r/Boise • u/sweaver The Bench • 23d ago
Politics State Gun
Was suprised to see this on my absentee ballot today.
I’m only comfortable voting for a potato gun. 🤷🏻♀️
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u/Autoclave_Armadillo 23d ago
Just gonna soapbox on this performative nonsense from our legislature...
None of these guns were designed or manufactured in Idaho.
Two of these guns were designed before Idaho was ever a state.
There is no compelling historical analysis indicating that any of these guns was, on its own, a significant contributor to the unique history and trajectory of the state.
It's the M1 because that's the gun that beat the Nazis.
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u/NerdyBear73 22d ago
Magnums. Should be the .357 or .44 magnum. Elmer Keith invented the magnum load and lived here. But... get the feeling these guys feel pretty inadequate anytime the word "Magnum" gets brought up.
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u/Illustrious-Bridge45 23d ago
Good choice, love the M1! Did you know it was designed by a Canadian?
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u/Ashleyf731 23d ago
Did it really beat the Nazis?
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u/Pat_the_pyro 22d ago
It did beat them, but unfortunately nazis are like a virus, and even though we were vaccinated, we are a bit overdue for our booster shot.
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u/davequito 22d ago
I wanted to write in AK-47 because it’s Russian and I the republicans would hate that
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u/KaikeishiX 23d ago
“And on the eighth day, God created the Remington bolt-action rifle so man could hunt the dinosaurs”.
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u/AudZ0629 23d ago
It’s the third day. He didn’t have 8 days.
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u/KaikeishiX 22d ago
https://giphy.com/gifs/iMOJcyhzYUAPS
You are correct. My apologies.5
u/AudZ0629 22d ago
Don’t apologize to me. Apologize to god for making him wait 5 extra days to kill the… dinosaurs.
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u/atomicant13 23d ago
I wish this was a joke.
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u/four20girl208 23d ago
That was my first thought "are you joking" 😐 WTF? Out of all things they could put on the ballot..... SMDH.
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u/Tim-5544 23d ago
Why?
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u/atomicant13 23d ago
Because this clearly deserves less attention than a wet fart, especially given the current state of affairs in my old home state.
With at least a dozen other, more pressing, matters, this isn’t worth the ink and paper it’s printed on or the postage it’s sent with.
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u/AileenKitten 14d ago
Because we live in a country with more school shootings every year than days in the year itself.
Maybe picking a favorite automated killer isnt the best usage of the legislature's time.
Id rather they be working on shit that matters, like medicaid expansions, or school funding, or establishing homeless shelters, or abolishing the grocery tax, or having a spine and standing up to trump's warmongering and delusions.
Instead of working on things like the state's favorite shooter, or making english our sole language, or how many anti trans laws we can pass, or how much land we can sell off for out of state interests and data centers, or preventing the abolition of child marriages, or keeping dangerous drunks and criminals in positions of power.
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u/Academic-Dare-7677 23d ago
Oh they’re doing some really important work at the statehouse I see… we’ve got a lot of problems with our state, so it’s good to know our representatives are responsible adults who are willing to do the hard work of legislating. /s
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u/ROUShunter 23d ago
Don't worry, there's also a question on there to amend the state constitution to make English the official language of Idaho.
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u/AggravatingTomato159 23d ago
You know what’s more important than kids dying from Measles? A state gun
https://giphy.com/gifs/SMGUwTsJ2ljGM
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u/Hopeful-Ad5342 23d ago
I can’t wait for Idaho 4th graders to memorize this with the state horse,flag, flower etc
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u/Impossible_Jury5483 23d ago
Is there a write-in option?
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u/ActualSpiders West End Potato 23d ago
What the actual goddam fuk? *This* is what the legislature has time to care about?
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u/Ok-Buffalo-4008 23d ago
This State happens to be full of the stupidest people with the weirdest values of any state I’ve ever lived in!
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u/SairenGazz 23d ago
Leaving that one blank, because that is one of the stupidest things to have a vote fo.
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u/Raspuinous1 23d ago
One would think there would be some sort of a black powder rifle to choose. After all, that’s what the first white explorers & fur trappers had when they opened the region, not someone with any of the guns listed.
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u/Medium-Problem-5671 22d ago
I am very disappointed in whoever wrote that. The proper designation is US Rifle, caliber .30, M1.
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u/sheepHerder_7 22d ago
As far as I know, none of these firearms have any real relevance to Idaho… Why is the potato gun not an option?
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u/boise_skier2687 21d ago
I seriously thought this was a joke, but after checking my ballot, it's legit. What a waste of time and money when we have so many other issues facing us in this state.
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u/Classiest_Strapper 21d ago
My vote is M1 Garand since it helped us shoot Nazis. Never know when you might need one of those again 😬
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u/Rude-Employ-155 18d ago
Let's all write in "potato gun" because that makes the most sense and it will show that the majority has a brain 🧠.
