Utah wants to make the Browning M1911 semi-automatic pistol its official state gun and, surprisingly, certain individuals are displeased, feeling that with all the mass shootings of late, proclaiming a gun as an official symbol of the state and its citizens is in poor taste. Lawmakers, however, have been quick to dust off the old shopworn cliche, "guns don't kill people; people kill people" (convieniently leaving out the "...usually with guns" part), believing this makes it OK and/or normal to have an official state gun. Sure, the gun's inventor, John Browning, was a Utah resident in the early 1900s, but so what?
Also, just a quick note on the whole "guns don't kill people" thing. Guns do, in fact, kill people. I mean, yes, human beings have to load the gun and pull the trigger, but the gun is doing most of the heavy lifting. People don't throw bullets at people, right? A bullet is only effective when it is shot out of a gun, correct? No, I'm asking. I haven't been around a lot of guns.
The argument that Utah should hold off on choosing a state gun until after America has dried its collective eyes and had time to come to terms with the shootings in Arizona because doing so now, while everything's still raw, would be seen as insensitive is dumb. Utah should hold off on making the Browning M1911 Utah's state gun because having a state gun is just weird. Oddly enough, a state gun wouldn't be the weirdest "official state" thing Utah has got on the books. Utah claims 24 state symbols, including a state tree, state cooking pot, and state folk dance, among others. Here now is a list of a few other state symbols of Utah:
-State Animal: Rocky Mountain Elk
-State Fruit: Cherry
-State Chair: Easy
-State Time: 11:45 AM
-State Cooking Pot: Dutch Oven
-State Vegetable: Spanish Sweet Onion
-State 'Friend' from the Show Friends: Joey
-State Clown Type: Rodeo
-State Ninja Turtle: Donatello
-State Hymn: Utah We Love Thee
-State Metallica Song: Seek & Destroy
-State Adam Sandler Character: Opera Man
-State Favorite Feature on a Man: Lips
-State Osmond: Merrill
Oh, Utah!
