State Rep. Andrew McDaniel (R-MO): Today’s “Raving Lunatic” Award Winner

Andy succeeded in duping the voters in the greater Deering area into electing him as a member of the Missouri House of Representatives in November 2014.

In an overt attempt to prove that he’s a Raving Loon, Andy recently (ca. February/March 2019) introduced legislation mandating that all adults in Missouri be required to purchase handguns and AR-15 rifles.

The first portion of Andy the Loon’s legislation would would require Missouri residents aged 21 or older to purchase a handgun. It also would allot up to $1 million per year in tax credits for residents who purchased weapons to comply with the law.

The second portion of the Loon’s bill, the McDaniel Militia Act, would require Missouri residents aged 18 to 35 to purchase an AR-15. It also would provide a tax credit of up to $1 million per year to incentivize the purchase of weapons. 

The population breakdowns for Missouri for 2018 break down as follows. (source: suburbanstats.org)

• 5,988,927 = total population
• 1,274,300 = 18-35 year-old population
• 4,480,744 = 21 year-old and older population

The total mandated citizen expenditures to purchase hand guns and and AR-15 per the Loon’s legislation would be as follows.

• $976 million to purchase 1,274,300 AR-15s (avg. price $750.)
• $1.8 billion to purchase 4,480,744 Smith & Wesson revolvers from Cabela’s (avg. price $400)

It is laughable at best to mandate the sale of nearly 1.3 million AR-15s in the course of 12 months. Even more laughable is requiring the purchase of nearly 4.5 million handguns during the same period of time.

And lastly, it’s highly unlikely that Colt and Smith & Wesson have the production capacity to manufacture nearly 1.3 million AR-15s and 4.5 million revolvers in a 12-month period of time.