KANSAS CITY, Mo., May 22 - A Missouri car dealer has a message for Democratic presidential frontrunner Barack Obama: Midwesterners love their guns.
Mark Muller, the owner of Max Motors in Butler, Missouri south of Kansas City, on Thursday said sales have soared at his auto and truck business since launching a promotion this week that promises buyers a $250 credit for a handgun or a $250 gas card with every purchase.
Every buyer so far “except one guy from Canada and one old guy” has elected to take the gun, Muller said in an interview with Reuters. He recommends his customers select a Kel-Tec .380 pistol.
“It’s a nice little handgun that fits in your pocket,” he said.
Muller said he came up with the promotion after stewing over comments made last month by Obama at a fundraiser for his presidential campaign in San Francisco. The Illinois senator, who narrowly defeated Democratic rival Sen. Hillary Clinton in Missouri’s primary, said that small-town Americans bitter over hard economic times sometimes “cling to guns and religion.”
“We did it because of Barack Obama. He said all those people in the Midwest, you’ve got to have compassion for them because they’re clinging to their guns and their Bibles. I found that quite offensive,” said Muller.
“We all go to church on Sunday and we all carry guns,” Muller said in the interview. “I’ve got a gun in my pocket right now. I have a rifle in my truck. We’ve got to shoot the coyotes out here, they’re attacking our cows, our chickens. We’re not clinging to nothing. We’re just damn glad to live in a free country where you can have a gun if you want. This is the way it ought to be.”
Muller said the dealership, which has as its logo a grimacing cowboy wielding a pistol, has sold more than 30 cars and trucks in the last three days, far more than its normal volume. Phone calls and inquiries on car purchases from people around the country have poured in, Muller said.
He’s also had six protesters show up outside his business.
There may be more on the way because Muller said his next promotion is going to be a King James Bible for any car-buying Muslim.
Click here for more Reuters 2008 campaign coverage.
- Photo credit: Reuters/John Gress (Obama speaks to supporters in Iowa); Max Motors (Mark Muller)
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I live in the great state of Texas in the great country of the U.S.A. When concealed carry was being sought in our state, then Gov. Ann Richards said that she would veto the law based on her “streets running red with blood ” philosopy. She was defeated in her bid for re-election and Geo. Bush became Gov. and signed the law into effect as he said he would. The doomsday philosophy of Ann and all the other anti-gunners has never materialized in Texas or any other state that has passed concealed carry laws. When the “assault” weapons ban sunsetted, once again the cry of the anti-gunners went out. “Streets red with blood “..”let the bloodletting begin” said the L.A. police chief. HASN”T HAPPENED !!!! AND NEVER WILL !! The anti’s thinking is that the fewer guns we have the less crime there will be. Wasn’t there crime before guns were invented ? people murdered before the invention of guns ? Rape ? Robbery ? Britain is a shinning example of how their gun control policy has failed miserably. Their answer to the rising crime rate ? Pass more restrictive laws. Which do absolutely nothing to lessen crime. A criminal is a person who doesn’t care how many laws you pass…he is after all, a criminal and all the laws in the world wouldn’t stop him from committing his deed. History has shown over and over what happens when people are disarmed and we still continue on the same course. More guns do not equate to more crime. Statistics show just the opposite. Ann thinks that everyone in the U.S.or anywhere else who has a gun wants to kill someone. The “streets will not run red with blood” When Jesus Christ was told that he was sitiing beneath a sword that was hanging on the wall his response was ” how else to fight evil ? “
- Posted by sergei pantelyAnother interesting bit of British Gun Control history is that the British Government faked a crime wave in order to pass the first restrictions. This officially came out because British Classified information is eventually declassified and released. Basically in the early 20th century, the British government was concerned that the Worker Uprisings taking place on the Continent would spread to Britain. They wanted to limit gun ownership, but needed public co-operation with limiting a fundamental Common Law Right. So they faked escalating crime statistics. Good British Subjects were convinced that though their neighborhoods seemed peaceful, elsewhere things were falling apart. They were promised that Peace and Order would be preserved if only they would surrender their firearms. So, they traded freedom for the promise of security, and received neither.
