Sarah Palin has another gun—a Henry Big Boy .44 Magnum lever-action
rifle, stamped with a unique serial number: PALIN-001. Engraved with the
words, “Presented to Sarah Palin, February 16, 2010, Arkansas
Republican Party,” the rifle was a gift to the former Alaska governor,
who headlined a Republican Party fundraiser last week at Verizon Arena
in North Little Rock.

Palin made note of the gift in the opening lines of her speech. “I
scored a .44 Magnum. It’s beautiful, and I thank you,” she told the
crowd, as if the people of Arkansas themselves had bored the barrel,
carved the stock and engraved the
brass receiver.

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The man responsible for the donated rifle was a New Jerseyite, Anthony
Imperato, president of Henry Repeating Arms Company in Bayonne (his
family once operated an arms company in Jacksonville). He presented the
one-of-a-kind gun to Palin in a backstage ceremony before her speech.

There was at least one other gun in the building that night. On one of
the silent-auction tables flanking the speaker’s dais, past a photo of
Ronald Reagan and a photo of Palin framed together and titled “Voices of
Conservatism,” was another Henry rifle. It was exactly like Palin’s but
with its own distinct serial number: GOP-001.

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Backstage before the speech, Imperato stood at a waist-high cocktail
table in the windowless VIP area, waiting for his chance to present the
rifle to Palin. Asked why he was donating the guns, Imperato said, “I’m
just a nice guy.”

An event volunteer, Patrick Rhodes, stepped in to steer Imperato’s
answer. “If I could put words in your mouth, ‘What better way to
emphasize our support of the Second Amendment?’ ”

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Between the two of them, they went on to link Palin to Abraham Lincoln,
“who was a Republican” and who also owned a Henry rifle (serial number
006).

Here, the genealogy gets tricky. Leave aside the differences between the
Republican Party of Lincoln’s day and the modern Republican Party and
stick with the Henry rifle.

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Imperato, and the company’s Web site, say that Benjamin Tyler Henry
invented his eponymous firearm, the first practical lever-action
repeating rifle, in 1860. This is true. The mistake is to infer a direct
lineage between the 19th century inventor and the 21st century gun
maker.

Henry Repeating Arms only started business in 1996. Imperato agreed that
there was no specific family connection back to the rifle maker of the
1860s. “It was a name that was laying there dormant,” Imperato said of
the Henry name. “We didn’t have to purchase it. We just trademarked the
name because nobody had the rights to it.”

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Firearms historian Tim Garrett put it more bluntly in an e-mail: “The
only relation that current Henry brand rifles have to the originals is
their name and the shiny brass finish.”

When companies engage in this sort of historical elision, it’s called
branding; when political parties do it, it’s called revisionist history.
When individuals do it, it’s called wishful thinking. The idea is to
associate a noble pedigree, omitting references to contradictions and
gaps in the record.

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Palin’s speech Tuesday night was an exercise in wishful thinking. She
cited Teddy Roosevelt and Reagan as her political ancestors, and
constructed a personal narrative that glossed over her abbreviated
governorship and yet still put her in the camp of the “real,
hard-working Americans.” If anyone can appreciate Henry Repeating Arms’
linkage with a noble past for current gain, it’s Palin.

The gift was a double-barreled success in that way. Henry now can claim
both Palin and Lincoln as part of its heritage. Palin was provided a
rifle with both stopping power and a link to Honest Abe, even if the
route there was not exactly straight shooting.

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