Gun does NOT equal cowboy!

[OnyxCougar]

Yahoo news
CHICAGO (Reuters) - Looking for just the right duvet cover to match your .38 Super?

Smith & Wesson Holding Corp., parent of the legendary 151-year-old handgun maker, is branching out into home decor, clothing and jewelry with a new catalog, just in time for Christmas.

The Scottsdale, Arizona-based company hopes the catalog, called Crossings by Smith & Wesson, will expand the gun maker's consumer base and product offerings. The company already sells hunting gear such as binoculars and scopes, and has licensing deals for products ranging from bicycles to golf clubs.

The move comes after handgun manufacturers, hit by dozens of lawsuits brought by U.S. cities seeking to hold gun makers responsible for gun violence, have cut back on production. The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms said there were 623,070 pistols manufactured in 2001, down sharply from the 962,901 made in 2000.

The Crossings catalog features cowgirl pillows inset with beaded studs and faux pearls by New York textile artist Judi Boisson, silk blouses with handmade turquoise and sterling silver buttons, and bedding in a "rustic yet romantic print."

I was thinking this would be a great source to get wolf and slang a Christmas gift, then I saw they decided to go all "cowboyish" and said, well, never mind.

From FoxNews
Tuesday, October 14, 2003

PHOENIX — One of the country's most recognizable brands — Smith & Wesson — is taking aim at consumers' love of the American West by going into the catalog business selling cowboy boot lamps and studded velvet jackets.


Smith & Wesson Holding Corp. (SWB), the gun maker's Scottsdale, Ariz.-based parent company, wants to attract new customers with the launch Tuesday of the Crossings by Smith & Wesson catalog. The catalog and its Web site are part of Smith & Wesson Interactive Management LLC (search), the parent company's newest division.

"We're trying to reach a more dynamic mix of customers and we're pushing the brand name as much as we can," said Colton Melby, president of Smith & Wesson Holding. "The opportunity to get out and make the name known in different circles, that's what we're after."

Catalogs offering teakwood tables, horsehead soap dish sets, cigar store Indian ornaments, faux elephant suede skirts, turquoise rimmed jewelry and copper silk shantung blouses should begin arriving in homes this week, said Amy Armstrong, a spokeswoman for Smith & Wesson Holding Corp.

About 70 percent of consumers targeted by the catalogs are not current Smith and Wesson customers, Melby said. The company is targeting women 30 to 60 years old who are homeowners and have higher incomes than the U.S. average, Armstrong said.

Company officials would not predict sales from the catalog business.

An estimated 148 million Americans shop from home, according to the Direct Marketing Association Inc.

Smith & Wesson's home and fashion catalog venture follows the gun maker's attempts to rebound from slumping handgun sales.

Sales began to drop after some consumers abandoned the company, angry over its 2000 agreement with the Clinton administration to install safety locks on all its guns and adopt other safety measures and marketing changes.

Gun rights supporters had accused Smith & Wesson of selling out, and some vowed to boycott the company. Still, nearly 87 percent of Americans recognize the 151-year-old Smith & Wesson brand, according to the company.

The Smith & Wesson logo appears on some items in the catalog but it's not always displayed prominently.

From a business sense, the catalog is a way to expose more people to the brand, said Jim Gardner, editor of San Diego-based Guns Magazine. "Not everybody is going to buy a $900 weapon but they might like that brand," he said.

Smith & Wesson Holding also licenses the company's name for use on golf clubs and markets flashlights and police and consumer bikes.

By launching unrelated products, gun manufacturers are seeking wider acceptance, said Tom Diaz, senior policy analyst at the Violence Policy Center (search).

"One of the things the gun industry has pushed for is to get away from the image as something sinister and portray the industry as a sport," said Diaz, author of Making a Killing, The Business of Guns in America.

The catalog link

[wolf]

Bruce sent me a link to the catalog site ... I've ordered a copy because I still have a preference to paging through a catalog whilst sitting upon the throne to clicking through an online catlog. Much of the stuff seems kind of fru-fru faux cowboy. Don't get me wrong, BEAUTIFUL, but fru-fru. This little guy IS amazingly cute though.

A lot of folks have issues with S&W right now anyway, although things are getting better ... there was a period during the *ahem* Clinton years while S&W was owned by a British company and the company entered into what was perceived by many as a "deal with the devil", going along with some ideas and demands by the gun control crowd in an attempt to position themselves as continuing to have a market share as more restrictive bans and manufacturing controls got put into place. Once this became known, a lot of people stopped buying S&W handguns, a lot of dealers stopped stocking them except for special orders. Also, there were significant quality control problems with a lot of the handguns produced, including the Walthers, which S&W manufactures in America. I've read a few things indicating that the boycott is oficially over.

I have an interest in the cowboy action shooting thing, and hope to get to some of the events or rendezvous I haven't managed to yet. I have a blackpowder revolver, which I found out last weekend is one heck of a lot of fun, although I do now better understand why Custer lost at Little Bighorn. If you have to load powder, ball, and percussion cap into the thing under pressure, and the enemy is whizzing arrows atcha as fast as he can pull the string back, you are DEAD.

