced” into asserting themselves with their 2nd amendment rights in every situation now, because freedom.
Jeffro
@KG: You’re close…what he’s trying to say, I think, is that both “minorities” were equally oppressed(!) and therefore SOMEbody had to stand up for gun rights(!!)
Because you know, those poor gun owners, we liberals keep shoving them to the back of the bus every. freakin’. day.
jl
@danielx:
” But he’s wearing a banana suit. ”
He was wearing the upper half of a banana suit.
I’m tired of people who have no understanding of banana costumes trying to discuss the issue people in banana costumes waking around town brandishing weapons. You’re ignorance of the topic allows me to avoid taking any of your concerns seriously, ever again.
But, seriously, I did learn something from this post. I did not know banana costumes had separable upper and lower halves. I always imagined that they zipped along a seam in the peel. That info might come in handy someday.
Like, if we have to fight off an invasion of giant alien fruit flies. You people won’t be laughing at people dressed in banana costumes and carrying AK-47s then, will you?
Jeffro
@Jeffro: See – the examples keep pouring in:http://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/rush-limbaugh-michael-sam-homosexuality-assualt-heterosexual
The darned gays have ruined Rush’s last, best bastion of American maleness (also, tight pants!)
jl
@Jeffro: If it turns out Sam can play NFL football, Rush will start rambling on about the favoritism shown by liberal media towards gay football players. A few years from now, he’ll be saying he was the first to have the guts to call out the evil plot.
Jeffro
@jl: Rush had a similar problem with Donovan McNabb as well – he was the media’s favorite, held to a different standard because DM’s black.
Yet, Tony Romo? Jay Cutler? Not a whisper.
Shoot, even my 8 year old knows that Romo sucks…
maythirteenth
ummm…if Rosa Parks had open carried on that bus she would have been killed.
jl
@Jeffro: Yeah, I was riffing over the sad and ignorant bigot spectacle Rush threw when he made up the loony idea that the first black NFL quarterbacks were shown favoritism.
I’ve never hated on Tebow like some others, but the fuss about his playing skills were always mystery to me. But were there any Rushbo rants on Tebow? Seriously, I am curious.
burnspbesq
@eric:
I’m sure the average wingnut gun nut will do extremely well in a fire-fight against a platoon of Marines.
burnspbesq
@Mandalay:
I am far from the world’s most experienced trial lawyer, but given the state of the evidence at this point in the trial I think I could rip Mr. Dunn a new one on cross-examination.
Jeffro
@jl: My bad, you had it right the first time w/o my help!
Tebow tidbits from Rush (great guess!):
http://www.rushlimbaugh.com/daily/2013/04/29/pro_sports_2013_media_rejoices_over_tebow_release_gay_nba_player_comes_out_geno_smith_pays_the_black_tax
http://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2013/04/rush-limbaugh-if-tim-tebow-came-out-as-gay-he-could-guarantee-himself-a-spot-in-the-nfl-video/
patrick II
@Cacti:
If I remember correctly some early proponents of open carry in Tombstone had a serious disagreement with the local marshal and his brothers at the local corral.
rea
@patrick II: I believe the local dentist was involved as well. . .
Ruckus
I would think that an idiot walking around in a banana suit brandishing an assault rifle might be considered a lunatic, even in TX. But then again I think some one dressed in jeans and tee shirt walking around town with an assault rifle would be considered a lunatic.
What really gets me is that if everyone is supposed to be armed to protect themselves, wouldn’t this be exactly the sort of person you’d shoot on sight?
ArchPundit
I told Buster not to give George Michael an AK-47 after he came back from Basic Training.
/Lucille Bluth
HgMn
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=piWCBOsJr-w
I suppose the guy’s name was Mr Harrison ?
Paul in KY
@Suffern ACE: Maybe a military uniform?
Paul in KY
@eric: See, I recognized this one as made up! The ‘nazi Russia’ touch sealed it for me!
Paul in KY
@Gin & Tonic: It is. An excellent commie weapon that was patterned on an excellent Nazi weapon.
Paul in KY
@burnspbesq: Hell, yeah! Wolverines!
Sondra
@jl:
These people have a curious cognitive disability which defies my understanding. Trying to understand their syntax is beyond me too, but they seem to understand each other.
It’s a secret language: sort of pig latin + word salad. Sarah Palin has mastered it and they all understand when they speak to each other. I don’t think they intend us to understand.
psunami
@Laertes: ah…so not sitting in the back of the bus is “rubbing their noses” in the face of…whom? All rights are there to be exercised by the citizens, and in no case is exercising ANY of these rights “rubbing your nose” as you put it, in anyone’s face.
Another Holocene Human
@Jeffro: Black twitter, my friend.