The good news, I suppose, is that the Palmetto State Armory decided to take down its webpage advertising the “You lie!” etched rifle component, in belated recognition of the fact that promoting such a product after the Tucson shootings would be irresponsible and in terrible taste.
The bad news is that the South Carolina gun and accessories company didn’t think that selling semi-automatic rifle components inscribed with “You lie!” – a reference to the defiant, disrespectful and uncivil words of South Carolina Republican Congressman Joe Wilson that he shouted at Barack Obama during the President’s a congressional speech about national health care reform in 2009—was irresponsible and in terrible taste before the massacre.
Is placing a rude and offensive insult to the President of the United States on an automatic weapon legal? Yes it is. Does it still suggest violence against the President and his supporters? Absolutely. Is it unethical, unforgivable conduct? Oh, yes.
This cretinous promotion was announced with this:
“Palmetto State Armory would like to honor our esteemed congressman Joe Wilson with the release of our new ‘You Lie’ AR-15 lower receiver…Only 999 of these will be produced, get yours before they are gone!”
The page includes a picture of Wilson holding a rifle and standing in the company’s gun shop. The company offered the engraved components, marked “MULTI to accommodate most builds,” for $99.95 apiece.
Unbelievable.
Ethics Alarms 
Well, this actually doesn’t seem that strange coming from South Carolina. Unethical, inflammatory, anti-central government..check…check…check. How little things have changed in 150 years.
Micheal — Guilt by association? Check. Ethical violation? Check.
So, I guess all Confederates and their progeny are dishonorable. Spoken like a true Yankee. Very tribal. Yes, very tribal. As if being anti-central government is, by its very nature, “un-patriotic.” Unless, of course, you are talking about the history of our forefather patriots and their little tiff with the central government of England, circa 1776, but I guess that’s not particularly relevant unless you believe your own American history is worth revering only as some isolated event that has no meaning in the modern world. Tribal, very tribal…
You sound uncharacteristically bitter today, Peter.
Always a sweet to the bittersweet… I just have this thing about insipid comments, that beg to be addressed. I’m actually a nice guy in person, except around those I interpret to celebrate militant ignorance. And also, I suffer from too long and deeply-rooted a legacy of East Coast upbringing and a few too many pedantic corrections from Miss Rounds.
Oh, great—Miss Rounds. Now on top of being sick, I’m going to have Latin nightmares. Thanks a bunch.
It is interesting how people assume I am a Yankee instead of someone who has lived in the area.
Well, Michael, I have lived in a western state (Colorado) for many years, as well some “nearly” western states (Nebraska and South Dakota) and the mentality of MOST people that I have known there, as well as from the surrounding states, is decidedly anti-central government also, as well it should be to any historian of our nation who understands the intentions of our founding fathers. This is similar, I suspect, to most southern states, as it was in North Carolina when I lived there. The civility, or lack thereof, in Joe Wilson’s case, just happens to be quite out in the open, instead of the more subtle, behind closed-doors “incivility”of the Obama administration (in telling Senator Kyl of AZ, for example, that he is waiting for more people to die in the border wars of his state so that there is enough momentum for a total immigration reform program). I, for one, would rather take Wilson’s overt, in-your-face, uncivil, politically incorrect, but actually correct “you lie,” than submit to the snakes in the current administration who talk sweetly while taking away our civil liberties. And, I don’t recall your qualifying that you never WERE a Yankee, and now live in “the area,” which I take to mean SC.