"It's the silly season"

Montana Gov. Brian Schweitzer thinks most gun owners, particularly the ones with blogs, are partisan, delusional, users and silly. He's "concerned about the backlash against Dan Cooper." You'll find it here, in a follow-up USA Today story.

Cooper has either resigned or has been ousted in order to put distance between him and his company. He said there is nothing he won't do for his 38 employees, innocents who had "internet anger" turned on them. However, he didn't answer any questions regarding his plans regarding his stake in Cooper Arms of Montana, Inc., and other roles he might play with the company.

Of course, Bob Ricker, executive director of the anti-Second Amendment front group, American Hunters and Shooters Association, had nothing good to say about any gun owner who objected to Cooper's poor public relations and business decisions.

Cooper is right. He's the victim. The paying or potential customers who complained are wrong. They are paranoid and are too silly to understand. And anyone who e-mails or posts different points of view such as Sebastian of Snowflakes in Hell are white, racist, gun nuts.

I can't speak for Sebastian. He writes and posts more effectively. But when I watched the 1994 Biden Crime Bill, which contained a ban on firearms solely for subjective, cosmetic reasons, pass through Congress to rapidly be signed into law by President Bill Clinton, I knew it was a first step toward a total ban on firearms ownership. I watched it unfold on C-SPAN Sept. 13, 1994.

It wasn't a delusion. Still flushed from celebration, the antis leaked plans for "reasonable, commonsense" restrictions such as arsenal taxes, restrictions on the amount of ammunition and reloading components one could possess in their homes, one-gun-a-month limits, a broader Brady Ban II, and efforts to demonize the "gun culture" such as discouraging people from wearing camouflage clothing and exploiting division in the ranks of gun owners.

Never again! If foreign interests or a nice guy like Dan Cooper buckle under or sell out the workers and consumers of companies such as Smith & Wesson in 1999-2000 or Cooper Arms of Montana, Inc., in 2008, there's going to be a lot of gun owners watching, writing and spending money elsewhere.

Dan, WAKE UP! You endorsed and funded the same candidate Sarah Brady is backing! Have a few of your 38 employees draw you pictures or slap you back into reality. Talk to some other people in your industry. Know your customers.

Your fancy, wood-stocked rifles possess barrels made by Wilson Arms, the outfit that made my AR-15 barrel. A Cooper rifle can kill at too far of a range, are deadly sniper rifles, and can penetrate body armor. Cruel white guys used them to slaughter poor Bambi on government land. When the Obamacons come for my AR-15, your fine hunting rifles aren't that much farther down their list.

Dan, stop blubbering to USA Today and humbly apologize to your 38 workers, your network of dealers, your suppliers such as Wilson Arms, and your industry. Then, made amends to the honorable people that helped you in your climb from mowing yards to heading a company making fine rifles.

Dan, those people are noble, tough, smart, and will prove forgiving if an apology comes from the contrite heart of a fellow rifleman. They're straight shooters. The antis, including Sen. Obama, will maim you at a time and place not of your choosing.