A Brief History of Politicians Shooting, Flamethrowing, and Generally Using Deadly Weapons in Campaign Ads

A Brief History of Politicians Shooting, Flamethrowing, and Generally Using Deadly Weapons in Campaign Ads

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Over the weekend, a partial lie spread online. In Missouri, on a dark night, two Republican state senators brandished flamethrowers, while encircled by iPhone-wielding spectators, and burned empty boxes representing the “leftist” agenda. As the Riverfront Times noted, one of the men was state Sen. Bill Eigel, a Republican who is running for governor in 2024.

Their gag was misunderstood. Somehow the aesthetics—a pyre of flames, chants of “Let’s Go Brandon,” destroying “woke” things—led to the rumor that Eigel, and his fellow state legislator Sen. Nick Schroer, were actually burning books, just like the Nazi mobs who covered objectionable texts in paraffin and ignited them in public squares.

This is not true. Afterward, Eigel allowed that he would burn some books, and the state of Missouri has restricted material from school libraries, but that was not his mission that night. “In the video, I am taking a flame thrower to cardboard boxes representing what I am going to do to the leftist policies and RINO corruption of the Jeff City swamp,” Eigel told The Kansas City Star. “But let’s be clear, you bring those woke pornographic books to Missouri schools to try to brainwash our kids, and I’ll burn those too—on the front lawn of the governor’s mansion.”

Cool. A normal guy way of talking. Anyway, this was one of the weirder, less fun examples of an under-discussed recent tradition of campaign season: The use of a deadly weapon as a metaphor to explain how a legislator plans to attack the ideas of their colleagues if they win office.

Talking about policy this way has become a handy cliché of campaign ads. Usually, a politician will have a weapon, say, a gun, and then shoot a series of agenda items representing their opponent’s positions. This serves as a shorthand for the argument that you should vote for them! (The approach is distinct from the famous Daisy ad from President Lyndon B. Johnson’s—and former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee’s rip off of it—which shows the consequences of the policies. In that case, the image of an innocent child plucking a daisy before an atomic bomb is detonated suggests “the stakes” of the election.) 

In 2012, my colleague Tim Murphy created a short list of politicians “blowing things up” that highlighted the enthusiastic use of firearms among lawmakers. What follows are more recent examples, with slightly expanded criteria that include other weapons. If you’ve got some I missed, feel free to email me.

Joe Manchin, gun

Take a brief trip down memory lane with me, for a classic of the genre, which generated a lot of headlines when it was released in 2010. In it, Senator Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) takes “dead aim” at a few liberal policies and specifically shoots a “Cap and Trade Bill.”

It’s also included in Murphy’s list but is worthy of resurrecting because in 2018, Manchin returned to his shoot-a-piece-of-paper messaging. In the more recent ad, the senator pulls up a shotgun, instead of a rifle, and blasts a “Lawsuit On Coverage Of Pre-Existing Conditions.” This time, he says, his opponents are “dead wrong.” I like that the ad, similar to a TV show, includes a bit where Manchin helps you remember what happened in the last episode.

Dan Sullivan, handgun

In 2014, Sen. Dan Sullivan (R-Alaska) released a spot touting his plan to get outside money away from the Senate race and stop campaign ads from high-priced Washington consultants “flooding” into his state. In it, he says that all these ads will make you “want to do this.” Then, in the middle of a field, Sullivan pulls out a handgun and shoots a TV. A bit of an Office Space feel to this one.

Col. Rob Maness, gator

Is this one a stretch? Yes. Is it really funny to watch? For sure, so I am including it.

In a 2014 US Senate election, Colonel Rob Maness ran in Louisiana. For that campaign, Maness released an ad called “Gator,” in which he says that he would attack the “gators” in Washington by tying one up. But, through some Benny Hill editing, he also implies that he would gator-chomp the policies of the Obama administration. “I’ll stand up to the big spenders,” he says—and then it cuts to a cartoonish-sounding gator chomp. “I’ll fight to repeal Obamacare!” (Gator chomp.) “I’ll protect our gun rights!” (Chomp.)

Maness is implying using the deadly weapon of the “gator” against his opponents. An innovative ad that deserves some applause. Maness received 13 percent of the vote in the jungle primary that year.