Talk about getting a bang for your buck.
A jewelry store in Texas is having its annual Shotgun Wedding Sale this week. Oh no, it’s not what you’re thinking. Grim-faced grooms-to-be won’t be picking out diamonds for their future brides while equally grim-faced future fathers-in-law hold shotguns to their backs.
No, at Thacker Jewelry in Lubbock anyone who buys an engagement ring will get a gift certificate for a shotgun or rifle at LSG Tactical Arms, a local gun store.
“We started this three years ago,” jewelry store owner Joe Thacker told CNN. “We had heard about (another store) that was doing it and kind of adopted it as our own.”
Thacker said guns are a part of people’s lives in west Texas, so combining a ring sale with shotguns was “a natural combination.”
They’re just having fun with the wordplay on the old shotgun weddings, Thacker told CNN affiliate KLBK, adding “it’s all tongue and cheek.”
Bigger response this year
The store sold 35 rings during last year’s promotion.
“We anticipate selling a lot more this year,” he said. “We’re already getting four times the response we had last year.”
While such a deal involving guns might be unheard of in other parts of the country, it seems to fit here. Hey, this is Texas, after all.
“It’s something that’s very natural for most Texans,” LSG Tactical Arms manager Steve Burns said. “Most guys grew up hunting or at least exposed to hunting if not by their family, but by their friends, or social groups. So it’s something that’s pretty natural for all of us.”
But even a store in Texas is not immune to the debate over gun control that’s raging throughout the country. How does Thacker deal with people who come into his store who don’t like guns?
“We get a few people that have a bit of negative attitude about it,” Thacker said. “But once we explain it, most people just laugh and say ‘it makes sense.'”
The sale starts Thursday and goes through Saturday.