This isn’t my joke, but to be fair, it’s easy to make. At the VP Debates, Tim Walz said he’s a knucklehead sometimes, and boy, was he a knucklehead at a staged pheasant hunt. This hunt was clearly propaganda, an attempt to appeal to gun owners by showing that Walz is a gun guy. I don’t doubt that Walz occasionally shoots, but he proved he doesn’t shoot often.
Tim Walz didn’t just stage a pheasant hunt but completely blew his credentials as a gun guy. Walz went to the hunt armed with his Beretta A400, a beautiful gun, and a fantastic shotgun. The A400 he’s holding is a 2,000-dollar semi-auto Beretta. It seems to be the gun he’s photographed most often with.
Admittedly, I get why. It’s a great shotgun. He even mentions it has the kick-off system. This system helps reduce recoil and keeps the gun comfortable for high-volume shoots. Some folks have made fun of him for this, but if you shoot a lot of birds, trap, or skeet, it’s nice to have. What we should make fun of is the fact the man can’t load the gun to save his life.
Tim Walz and His Beretta
The hilarity ensued as we saw the Governor load his shotgun. Or attempt to load. I wish I could see exactly what he’s doing and why he can’t seem to ready his weapon. He struggles for 20 or so seconds, and I’m not sure if he ever got his gun loaded.
I can’t tell if he can’t get a round into the magazine tube. The A400 is a very well-made gun. If you ever want to see the differences between a 2,000-dollar shotgun and a 200-dollar shotgun, look at the loading port. (That’s not the only difference, but it’s a big one.) The A400 series of guns are sporting shotguns and feature a smooth, enlarged loading port. It’s not going to take a DNA sample from your thumb like other shotguns. Shells slide into these guns smoothly and easily.
Another issue might be trying to get a round from the tube to the chamber. Italian semi-auto shotguns of the Beretta and Benelli type have a button that releases the first round from the tube to the shell elevator. After the first round, the trigger will release a round from the tube to the loading gate. Maybe that’s why he works the charging handle so many times.
It’s not complicated to load and ready this gun. It does load like any other common, modern tube magazine shotgun and on top of that, it loads easier than any other shotgun. Watching Tim Walz struggle leaves me feeling confused. What is keeping that shell from loading? The A400 Sporting, which his gun seems to be with the blue receiver, is a 3-inch chambered gun.
Is he trying to load a 3.5-inch shell? Maybe the bolt is locked to the rear, and he hasn’t realized it? It sounds like the bolt closes a couple of times. Maybe he’s holding the bolt and trying to load a round into the magazine tube? I can’t really figure out how he messed that up so badly.
Credentialism In Full Display
To be completely fair, other footage showed him and his compatriots handling their weapons safely, watching their sectors of fire, and avoiding aiming toward the press to chase a bird. Still, it’s clear Governor Tim Walz doesn’t shoot often or enough to know how to use his individual shotgun.
Using Tim Walz to show that the Democratic party would gleefully take your guns is credentialism at its best. They rely on his service with the National Guard and his reputation as a hunter and sport shooter to say they have expertise in the world of firearms. As usual, credentialism doesn’t equal actual expertise.
That’s the problem with this strategy, the—I’m a gun owner, but—strategy. It attempts to trick people, and trickery has no place in politics. Be honest, be consistent, and don’t try to lie and trick people into voting for you. If you are going to lie and use a game of trickery, at least look competent.
That famed photo of President Obama shooting a shotgun at least looked good. If you’re going to hunt pheasants and record it, at least make sure you know how to use your gun.
On Vice Presidents and Shotguns
After watching Tim Walz struggle with his shotgun, it suddenly became clear why Dick Cheney endorsed him and Vice President Harris’ ticket. They share an incompetence with shotguns. In fact, do you remember double-barrel Biden’s advice just to blast two rounds into the air? What is it with Vice Presidents and shotguns?
Listen, fellas, if you are running for VP, hit me up. I’ll teach you how to use a shotgun so you won’t look so silly on national TV. It won’t be free, but it will be worth it.
