Louisiana bicentennial guns boost commission sales

“Get the shotguns while you can,” says Julie Vezinot, director of the Louisiana Bicentennial Commission, because the state’s official bicentennial Ruger .22 rifles are sold out. As of noon today, Vezinot says, just 52 Browning .12-gauge shotguns remain for sale at $1,812—the price set to honor the year Louisiana became the 18th state of the Union. Due to the recession and budget cuts, the commission initially had no money to play with for bicentennial parades, ceremonies or even Louisiana history classes for schools. So the commission turned to coins, posters, T-shirts, CDs, lapel pins, cocktail glasses, and pendants in an effort to raise about $100,000. But retired Army Lt. Gen. Russel Honoré, chairman of the commission, had an even better marketing idea: combine commemoration of the state and its sportsman culture by emblazoning the bicentennial logo on the wood-grain stock of Rugers, as well as fashioning and engraving the event’s logo and coin on the sides of Brownings. “People started buying them and buying them,” says Vezinot, recalling her pleased surprise when she checked sales in September. She says 197 Rugers were sold at $289. At Bowie Outfitters on Perkins Road, employee Alvin Bauer says about 10 of the bicentennial guns have been sold. “Most people who bought them bought both” the Ruger and the shotgun, Bauer says. The shotgun can be ordered online and picked up from retailers. Vezinot says some buyers have mentioned they won’t bring the guns to their duck blinds—just collect them to pass on to the next generation. You can take a look at the guns and all the other bicentennial merchandise here. —Adam Pearson