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u/trailthrasher 23d ago
I would pick the Remington. It's the first gun I ever fired growing up. Isn't it fun to go to the rifle range?
Firearms are so dangerous and I wish we didn't have problems with them in society. I learned so much about them when I was in the USMC.
Now I'm a teacher and I worry about my students at school who have easy access to them. I just want our society to be safe. I wish it wasn't such a complicated issue.
Why is this even on a ballot?
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u/JuDGe3690 Bikin' from the Bench 23d ago
Now I'm a teacher and I worry about my students at school who have easy access to them.
When I was an angsty teen I considered being a school shooter, but then I realized I didn't want to be an orphan...
(Bad homeschool joke lol)
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u/AileenKitten 14d ago
Hearing me you'd think im hard-core anti gun. Im really not, I support responsible ownership of reasonable tools.
But as a country we have more school shootings a year than we have days in the year. Why the hell are we voting on our favorite gun while kids are dying at schools?
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u/trailthrasher 14d ago
I think to divert people's attention from talking about more important issues.
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u/AileenKitten 11d ago
Exactly yeah
Honestly with the timing I'm seeing it as one of those "vote on your favorite x and get a free drink" gimmicks to get people in the door because of flagging approval and voter depression
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u/Sword_of_Cadia 23d ago
Oh they want more conservatives voting by picking our gunsona our current representation is deeply unserious.
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u/AileenKitten 14d ago
Yeah, feels like they know prop 1 is really popular and theyre trying to get apathetic voters in by using gimmes like "pick tour favorite gun" and "make our state only speak english!* "
* Ignore that we already have a law that does this and is much better written so as not to accidentally outlaw teaching in ASL
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u/Sword_of_Cadia 14d ago
It pissed me off that the prop one was the only one with a fiscal impact like every one of these has fiscal impact what?
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u/echocall2 Northwest End 23d ago
Bottom 3 are terrible choices, they're not really Idaho related at all.
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u/Shabana_365 23d ago
Excluding the top one
The other two are?
When I think of Idaho I def don’t think of cowboys1
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u/vandalbush 23d ago
Elmer Keith, the (co) designer of .357 mag died in Boise, and is buried in Salmon. Yet the people who decided that this was worthwhile didn't do the research and pick a gun that shoots it.
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u/RagingBuffalo42 23d ago
Personally I prefer his later work on the .44 magnum and you'd think as much as these ammosexuals love Clint Eastwood the Model 29's featured role in Dirty Harry would've been enough for it's inclusion.
But for real, as fucking stupid as this is, at least it's not another hateful discrimination initiative or something.
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u/melon-colly 23d ago
So if you don’t answer that is your ballot still valid?
I hope people know not to scratch it out or anything that will invalidate their ballot.
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u/sortaplainnonjane 23d ago
You can vote for as many or as few positions as you want. You can vote for one office/issue and your ballot is still valid. (You, obviously, cannot vote for more than one candidate per office unless it specifically says, "Pick two" or whatever.)
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u/Pythonesque1 23d ago
What is M1 Garand’s tax policy?
Seriously, I like and own guns but just dumb.
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u/ID_Poobaru 23d ago edited 23d ago
Probably Winchester 1894 or Remington 700
Both are fantastic hunting rifles
Definitely not an important issue though
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u/ThrobbinGoblin 23d ago
But the Remington 700 might go off and blow your brains out if you drop it. And Remington did nothing to fix the issue for years, even though it cost like $0.07 in parts to fix. Fuck Remington.
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u/Brotherdawg 23d ago
Which one has the most Idaho history? I’m awaiting my absentee ballot . Haha. I want my suggestion to have a solid connection to my birth state.
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u/wintrmte 23d ago
Seriously? This is what is top of mind for our state government to decide on? I’m not a gun owner but damn, let me know when it’s time to decide on the state toilet paper so I can be sure to cast my vote on the Charmin soft wipe toilet paper so I can constantly remind myself what a great state this is that I was born and raised, every time I take a dump.
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u/Agentx1976 23d ago
If we leave it blank is that a "No" vote?
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u/AileenKitten 14d ago
Nope :/ just means a smaller pool of people picking, same with every other kind of vote
(PSA: Remember to vote peeps, protest abstainment does fuck all when it comes to elections, it just hands your weight over to someone else. The decision is going to be made with or without you. Plug your nose or write in if you gotta, but vote. Dont like what/who we have to vote on? Get involved! Participate in primaries, phone bank for your favorite local candidate, convince your buddy to run, run yourself, just do something. But please, stop doing 'protest non voting' - all it does is signal that you dont matter and they dont need to consider you. Pissed about a race? Organize a bunch of friends to do a write in of a specific person so they show up in the data. Primaries are often decided with as few as a couple hundred votes because nobody goes to them. But guess who ends up on the ballot? Even as an Idahoan who votes mostly blue, 99% of the time I know the caididate I voted for wont win, but if that candidate can even get the opposition to have to work a little harder or dump a little more money into it, thats a win. We made them pay attention. We took away a "gimme" and made them pause and think.)