[xoxoxoBruce]

If you have to load powder, ball, and percussion cap into the thing under pressure, and the enemy is whizzing arrows atcha as fast as he can pull the string back, you are DEAD.

And don't forget to smear the bearfat on the back end of the cylinder to make sure it doesn't flash over to the next chamber. Or is it a single shot?

[be-bop]

Having read this post and tried to understand the humour ! It begs the question "Whats the thing you guys across the pond have about guns".
This is a serious question because there is a saying that what happens in the states happens in the UK within 5-10 years.
Is it because you have the right to bear arms? or is it some macho frontier thing.
The UK news now is full of drive by shootings,kids here are buying replica guns as a fashion accessory.Thank God most can't get real guns but an article in todays press give details of guns for drugs swaps by paramilitary's from Northern Ireland and black gangs in the cities of Manchester and London.No doubt Gangsta culture and rap shows guns=power.
Educate me because I'm confused.

[Undertoad]

In a culture founded on individualism, the right to power goes all the way down to the individual. And at the same time, the individual recognizes his or her responsibility to defend his/her self, and the most responsible in some ways will not accept society's assistance in their own defense.

Can someone put that in smaller words?

not smaller like this you bozos

[lumberjim]

In a cltre fndd on indvdlsm, th rght to pwr gs all the wy dwn to th indvdl. nd at th sme tme, the indvdl rcgnzs hs or hr rspnsbty to dfnd hs/hr slf, nd th mst rspnsble in sme wys wll nt acpt scty's asstce in thr own dfns.

[lumberjim]

sorry...sorry everyone....very sorry

my fault

wont happen again

sorry

[xoxoxoBruce]

Thank God most can't get real guns

And that my friend is exactly why you have;

The UK news now is full of drive by shootings,

Didn't ever occur to you that "When guns are outlawed, only outlaws will have guns" is more than a bumper sticker. If you can't protect yourself who will? The Police? Their job is to investigate and solve crimes, which means the crime has already been committed.
When that asshole shot up all those school kids, you decided that the best way to prevent that was to disarm the people that don't commit crimes and you're surprised that the people that do commit crimes are having a field day. Well, doh.
As soon as the people were disarmed the crime rate went through the roof. I read it was so bad in urban areas the police won't even respond to non life threating calls. I don't know if that's true or not, but it will be sooner or later.
I wonder if the Aussies are having the same problem.
Irish, druggies, gangstas, does it really matter to you who blows your head off?

Gangsta culture and rap shows guns=power.

No common sense and history shows guns = power. The power to keep yourself alive. If you want to, of course.

[lumberjim]

bruce,
am i detecting some anti-limey sentiment?

[OnyxCougar]

Where the hell did you detect a trace of anti-limey sentiment?

[lumberjim]

just the tone cougar

im very perceptive....
...for instance......i dont think you like me so much

[Uryoces]

Michael Moore seems to point out that the US media tries to generate the biggest frenzy it can; be afraid and consume as much as possible. It doesn't sound like a logical thing, but I stopped watching the newsdroids several years ago, and I stopped conceal-carrying my CZ. I just didn't see any need to. I love my guns, and want to get a few more choice weapons, and I'd be pissed if any more knee-jerk legislation gets passed because two wackos walked into a school.

This is about the only thing that Michael Moore and I agree on. Right Michael? *Mmmph!*

[xoxoxoBruce]

Not at all.
Anti-stupidity sentiment is rampant , however. England is not the first to make this mistake. History repeats itself for those that don't learn from it.

edit - I was answering Ljim, but Ury snuck in there.

[lumberjim]

also, the phrasing of anti- limey was a little tiny joke

see, "limey" is generally considered to be an anti english term, and my questioning bruce's "anti-limey" sentiment was a teenie bit amusing....to me, anyway

[JeepNGeorge]

Originally posted by be-bop
Having read this post and tried to understand the humour ! It begs the question "Whats the thing you guys across the pond have about guns".

If you ever see a watermelon explode due to .44 magnum hollow points you'd understand.

I grew up around guns all my life. My current collection (most given to me when my father passed) is approximatly 75 guns. Most are collector types and several have never been shot. It was just a way of life. Guns allow me to get meat. Growing up in rural oklahoma with a stay at home mother, meat was not something sold at the local Krogers or SafeWay. Hunting was no hobby but a way of life. Sure we could have made it without it, but a couple of extra deer sure did help our butcher cows last longer. Fresh tree-rat(squirrel) tastes almost as good as they look. There's something very empowering knowing that if I were affected by a blackout similar to the one the northeast faced earlier this year, I wouldn't have to go without fresh meat just because the scanners at Wal-Mart were down. (That and it's also nice to know said .44 will make one helluva hole in a strung out cranksta gangsta if he chooses to take what is not his(which is becoming more of a problem here in the midwest than deer eating up gardens in suberbia,USA))