Alabama State Rep. Steve Hurst, R-Mumford, is pulling out the big guns in his effort to fight off a Republican primary challenge in House District 35, which he has represented since 1998.
The Hurst campaign has been seen driving around his Calhoun and Talladega County house district with a giant revolver in tow. The photo above started making the rounds on social media today, and Yellowhammer had a chance to check in with Rep. Hurst to get the back story.
“There’s a local fabricator who brought one by sometime back,” Hurst said. “I told him I wanted one similar for my business, Haynes Street Pawn, where we sell guns and just about everything else you could imagine from barber chairs to amusement machines to coke machines and jewelry. But it comes in handy during campaign season, too.”
Hurst said it helps him to leave no doubt in the voters’ minds as to where he stands on the Second Amendment.
“With that particular gun, it lets people know that I very much support their right to bear arms. I had a bill called the ‘Home Castle’ bill that let’s you protect yourself, your home, your business or your automobile. I sponsored it a few years back and it didn’t pass, then a buddy of mine sponsored it the next year before I could so I had to cuss him out,” Hurst said jokingly. “Then we sponsored it together and got it done. Prior to the Legislature passing that bill you had to try to evade people when they were threatening you with bodily harm. Now you can shoot them.”
On top of its promotional uses, Hurst said the giant gun is actually a functioning smoker.
“Yea, you can put the wood down in the bottom of it, then open up the side to put the meat in and the smoke vents out of the barrel,” he explained. “Everybody loves it.”
This isn’t the first time Hurst has found his name in the media in recent months.
He pre-filed a bill ahead of the Alabama legislature’s 2014 sessions that called for child sex offenders to be surgically castrated.
Under Rep. Hurst’s proposal, convicted sex offenders would be castrated before being released from prison if their victims were under the age of 12. The offender would also be responsible for paying the cost of the procedure.
Businessman Steve Dean is challenging Rep. Hurst in the Republican primary, which is set for June 3.
Follow Cliff on Twitter @Cliff_Sims
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