- Posted by dlynDear oldcorps76 interesting concept. I would like to read more on that historical scenerio. Any idea where I could find it. I have a neighbor who was on a Destoyer escort in WWII. He would love to know what he was protecting.
- Posted by Jeff GrossI have only been threatened by anyone with a gun on a few rare occassions during my life.
Almost every time I meet a person who has training in one of the Martial arts (judo, tai kwan do, etc) or boxing, they almost always run around threatening me or someone else.
My point is that people who are violent (have a personality that uses violence for harming others), find MANY WAYS TO HARM OTHERS. They do not just run to get guns or knives. I have seen this since I was a child. People who are violent will CONTINUE TO COMMIT CRIMES AND VIOLENT ACTS, REGARDLESS OF PEOPLE HAVING THE RIGHT TO BEAR ARMS! GUNS DO NOT CAUSE VIOLENCE OR CRIME!! STOP BLAMING GUNS FOR ALL THE PROBLEMS IN THE WORLD.
- Posted by Charles PKate, you expound the most interesting illogic! Your belief that the presence of more guns in your society must inevitably lead to a greater incidence of their wrongful use, is logically equivalent to believing that the presence of more uncastrated males in your society must inevitably lead to more rapes. But then, perhaps castrating all British males seems reasonable to you, just as a precautionary measure, of course? Or would you say that you “wouldn’t want to know” any males who remained, shall we say, intact? In fact, there is a large volume of well researched data available today that utterly refutes your belief. These data, which are international in scope, clearly show that an increase of guns in the general society is strongly correlated with a reduction in the overall rate of violent crime and vice versa. Your violent crime rate the UK is now more than twice ours in the USA, and the change (it used to be much lower than ours) has happened only since your implementation of draconian gun bans beginning around 1996. Even if you resist the obvious conclusion that the presence of those additional guns is responsible for the decrease in violence, they have clearly NOT been responsible for anything remotely resembling the increase you erroneously presume must occur.
- Posted by GeoffKate-
If the law-abiding people of your country were not prohibited by your silly government from defending themselves with handguns, I seriously doubt knife crime would be on the rise.
- Posted by Sam MosinPlease keep in mind that when seconds count, a really efficient police department can have someone there to help you in a matter of minutes.
Kate–I am going to pig-pile on you–hope you don’t mind, Ducks….
Your Blessed Isles began to implement gun control laws in an effort to control those recalcitrants, the Irish, who had a nasty habit of acting out their desire not to be ruled and exploited by the Crown, as it is quaintly known. Dating back to 1903, the gun control habit became so ingrained that by 1940, when facing German divisions with little more than the shivering escapees from Dunkirk and ….pikes..yes, Ducks, pikes, with which to spear invading Huns, how uncivilized of them….your Government appealed to US sportsmen, urgently I might add, to send their privately owned firearms so the Home Guard might have a chance to die honorably when what was then viewed as the inevitable cross-channel invasion. And ‘we’ did…hundreds of thousands of revolvers emerged from those American pockets to which you so disdainfully refer, as well as rifles off of racks in (undoubtedly) ill smelling, flag-worshiping, God-cultic Frontier homes…and made the trip overseas in convoys manned by rank, boorish Colonialist able seamen. So your Home Guard was armed though the generosity and camaraderie of those who you choose so blithely to disrespect.
The best of your nation today resides, wearing body armor, in places like Basra. Sadly, they have to come home to the likes of you, and a sadly feminized and nannied shell of what was once a righteous colossus….
- Posted by oldcorps76Study your own history Kate, 100 years ago every English Gentleman carried a pistol in his pocket when he went out, and violent crime was exceedingly rare. Today ALL weapons are illegal and the average Londoner is afraid to go out to dinner.
- Posted by dlyn“In fact when I lived in the States I was discriminated against because I do not believe in God.”
