Gun Giveaway for Car Buyers Triggers Attention

Greg “Lumpy” Lambert may not cut the most impressive figure crunching across a bed of gravel at his roadside car lot, but he’s one of the shrewdest used-car salesman this side of the Mason-Dixon line.

On Saturday, he transformed his assemblage of dented Chevys and dusty Geos into a fistful of cash with an ingenious, albeit controversial, sales gimmick: Buy a car, get a gun.

Usually, it’s a toaster oven, a set of golf clubs or a trip to Hawaii that’s used to sweeten a car deal. But in Knox County, Tenn., where the woods are teaming with deer and people who stalk them, where gun rights, not gun control, are important, giving away 8-millimeter, high-powered Mauser rifles proved to be a stroke of genius.

Not only did he unload more cars (three) in a single day than most neighboring lots sell in a week, and thereby etch the name Lumpy into local lore forever.

But Lambert, who’s been hustling cars since he was 14, tapped into something deeper, a growing, angry, fed-up feeling in eastern Tennessee and other rural areas that government is trying to take away gun owners’ rights--and their lifestyle in the process.

“All this political correctness and demonizing guns has gotten out of hand,” said Lambert, nicknamed for his generously cut frame. “It was time to make a political statement about our rights--and sell some cars.”

There were basically two types of people (and no protesters) who came to lean under the hoods of Lambert’s 20-odd used cars during the event he called “Second Amendment Saturday.” There were those who came for the cause, like Bill Monroe, a retired insurance agent sick of gun buyback programs and talk of trigger locks.

“I got more guns than you can shake a stick at and two fine cars, but I wanted to support this man,” Monroe said after he plunked down two grand for a custard-colored 1982 Cadillac that he didn’t even test drive.

And there were those who came for the gun.

Powell is a rural community 10 miles north of Knoxville in the foothills of the Smokey Mountains. It’s known as a sportsman’s paradise, where many people hunt deer, rabbit, squirrels and birds. Even though some locals were embarrassed by the attention their community was getting over the rifle promotion, many said it was the most practical, sensible thing they’d ever heard of.

“Get a car and get a gun and go huntin’ the same day,” John Hansen, a Knoxville welder, said to a knot of TV reporters. “What could be more right?”

Hansen was among car shoppers who found themselves in the middle of a media bonanza Saturday afternoon. Gun giveaways this past year have proved to be great coupons for free publicity, and Lambert’s scheme was no exception. This week the pudgy Knoxville native who favors a thin mustache and thick, braided gold chains appeared on CNN, the “Today” show, MSNBC, several Canadian radio programs and the BBC in London. He even got a call from a reporter in France. “I couldn’t get everything she was saying, but she had a purty sexy accent,” Lambert said.

He’s taken some heat, too. One woman left a message for his mother saying Lambert looked like he was raised in the backwoods on chitlins and fatback and that’s why his views on guns were so backward.

Lambert, 34 and single, is not even a big hunter. He downed his first deer at age 14 (the year he started working on the family car lot) and felt horrible about it and never trained his sights on another living thing.

But Lambert considers himself a die-hard 2nd Amendment activist. For the last several months he had been mulling the gun promotion as a way to promote his belief in the right to bear arms, a belief shared by many in the Knoxville area. According to an August survey completed by Rep. John J. Duncan, Jr. (R-Tenn.), 41% of local voters don’t want more gun laws and 12% don’t want any gun laws.

“The gun rights folks are pretty strong in this area,” said Knoxville Police Chief Phil Keith, whose buyback program last month was picketed by Lambert and his 2nd Amendment comrades.

Tennessee, in fact, already has some of the most porous firearm regulations in the union. Unlike California, Florida and several other states, there is no waiting period before purchasing a gun and no restrictions or mandatory background checks on secondary sales.

When Lambert unveiled his plan earlier this week, it triggered a firestorm of criticism--and publicity. Gun control advocates honed in on the secondary sales issue.

“It’s totally irresponsible to put more guns on the market when they can be turned around and resold without any type of checks,” said Naomi Paiss, a spokeswoman for Washington, D.C.-based Handgun Control Inc.

In the end, though, Lambert gave away only four Mauser rifles, three to car buyers and one to a guy who bought the gun as a sign of support. And Lambert didn’t actually hand them out in the glare of his balloon-strewn gravel car lot.

Each customer was presented with a certificate for one of the huge, clunky guns, worth about $75, to redeem at a Knoxville gun and ammo store run by one of Lambert’s gun rights buddies. The four customers, all men, must pass a federally mandated background check before they can get the weapon. Giving away guns is legal as long as the check is completed, said Todd Reichert, a spokesman for the Nashville office of the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms.

As he trudged off his lot, Lambert said he felt he had accomplished his mission. “And we’re gonna top it next year,” he said.

Several Knoxville-area officials hope not.

“This is embarrassing,” said Richard Baumgartner, a circuit judge in Knox County. “First it’s snake handlers. Now free guns. Can’t we be known for something else?”