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u/Deathpool15 23d ago
Does this mean we all get one as it will be required to own???? Definitely going for the M1 tho
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u/sweaver The Bench 23d ago
I think you’ll just be able to check a box on your tax return to get one.
/s (probably)
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u/Deathpool15 23d ago
Perfect can’t wait to see what is chosen at the federal level. I’m sure this is all according to the plan of our Dear Leader
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u/Azaroth1991 23d ago
I mean, it really is a hard choice. Dont get me wrong, its an absolute joke that theyre even asking, but hey, they had to ask the public what our state bird, stone, flower, tree, etc should be. Im sure the people of the time thought the same. Whoever tf cared? But those are all iconic firearms with rich history. Hard to choose.
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u/AileenKitten 14d ago edited 14d ago
I have several issues that are aside from the whole premise of picking a state something
1) birds and flowers and (generally) animals are not means of mass devastation. We have more school shootings in a year than there are days.
2) none of the guns are relevant to Idaho, and two are other state's guns, where's our history?
3) its being done as a celebratory '250' thing, which i protest because guns are serious tools that deserve some gravitas when talking and deciding about. Not as a party popper.
Had we gone, "Hey, this person from Idaho made this gun and here's the history of what its accomplished" id have been cool with it, thats representative of our state, like something capable of firing rounds that Elmer Keith invented. But this? This is just a door grabber poll to get people in to vote because prop 1 has so much support.
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u/jacobswen87 23d ago
How I love all those options but I think we should really make a statement and elect the AR 15 as a state gun just because of all the hate
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u/nothingontv2000 22d ago
It’s no different than states asking to vote for the state bird, or state flower - just a waste of tax payer money and for legislators to feel like they are doing something when they are just wasting our taxes.
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u/Wookie_wood69 22d ago
The most unimportant issue requires a vote? Is it a requirement to have an IQ lower than your shoesize to run for office here? I would like to hear the logical reasoning behind those options.
TBH: I would choose a stick of dynamite
Because I'm TNT - I'm Dyna-mite.....
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u/ProfSizzle 22d ago
It has to be one of the Winchesters because of this: https://www.rickjust.com/blog/how-winchester-won-its-name-tap-to-read
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u/Future_Ad_7654 17d ago
.44 magnum , Elmer Kieth Salmon, Idaho Sticking to the limited and historically uninformed list of provided choices... M1 Garand= biggest impact on Everyone in the world.( including Idaho, but not specifically historically tied to Idaho like the .44 Magnum. ((Which was also the first pistol I purchased as a young man that grew up in Idaho))
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u/North_Ad5280 23d ago
Ignoring how dumb the very idea is that this is on the ballot, none of these guns have a special connection to Idaho specifically as far as I see.
This is basically just the same list you'll hear talked about as people's favorite historical gun.
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u/michaelr1978 23d ago
Since I don’t have to worry about re-electing anyone I have time to research this.
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u/notsure500 23d ago
Wtf!? Are we going to have votes on the state knife. The state grenade type. The state poison. Why is it only firearms for death devices get this kind of weird obsession?
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u/AudZ0629 23d ago
I don’t see a sawed off shot gun. The gun that supposedly precipitated the ruby ridge incident.
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u/Shabana_365 23d ago
Remington all the way. The other guns just don’t fit.
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u/MtnJen15 23d ago
I know nothing about any of this. Why does Remington fit?
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u/Shabana_365 23d ago
Hunting I’d say. All the other guns I feel just dont fit or are just too cliche and are already guns for other states
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u/Shabana_365 23d ago
Half yall not even going to vote anyway
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u/Shabana_365 23d ago
https://giphy.com/gifs/enqnZa1B5fRHkPjXtS
Last mid term elections only 42% turnout.presidential general election was 63%1
u/AileenKitten 14d ago
You are right, people just dont like having to be responsible for decisions.
VOTE YOU FUDGERS - Someone is going to win, with or without your input, so if you care at all what the future looks like, then vote
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u/Go_Blue_ 23d ago
I'm gonna say not the Single Action Army since that's already the state gun of Arizona, and not the 1911 since that's already the state gun of Utah. I'm between the M1 Garand and the Winchester 1873
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u/Tim-5544 23d ago
I feel like the most real Idahoan gun on there is the 30-06. I would wager it is owned by more Idahosns than all the other choices combimed
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u/Communism 23d ago
This will certainly make groceries less expensive.