Oh really ?! How so Kate? You are aware that there are armies of lawyers eager to get you money if you can back up that statement. I would wager that you mean some people frowned at you or disagreed with you. Perhaps someone did not invite you to their dinner party. Just as YOU would treat someone you knew to own a gun. This is not Discrimination. It is simply free choice. You are free to believe or not–we are free to be friends with you –or not.
And by the way, you are NOT free to carry a knife in England, people do anyway. Imagine that.
As for measuring freedom by how people feel, have you seen the stats on how many Londoners are afraid to leave their houses in the evening ? Are they ‘free’ by your standards? In your “gun free” “all weapons forbidden” country ?
Please do not think I am anti-UK far from it. That is why it saddens me so to see where our friends have gone.
- Posted by dlynI admire this guy! He is the spirit of America. If we dont like something we say it. I hope this will encourage other businesses and people to get involved as our right to SELF PROTECTION(For you Brits who are subjects NOT citizens)is very important to us. If we elect an anti gun president we will be no better off than any other unarmed nation in this world. They stil have just as much violence and killing as we do but they have to sit around and wait for someone to come to their rescue. At least we have the option to protect ourselves and our property!(well in most states anyway) We need to look at what this country was founded on and what the constitution was written for. If we did there wouldnt be an Obama in the run for president. I say give em hell Mr. Muller and be proud of what you are doing!
- Posted by CaseyI am a woman that carries a Glock 19 every time I leave the house. I think in todays economy that a small business owner found a unique way to bring customers into his dealership.
Great way to sell a car!
- Posted by DebbieKate wrote: “I am proud to be British but I don’t go around saying that our country is free because it incites violent crime. I don’t know anybody with a gun and nor do I want to.”
Kate not not only fails to comprehend the nature of freedom, and the nature of violent crime, but she is bigoted and narrow-minded. If you don’t know anyone with a gun, then how can you know you’d not want to know such a person? Hands and arms can hold, protect, and defend against injustice and violence. They can also be used to strike out and assault in an unjust and criminal manner. Hands and arms. Humans are tool-making animals…and guns, which are tools created by humans, can be used to protect or to strike out in criminal violence. But the hand, as well as the gun, is inanimate - it is nothing without the mind and it is a human mind, a human decision, that commands the hands and the guns that extend from them.
Kate, one last question from another perspective. Do you recall a little incident called WWII? Did your mother, grandmother, or great-grantmother tell you stories? When you claim that you don’t wish to know anyone with a gun, it makes me wonder how you view the nature and outcome of WWII?
- Posted by Carl in ChicagoI only want to live in a country where its citizens (i.e. not subjects) have the freedom to own and carry firearms. That is the fundamental difference why the United States is independent and not still a “crown colony”. Ordinary citizens with guns threw off the mantle of oppression. Darfur is only a genocide because the victims can’t fight back. Gun control and knife control are losing propositions because they are premised on the ridiculous notion that criminals will follow those laws! The only answer is to level the playing field with the criminals. Perhaps the answer is to deputize all citizens who wish to participate and make the largest civilian police force in the world. That would drive criminals to easier countries like Canada, Mexico and most of Europe where citizens won’t fight back or aren’t allowed to by their “leaders” (i.e. Great Britain - where self-defense infriges on the occupation of criminals).
- Posted by Karl Cthe lovely part about living in america is the fact that almost 300 years ago the men who wrote our decleration of independence realized that to protect natural rights ( see the bill of rights for a short tour )the people of america need firearms to protect against any extremist government ie. BRITAIN. So yes you live in the U.K. i am a true blue atheist but i know without a doubt no governemnt here in america can not do to its people what every other country has done in all recorded history ie. IRELAND, SCOTLAND. And oh yeah how about the fact that more people flee there own countries to live here in my FREE COUNTRY than any other. Including the ENTIRE UK. So yes i cover my heart with my hand and keep the other on my pistol because im waiting for someone to try and collect some back taxs that they feel are owed (by thie i mean ENGLAND).
- Posted by justin[...] us some different standards. Why are they offering money for guns with their cars? Check out this quote from Mark Muller, the owner of Max Motors in Butler, Missouri south of Kansas City: We did it because of Barack [...]
