Arizonans like their guns – or so the reputation goes. It’s a reputation backed up by incidents like Tucson’s recent road rage altercation that left a man fatally shot in a Jack in the Box parking lot and January’s tragic mass shooting.
The gun-happy reputation is enhanced even further with tales of border shootings and home invasions, armed robberies at banks and Circle K.
More bolstering of the reputation comes from the state legislature’s hesitancy to back gun-control measures. Doing so, an Arizona Republic article explains, can easily spell the end of political ambitions – or even a career.
It’s gotten to the point where Arizona is frequently viewed as a trigger-happy state full of mayhem. Former U.S. Sen. Dennis DeConcini, who has supported gun-control measures in the past and now travels the country on the Arizona Board of Regents, told the Republic the common line he hears when others find out where he’s from.
“Now, people will say, ‘Oh, you’re from Arizona. I’m sorry.’”
When I moved to Tucson several years ago, one of my friends nonchalantly pulled a pistol from her purse and said, “Now that you live in Arizona, you have to get a gun.”
It really is that easy, with Tucson having a wider variety of gun choices than it has latest shoe styles. Options run the gamut from Smith & Wesson revolvers to never-fired Colt semi-automatics, from military pistols issued in 1840 to the sweet yet powerful Beretta with the classy walnut grips.
Some of the shoe styles only come in beige.
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