I would like to preface this post by stating one simple truth: If all the executives at US gun companies had one tenth of the cojones that Ronnie Barrett possesses, there would be no threat to the Second Amendment in this country.
This is an incontrovertable fact.
Coincidentally, "facts" seemed to be the one thing in short supply at the desk of one Ms. Rose French, alleged journalist and perpetrator of a drive-by on one of the most respected businessmen in Middle Tennessee. Armed with the intellect of a turnip and the ethics of a syphilitic rat, this moral cripple lied her way into an interview with Mr. Barrett and a tour of his plant. After two and a half hours of letting facts bounce off of her well-armored ignorance in much the same way that bullets from Barrett's rifles bounce off tanks, she repaired to her cave, whipped out her Ouiji Board, and channeled an article straight from the mind of Tom Diaz, an article that would have done Joseph Goebbels proud.
Anyhow, I come here not to bury French, but to praise Barrett.
This is a guy who has never flinched from the Meejia. When Ms. French attempted homicide, he didn't roll over and show his belly in a craven attempt to demonstrate what a nice guy he was; he counterattacked. When the public overlords in California banned their serfs from owning his weapons, Barrett retaliated by refusing to sell to government agencies in CA, and mentions that fact in his advertisements. When the LAPD sent their M-82 to Barrett for servicing, he publicly refused to fix it, or to ship it back, telling them that if they wanted their damn broken gun back, they could send someone to pick it up. Here is a guy who instinctively knows that The Good Guys aren't going to win by waving flintlock muskets; Ronnie would have waved an M-82.
Folks have sometimes expressed astonishment that we use big ol' pictures of M4's on our billboards and actively pimp machine guns in our TV ads; what they don't understand is that nobody ever won a war by bending over backwards to make their enemies feel comfortable.
(SayUncle has point on this story.)
Barrett is a great guy. I got to with with his company last month, they are very nice and competent people.
ReplyDeletePhotos should be in their annual and also Guns and Weapons for Law Enforcement early in 2006.
This really makes me want to buy something from the man.
ReplyDeleteOf course, if I can use that justification on my wife to buy a nifty fifty...
Barrett is indeed a mensch. I bought a Barrett T-shirt when I learned about his stand against the California agencies; it seemed the least I could do. I dearly wish I was rich enough to spring for a M82A1 and really show some gratitude.
ReplyDelete(Purely as an expression of principle, you understand...)
Yippie, they finally updated the armory blog. Odly enough I actually check it regularly, and have been surprised at the sparse updating. See, that's the thing with the internet... people do check pages, they just probably don't live close to you.
ReplyDeleteIf Ronnie can wave an M82 over his head one handed, he's a better man than me.
ReplyDeleteJust doing it two handed would be a good shoulder workout.
Sometimes one has to strain a metaphor a bit. ;)
ReplyDelete