Clingy elitist
Posted By Russ Emerson on September 21, 2008 at 4:15 pm
Via Hot Air: Joe Biden, on the campaign trail, decided to reach out to clingy gun owners in Virginia.
In an out-of-nowhere attempt to reassure a southwestern Virginia labor crowd about gun owners’ rights, Biden — who regularly scores “F” ratings from the National Rifle Association — warned Obama that if “he tries to fool with my Beretta, he’s got a problem.”
“I guarantee you Barack Obama ain’t taking my shotguns, so don’t buy that malarkey,” Biden said Saturday at the United Mine Workers of America’s annual fish fry in Castlewood, Virginia. “Don’t buy that malarkey. They’re going to start peddling that to you.”
Oh, it sounds good. But then he gave the game away:
Biden told the crowd that he himself is a gun owner. “I got two,” Biden said, “if he tries to fool with my Beretta, he’s got a problem. I like that little over and under, you know? I’m not bad with it. So give me a break. Give me a break.”
Emphasis mine.
Knowledgeable gun owners know that a Beretta over/under shotgun can cost upwards of $7,000. Not exactly the firearm of your average gun-and-religion-clinging working stiff. Heck, I’m now doing a fair amount better than average, and I can’t afford one of those. I’ll stick with my $450 Remington.
Beretta shotguns are very nice firearms indeed, but way out of the reach of the average shooter. You have to be either a competitive shotgunner (skeet, trap, etc.) or a very dedicated enthusiast to lay out the kind of money it takes to have one. I wouldn’t pay $1500 for a shotgun… and that’s the extreme low end of the price range for a new Beretta over/under.
So what Biden is saying here is that yes, he owns a shotgun. An expensive top-of-the-line shotgun. Useful for a narrow set of hunting situations and certain types of competition.
But the record shows that what he and his ilk don’t have is any desire for you or me to have our affordable semiautomatic rifles with politically incorrect cosmetic features like pistol grips or bayonet lugs. Or useful features like high-capacity magazines.
For some reason, this reminds me of a quick bit of South Park, in which a wealthy celeb advises the pleb on how to live his life:
Man: Look man, I work fourteen hours a day at the saw mill. I just got off work and I need to relax.
Rob Reiner: Well when I relax I just go to my vacation house in Hawaii!
Man: I ain’t got a vacation house in Hawaii!
Rob Reiner: Your vacation house in Mexico, then, whatever it is!
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