In a transparent attempt to wrest conservative leadership away from Wisconsin, Utah and Arizona name official state guns.

If it wasn’t for that little shindig across the pond, this would’ve been the story of the day:

The Colt revolver, a historic remnant from the shoot-em-up days of the old West, is now Arizona’s official gun.

Arizona Governor Jan Brewer on Thursday signed a bill into law that makes the Colt Single Action Army Revolver the state’s firearm, making Arizona only the second in the nation to have such a designation.

Fun headline, by the way:

Arizona Passes Gun Law, Asks Nation If Its Feeling Lucky, Punk

Utah was the first state to name an official state gun: the Browning model M1911 automatic pistol. Utah’s governor signed the bill last month. My question, obviously, is: how has Wisconsin fallen so far behind on this topic? Wisconsin, on the cutting edge of conservative governance?

How can this have happened?

Fer cry-eye. I guess one problem is: we don’t really have a gun that’s unique to Wisconsin in some way. Oh, we could go with the Thompson submachine gun, due to the John Dillinger/Babyface Nelson shootout up in Little Bohemia; or due to Al Capone having a hideout/castle way up north.

But the Thompson isn’t really unique to Wisconsin.

Have I reached a dead end? Ha! Of course not! My solution:

The House was engaged that day (February 8, 1858) in a heated debate over sectional issues. Northern representatives outnumbered those from the South and they pressed their parliamentary advantage, infuriating the few Southerners present. A fistfight between two members quickly turned into a general brawl, and during the fray Wisconsin Congressman John Fox Potter pulled the wig off a Southern opponent’s head. At this, a cry went up in the gallery that Potter had “taken a scalp.” After things settled down, Potter was covered in blood and forever marked by Southerners as an enemy.

Two years later, on April 5, 1860, tensions were mounting as the nation approached civil war. During a heated exchange on the House floor about slavery, Virginia congressman Roger Pryor felt so offended that he challenged Potter to a duel. The Wisconsin lawmaker accepted, and, as the person challenged, had the right to name the weapons and conditions. He specified bowie knives in a closed room. He later explained, “I felt it was a national matter – not any private quarrel – and I was willing to make sacrifices.”

Pryor’s second, however, refused the selection of weapons as “vulgar, barbarous, and inhuman.” Potter’s second replied that the custom of dueling itself was “barbarous and inhuman.” The District of Columbia police arrested both men to keep the peace, and the duel never occurred.

I hereby nominate the Bowie Knife for the Official Wisconsin State Weapon of Choice.

(Posted by The TrogloPundit.)

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