opened a temporary tattoo business in the park. And it was there I met Talbot Wesson, heir to the entire Smith & Wesson arms factory, who really liked my holster.
He had flyers mailed out to all registered S&W handgun owners offering them a free upgrade to the latest model. 65% sent in their old guns for the upgrade. Talbot had each of them mailed a Dymo label making gun (in one of my holsters). A class action suit was filed, but it was dropped when the customers were unable to find anything in the product literature that had talked about any purpose for S&W guns other than ‘improved home security’. Talbot told that years ago S&W had actually stolen the texts for their brochures from the Dymo stuff about labelling one’s valuables. So, the label making gun was deemed a suitable replacement.
Talbot had all these returned guns made permanently inoperable and dumped on the streets of Moscow. The rumour of the existence of these dud guns spread through the city in hours. The number of armed robberies dropped quickly, although there were more deaths in the few robberies that still occurred. It wasn’t a good bet to assume the gun was a dud, to call your assailant’s bluff, but people always over bet the long shots.
Like when we were down inTexas we went to a few horse races. To watch people over bet the long shots. And to do it ourselves.
I’ve never claimed I wasn’t an idiot.