Buy a Truck, get an AK-47

What was prob­a­bly meant to be an attempt to make a gun right’s enthu­si­ast look stu­pid, back fires on CNN when a the car dealer elo­quently explains his dealership’s new promotion.

Originally posted here.

The rough econ­omy has been par­tic­u­larly tough on car deal­ers, so many of them have come up with inno­v­a­tive pro­mo­tions to get vehi­cles off the lot.

And then there’s this: start­ing in August, Mark Muller, pres­i­dent of Max Motors in Butler, Missouri will be giv­ing away a free AK-47 assault rifle with the pur­chase of any truck. Muller spoke to Carol Costello on CNN’s “American Morning” Friday.

Carol Costello: Tell me about this pro­mo­tion and why you decided to do this.

Mark Muller: Well, last year we gave away a free hand­gun with the pur­chase of any vehi­cle and it went over very well. It spiked our Web traf­fic. We sold, we esti­mate, 35 extra cars dur­ing the pro­mo­tion than we nor­mally would have and this year we’re try­ing to sell an extra 100 cars more than we would. We’re just try­ing to gen­er­ate some traf­fic, gen­er­ate some inter­est and enthu­si­asm and it seems to work real well. We’re not just going to give peo­ple an AK-47 gun. Felons buy cars, too. What we are going to do is we’re going to give them a voucher where they can go to their local gun dealer or we have local gun deal­ers we would strongly rec­om­mend where they can go buy a gun and go through the proper back­ground checks so the guns end up in the right hands.

Costello: How much does an AK-47 cost, I’m just curious?

Muller: It depends. You can get a good AK-47 for $450, maybe $500.

Costello: Some peo­ple watch­ing this might think own­ing a hand­gun is one thing, but own­ing an AK-47 is some­thing else and maybe this is just a tad irresponsible?

Muller: It’s a lit­tle grand­stand­ing. But how about that guy that just had him and his wife killed that had the twelve chil­dren with the seven guys com­ing through the door. I guar­an­tee you he wishes he had an AK-47 as those mag­gots busted through his door and slaugh­tered him and his wife in front of his chil­dren. The pur­pose for guns like AK-47s is home defense.

Costello: Police offi­cers are shot in the line of duty all the time and they carry guns every day. So maybe some might not think that is a great argument.

Muller: Well, I’d per­son­ally like to have a chance instead of just becom­ing a vic­tim. I guar­an­tee you those guys that broke through that door that used guns to kill those peo­ple did not have legal guns and did not go through the proper steps to get them. Those are all ille­gal guns and I would bet my bot­tom dol­lar on it. I haven’t seen the facts yet, but, look, there is a bunch of evil in the world and peo­ple need to pro­tect them­selves. We’re real firm believ­ers – we’re coun­try folks down here.

We live down here and we’re real firm believ­ers in the Second Amendment and we don’t want to become vic­tims. I live out in the coun­try – 15 miles from the deal­er­ship here on 1200 acres – and the response time to my home is about 15 min­utes. And if I’m count­ing on the police – we have a great police force in Bates County, great sher­iff, great police in Butler where we live – response time is still 15 min­utes no mat­ter how great the peo­ple are and how great their inten­tions are. And I would rather defend myself. The only 911 call I need is cham­ber­ing a round. And I think that’s the case of most peo­ple down here.

Costello: I grew up in rural America, too. We had guns in our home, but they weren’t AK-47s…

Muller: How long ago was that?

Costello: When I was a teenager. 20 years ago. 30 years ago.

Muller: Things have changed dra­mat­i­cally. I don’t know if you know any­thing about Missouri. Where I live in this county there is a tremen­dous crime prob­lem with peo­ple doing meth and these peo­ple – they’ve lost their souls. They don’t care about you, they don’t care about me, they care about one thing: get­ting more dope.

Costello: I under­stand evil in the world, but I’m just ques­tion­ing the assault weapon to pro­tect your­self. That’s all I’m say­ing. Your motto is “God, guns, guts and American.” Why did you come up with that par­tic­u­lar motto?

Muller: Actually it’s “God, guns, guts and American pickup trucks.” Because we sell cars.

Costello: But you include God in that and, you know, some might won­der why God is included in a motto that also includes guns.

Muller: You don’t have a prob­lem with God, do you? I’m just curious…

Costello: No, I don’t. But the com­bi­na­tion some peo­ple might – between God and guns – some peo­ple might have a prob­lem with that.

Muller: We’re a Christian nation. We’re Christian peo­ple. 70–80%, I would guess in this nation, would clas­sify them­selves as Christians. I’d say 90% of the peo­ple in this coun­try believe in God, who­ever their God is. And to try to remove God from every­thing I think is a huge mis­take. I don’t think we need AK-47s if more people…

Costello: That’s not what I’m say­ing. I’m say­ing putting God in a motto that also includes guns might be a lit­tle upset­ting to some people.

Muller: You don’t think God wants us to defend our­selves? I’m con­fused. You know. I don’t think God wants us to become victims.

Costello: I don’t know. I could ask you the ques­tion, you know, we could do the “what would Jesus do.” Would he carry a gun?

Muller: No. They didn’t have guns back then, but I do believe he’d carry a sword if he needed it. But he was so pow­er­ful he didn’t need any weapon.