- Posted by misunderestimation » Blog Archive » Message to Obama: Buy a Car Get a GunOk I live in the UK and things aren’t perfect here. I am proud to be British but I don’t go around saying that our country is free because it incites violent crime. I don’t know anybody with a gun and nor do I want to. Knife crime is on the rise here amongst teenagers. We need to get knives off the street. There is a lot more to it than that and it is easier said than done. But it is not being swept under the carpet. I don’t feel as though we are celebrating the fact that you can carry a knife with you.. woohoo.. look at how free we are.. we have had so many teenagers die at the hands of deadly weapons.. just goes to show how free we are! Let us put our hands on our hearts, sing along to that nice tune of the Star Spangled Banner.. being careful to keep that other hand wrapped around that nice revolver in our pockets which that lovely man gave us when we picked up our new car this morning.
Most unfair, apology in advance.
We live on a farm, and keep guns to protect our property.
If we were ninja’s, perhaps a knife would work on the vermin.
Oh, we don’t discriminate against unbelievers, as we also do not believe.
P.S. If folks are not in your circle, why care what they believe about you and yours? Don’t say and chances are they won’t know…Religion is not a polite conversation. Gracefully exit the conversation/company!
- Posted by GeoII“”There may be more on the way because Muller said his next promotion is going to be a King James Bible for any car-buying Muslim.”"
They (me, you, I, we) don’t make words for such ones ~
The snip I caught on television, had a different spokesperson than the one pictured here ~
The gentleman is of color, and clearly stated gun vs gas tallied 80 vs 20%.
Print vs media?
Crafty marketing?
- Posted by geoIILol.. a free country…
Hmm… not sure I would want to live in a country where carrying guns is a symbol of their freedom. This only increases the likelihood that a crime can become violent or even fatal. The more people who carry guns the more they will be used.
I do find all of this rubbish about living in a free country farcical. Ok so repression is not as blatant as it is in other countries but go ask that homeless guy on the street how he feels. Or how about some of the other parts of society that are discriminated against? See how people of different ethnicities, homosexuals and poor people feel. In fact when I lived in the States I was discriminated against because I do not believe in God. Isn’t that my choice? If I am wrong then I may go to whatever hell there may be. But I live a good, honest life. I don’t break the law and I respect those around me. If there is a God and he chooses to send me to hell after living my life as a good person then that is not the kind of God I want to worship. Anyway, rather than get into some huge debate about that my point is that I was discriminated against.
Ok I live in the UK and things aren’t perfect here. I am proud to be British but I don’t go around saying that our country is free because it incites violent crime. I don’t know anybody with a gun and nor do I want to. Knife crime is on the rise here amongst teenagers. We need to get knives off the street. There is a lot more to it than that and it is easier said than done. But it is not being swept under the carpet. I don’t feel as though we are celebrating the fact that you can carry a knife with you.. woohoo.. look at how free we are.. we have had so many teenagers die at the hands of deadly weapons.. just goes to show how free we are! Let us put our hands on our hearts, sing along to that nice tune of the Star Spangled Banner.. being careful to keep that other hand wrapped around that nice revolver in our pockets which that lovely man gave us when we picked up our new car this morning.
- Posted by KateIf this guy wasn’t self-promoting and profiting from this issue, I might find his “quite offensive” remark meaningful.
If he votes republican, he’ll be shooting himself in the foot…symbolically, of course.
As to poster “Jack’s” comments about who makes up the “soul of this country”. I disagree.
The collective soul of this country resides in Our Best & Finest, regardless of economic and social class…who daily sacrifice their lives or limbs, sight, hearing and mental & physical health for all Americans, including politicians and car & truck salesmen.
Insofar as the basic post of this web log is concerned…while I don’t find it offensive, I do find it silly.
Jack
- Posted by JackYou are absolutely right Mr. Muller. Obama’s remarks were offensive, and a man with that kind of attitude toward the people that make up the soul of this country, should not be president.
- Posted by Jack