What, no state gun?

LITTLE ROCK — How did we let this happen? Florida is usually in the vanguard when it comes to fetishizing guns. We used to be able to take pride in knowing that this is where the NRA gets to act out its wildest fantasies.

So how could we let Utah, Arizona and Indiana get the jump on us when it comes to designating an official state gun?

Especially Arizona, which found it meaningful to honor the firearm just months after U.S. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, one of its members of Congress, was shot in the head with a gun legally purchased by Jared Lee Loughner, who is accused of killing six and injuring 15 outside a shopping center in Tucson.

Arizona, showing an uncharacteristic measure of restraint, decided to honor the Colt Single Action Army Revolver—the weapon of choice for the mass murder of Navajos in another century—rather than the semi-automatic Glock that Loughner allegedly used for mass murder at the shopping center.

Classy move.

Arizona’s designation of the Colt last year followed Utah’s selection of a Browning automatic pistol. And two months ago, Indiana’s lawmakers bestowed official firearm status to the Grouseland Rifle, an antique made by one of Indiana’s first militia leaders, a guy who made his mark by—you guessed it—killing the American Indians who were there first.

So Florida could go the historical route, and pick a firearm that was used to shoot the Seminoles, who had the nerve to be here first, or perhaps we could go the contemporary route by honoring the Kel-Tec 9mm handgun, which is made in Florida.

The Kel-Tec is the lightweight, inexpensive weapon that police say Florida’s most famous gun owner, George Zimmerman, used three months ago to kill Trayvon Martin, an unarmed teenager walking in a Sanford neighborhood.

In other places, that event might make the Kel-Tec notorious, but Zimmerman is getting $1,000 a day in contributions to his legal defense fund, presumably from gun enthusiasts.

Other guns to consider might be those that would be useful in killing the official state wildlife. The important thing is to make a quick, rash decision on this. If Florida doesn’t jump on the official-state-firearm bandwagon quickly, we could lose our status as an NRA playground. Other states are eager to fill the void.

Pennsylvania is looking to join the list of official gun states. And Texas is bound to be in the mix, seeing as how legislators in that state have found another novel way to express their gun love: by not allowing state university IDs to be used as voter identification, but allowing concealed-weapons permits as valid ID at the polls.

See what we’re up against? With the annual firearms-death rate in Florida at 12.4 for every 100,000 people, we’re in the top half of deadliest gun states. But without an official gun, we’re not exactly standing our ground.

—–––––

Frank Cerabino is a columnist for the Palm Beach Post.