Voters in Idaho chose the Winchester Model 1873 as the state’s official firearm in a non-binding referendum Tuesday.
Republicans lost the House and Senate as Democrats swept multiple races in the South and Midwest, including flipping open seats in Iowa, North Carolina and Texas while ousting incumbents in Ohio, Kansas and South Carolina during Tuesday’s midterm elections. Republican Idaho Gov. Brad Little signed House Bill 932 on April 2, creating the advisory referendum that featured six firearms as options for the honor, which the Model 1873, known as “the gun that won the West,” won with 31.2% of the vote, according to The New York Times.
The other five firearms were the M1911 pistol, the Colt Single Action Army revolver (also known as the Peacemaker), the Winchester 1894 rifle, the M1 Garand and the Remington 700. The Winchester 1894, a popular lever-action firearm, finished second with 25.4% of the vote, while the Colt Single Action Army finished third with 15.1%.
Experts in the state had panned the referendum, arguing that the choices offered by the Legislature didn’t reflect the state’s history with firearms, according to an Oct. 13 article in the Coeur d’Alene Press.
“How did they come up with some of the guns? How did they come up with those specific guns when none of them tie back to Idaho?” George Milton, owner of Gem State Firearms, told the outlet, instead arguing that lawmakers ignored the contributions of gun writer Elmer Keith, who was a driving force behind the development of the Magnum cartridges.
Idaho was one state which avoided the Democratic sweep, with Republicans retaining the governorship, the state U.S. Senate seat, all statewide offices, both Congressional seats and maintaining substantial majorities in the state Legislature, according to The New York Times.
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