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)