Earlier this week, newly internet-beloved Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz was wearing a camo hat when he accepted Kamala Harris’ phone call asking him to join her on the presidential ticket. On Wednesday, the Harris campaign said that $1 million worth of “Harris/Walz”–logoed camo hats—looking very similar to a “Midwest Princess” cap sold by singer Chappell Roan—had been purchased. The popularity of the hat gestures toward Walz’s image as a Guy Who Shoots Guns. In her introduction of her running mate, Harris mentioned that Walz repeatedly won the congressional sharpshooting contest; he’s taken a dig at the Republican VP candidate, J.D. Vance, in a quip that doubles as a reminder that Walz routinely goes pheasant hunting in the state where he serves as governor.
If the “stolen valor” attack is familiar, there’s another epithet that’s a little less so. The idea that Walz is a gun poser is apparent in a tweet from former National Rifle Association spokesperson Dana Loesch, who accused Harris of “trying to burnish Walz’s Fudd credentials.” For those who aren’t hip-deep in American gun culture, those words might as well be in another language. What was Loesch on about? What is a “Fudd,” why did the post that Loesch quote-tweeted include that weird web comic, and why might Harris think putting a Fudd on the ticket would help win voters?
As a proud Fudd, I’m excited to see this word front and center in the national conversation. The term comes from the almost 90-year-old Looney Tunes cartoon character Elmer Fudd, a bumbling hunter constantly outwitted by his prey—from Bugs Bunny to Daffy Duck to his own backside. Operative here is that Elmer Fudd winds up shooting himself in the foot (a perennial outcome of the Looney Tunes episodes in which he appears) not because his quarry is particularly clever but rather because he is utterly incompetent.
The term Fudd appeared in Urban Dictionary as early as 2007, as an epithet slung by those at the 2A (short for Second Amendment, or gun enthusiast) community’s fringe in the direction of those of us who own one or two guns and enjoy hunting and shooting but don’t engage in competition shooting, don’t own a Liberty Safe with 57 firearms in it, and certainly see no need to acquire an AR-15. Fudds are far more likely to support the kinds of gun control legislation Walz advocates for, like universal background checks and red-flag laws. Many of us, myself included, are veterans of law enforcement or the military. Some of us have been to war or been hurt on jobs where we carried weapons professionally.
All that is irrelevant to the likes of Loesch. In the manner of the identitarian essentialism that defines almost all discourse in 2024, we are Fudds, root and branch. Quarterly range time for cops and the military is not enough to qualify as a “gun person” in the anti-Fudd world—an attitude summarized by this delightful comment on a Reddit post: “Your typical infantry meatbag spends more time shooting into a sock than they do on a range.” In the our-tribe-or-the-enemy world of public politics, you’re in the Boogaloo or you’re the incarnation of an incompetent cartoon character, more likely to hurt yourself with your firearm than the deer you’re futilely stalking.
— Myke Cole in Fudds of America, Unite
The notion that you “did X while on Y job” makes you a righteous expert needs to die.
It self-identifies as useless when the media fauns all over one persons opinion for doing X while Y but ignores another’s for doing the same X while Y. Either it’s valuable or it’s not and the media itself has decided it’s not valuable.
Fudds are liars, elitists and tyrants. Loyalists to the crown.
“… Fudds are liars, elitists and tyrants. Loyalists to the crown. “
Perfectly framed !
Myke Cole,
The term “Fudd” does NOT, I repeat, does NOT refer to someone who fails to own 57 firearms and AR-15 platform rifles.
The term “Fudd” refers to firearm owners who only own rifles and/or shotguns (optimized solely for hunting at that) AND, I repeat, AND who support many, most, or all restrictions on our right to keep and bear ALL firearms. Thus people in the firearms community refer to such people as Fudds because they only support firearms for hunting purposes and their active support of many/most/all firearms restrictions ultimately works against their own interest in owning firearms. (The reasoning for that last bit: the forces of civilian disarmament have the end goal of total civilian disarmament. Civilian disarmament activists only allow Fudds to keep their Fudd guns initially to garner their support and momentum for banning an ever increasing list of firearms.)
In other words Fudds are the equivalent of women’s rights in women-only sports activists who support many, most, or all men participating in women’s sports.
Simplified anyone who says “I support the second amendment but”. There is endless nuance that can be explored but disingenuous lip service to civil liberties is key.
True Fudds are fools, unable to understand the concept of “death by a thousand cuts” long-term confiscation.
The history of socialists, communists, & despots quickly/stealthily/tyrannically confiscating civilian firearms is a long read.
But in this day and age, in this freedom loving country whose forefathers saw the need to enumerate a basic civil right, that game will not work. Horses are outa the barn… way too many American civilians own firearms and would be unwilling to participate in voluntarily surrender of them. Thus the long game played by the nefarious. Take over the State and turn it into The Great Provider. for all sheeple to be cared for by a just & loving nanny. Start with free $$, Medicaid, corrupt the education system and a few generations later all the ‘lil sheeples will willingly line up to get into the boxcars.
Man… I think I need a Snickers…