Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott, a potential gubernatorial challenger to Rick Perry, is taking this national conversation on gun control as an opportunity to jump up and down screaming, “Look at me!” In response to the passage of tighter gun laws in New York, Abbott purchased ads targeting Manhattan and Albany zip codes on website likes NYTimes.com, proclaiming, “Wanted: Law abiding New York gun owners looking for lower taxes and greater opportunity.” Good luck with that.
Abbott — who once described his job as “I go to the office. I sue the federal government. And then I go home” — said through a spokesperson, “It makes the point that Texans value freedom, and specifically their freedom to protect themselves.”
But residents of the Lone Star State are skeptical. “Stay up North we don’t want you in Texas,” said one commenter on Abbott’s Facebook. The Times, meanwhile, got in touch with a woman who runs the “feed and fertilizer store” in the very tiny town of New York, Texas, who estimated the community’s population at about eleven, and insisted “our New York is better than their New York.” When firing a gun around those parts, there’s certainly less chance of accidentally hitting someone.
