Bang

Utah - land of the free, magic seer stones, golden tablets, retrospective baptism of ancestors and other fiddlefaddle - has enacted a State Firearm Designation statute that establishes the Browning M1911 as the official state firearm. Utah's example will presumably be followed by other states and perhaps we'll see state knives and other nasties.

The statute amends 63G-1-601 (as renumbered and amended by Laws of Utah 2008, Chapter 382). The gun supposedly symbolises "freedom and empowerment". No mention of death, responsibility or domestic violence.

Section 63G-1-601 now reads -

State symbols.

(1) Utah's state animal is the elk.

(2) Utah's state bird is the sea gull.

(3) Utah's state centennial astronomical symbol is the Beehive Cluster located in the constellation of Cancer the Crab.

(4) Utah's state centennial star is Dubhe, one of the seven bright stars composing the Big Dipper in the constellation Ursa Major.

(5) Utah's state centennial tartan, which honors the first Scots known to have been in Utah and those Utahns of Scottish heritage, shall have a pattern or repeating-half-sett of white-2, blue-6, red-6, blue-4, red-6, green-18, red-6, and white-4 to represent the tartan worn anciently by the Logan and Skene clans, with the addition of a white stripe.

(6) Utah's state cooking pot is the dutch oven.

(7) Utah's state emblem is the beehive.

(8) Utah's state firearm is the John M. Browning designed M1911 automatic pistol.

(9) Utah's state fish is the Bonneville cutthroat trout.

(10) Utah's state flower is the sego lily.

(11) Utah's state folk dance is the square dance, the folk dance that is called, cued, or prompted to the dancers and includes squares, rounds, clogging, contra, line, and heritage dances.

(12) Utah's state fossil is the Allosaurus.

(13) Utah's state fruit is the cherry.

(14) Utah's state vegetable is the Spanish sweet onion.

(15) Utah's historic state vegetable is the sugar beet.

(16) Utah's state gem is topaz, as is prominently found in the Thomas Mountain Range in Juab County, Utah.

(17) Utah's state grass is Indian rice grass.

(18) Utah's state hymn is "Utah We Love Thee" by Evan Stephens.

(19) Utah's state insect is the honeybee.

(20) Utah's state mineral is copper.

(21) Utah's state motto is "Industry."

(22) Utah's state railroad museum is Ogden Union Station.

(23) Utah's state rock is coal.

(24) Utah's state song is "Utah This is the Place" by Sam and Gary Francis.

(25) Utah's state tree is the blue spruce.

The state cooking pot? The state vegetable and the state historic vegetable? The state grass? Nothing like cultural OCD.