Phillips 66 Vendor Number: Fill & Download for Free

Connor Foley asks the question:“What do you think of ‘Buying a Gun in the Dark Heart of America’?”A link to an article is provided…Let’s dig right in:At first I wondered why we needed to go to a gun show to buy a gun. After all, Charles lives about three miles from a store called Frank’s Gun & Repair. It’s at the corner of Highway 51 and 121st Street, just north of the Phillips 66 and across the street from the railroad tracks. Can’t miss it. Can’t mistake it, either, with its red-and-black-lettered sign spelling out 486-GUNS just below the word guns (again), in obstinate Republican red. Plus, Charles and the store owner, Frank, were downright social.Well, what a great way to end your opening paragraph…Such an open mind here.It goes through some “chit-chat” for a few paragraphs until we get to this one:The idea of holding a show came about as a means to compare notes on what other gun collectors across the state had in their gun safes. When Joe Wanenmacher became club treasurer in 1968, he also took on the responsibility of organizing the semiannual gun show. In 1968 Wanenmacher counted 117 tables at the show. Then, President Lyndon B. Johnson signed the Gun Control Act of 1968. This act was the federal government’s attempt to regulate the sale and transfer of firearms in the United States by requiring gun sellers to be licensed and by banning some small firearms. Attendance at the gun shows exploded the next year.Yep, Democrats driving up gun sales since 1968.It’s like they learned nothing from the Prohibition era.Two years in, Wanenmacher told the club he couldn’t run the show for little to no payment anymore. That’s when the club members asked him to take over the show permanently. The bargain was this: the show would retain the original club name, but all the profits would go into Wanenmacher’s pocket. Eventually, the club name—Indian Territory Gun Collectors Association—gave way to a new one: Wanenmacher’s. This was, perhaps, because the reference to the state’s theft of territory from whole nations of people—which happened twice—felt awkward, but most likely, Wanenmacher just liked his own name. A petroleum engineer by trade, the man sensed he was about to strike oil.Honest? Yes.Hateful? YES!Over the past 48 years, the show has achieved international acclaim because Wanenmacher willed it so. He traveled widely, recruiting collectors and salesmen from three continents and every state in the Union. The NRA’s National Firearms Museum took a spot at a Wanenmacher’s show in November 2014, to display guns owned by President Theodore Roosevelt and Annie Oakley. The actors Dan “Grizzly Adams” Haggerty and Lash LaRue have signed autographs at the show, as have members of the crew of the Enola Gay. According to Wanenmacher, the actor Tom Selleck once dropped by the show, in secret, to make a purchase. Fewer than 20 percent of collectors and salesmen at the show are Tulsans.Wanenmacher also changed the direction of the show.The Brady Handgun Violence Prevention Act went into effect in 1994. This law, supported by President Bill Clinton, banned semiautomatic weapons as well as high-capacity magazines. It also amended the Gun Control Act of 1968 to establish a five-day waiting period for unlicensed gun buyers. But, as with the passage of the Gun Control Act of 1968, the Brady Act of 1994 only brought more customers to Wanenmacher. Then the Federal Assault Weapons Ban expired in 2004. Four years later, a black man was elected president, and gun owners, mostly white ones, headed straight for the nearest gun show.Well, this sure rings like the whole “basket of deplorables” behavior that the American Political Left can’t seem to stop beating to death.A few points of order:The Federal Assault Weapons Ban was a different piece of legislation than the Brady Act. One might think a “journalist” would know how to find out the the facts and report on FACTS but I guess that is so Proletarian that it is just beneath the author.Gun sales have been on the rise since the early 1990’s. The election of President Obama drove up sales not because of the color of his skin but by the actions of his ilk with regard to gun control.I will need to do some more digging but so far it looks like minorities are buying more guns these days. They may not be the largest segment of purchasers but their numbers are growing. In 2017 women and minorities are buying guns. Here's whyClaim what you want dear author, but know that the fact checks are showing a slight smolder to your trousers at this point.“Our good president probably has been the best gun salesman we’ve ever had, even better than Bill Clinton,” Wanenmacher said in 2014. “I think . . . it’s the fear of what he could do and knowing that we have a president who is the most anti-gun president we’ve ever had that motivated people to hoard even though now it looks like those things won’t happen—at least not very soon.”Well, it wasn’t for lack of want given the unconstitutional acts of President Obama in the wake of tragedies.Perhaps if he hadn’t blown the political capital he had with comments like “at the end of the day elections have consequences and I won” coupled with ramming through the ACA there might have been some willingness of the Establishment Republicans to capitulate some on gun rights.Fortunately, in my world view, this didn’t happen.Charles and I visited Wanenmacher’s show in November 2014, the year before the show turned 60. Charles was dressed as he usually is. His polo shirt was tucked into his blue jeans, which he had pulled over the top of his cowboy boots. I was dressed as I usually am, in black hoodie, blue jumper jeans, and Jordan high-top sneakers. Charles took me around to the vendors, pointing out guns he thought were exciting or peculiar and stopping to chat with vendors whenever he felt gregarious. Whether my sense of vigilance was paranoia is debatable. I was painfully aware of how few black people I’d seen at the show. I didn’t need all my fingers to count them.A year after the founding of Black Lives Matter and two years after the killing of Trayvon Martin, it pained me and intrigued me to see the plethora of bumper stickers, T-shirts, and license plates with Confederate flags and dangerous rhetoric such as Heritage Not Hate. One T-shirt I saw proclaimed this message: I just bought a new Glock, and I can’t wait to try it out on the next trespasser.Here’s another: a gun in the hand is better than a cop on the phone.And here’s one more: God made men, but Sam Colt made them equal.The kind of people who buy those kinds of shirts made up the majority of people at the show, and I was decidedly not one of them.Well, we have more hate.Hummm, he was dressed like that, in that environment, and no one cared… There’s a word for that and it’s escaping me at the moment…And “Hands Up, Don’t Shoot!” is what?As to the T-shirts…My daughter loved the T-shirt I bought her that said “Don’t make my daddy shoot you!” When my wife described it to some acquaintances the dad in that group didn’t get it but the daughter thought it was great.Hell, a baseball bat in the hand is better than a cop on the phone.And why should we argue about The Word delivered by St. Samuel.Why didn’t he buy a new t-shirt? It sounds like there were plenty to chose from.The show features a list of 21 rules and guidelines. Among them is a warning to vendors: “You are urged, for your protection, to obtain and furnish identification for all sales.” The state of Oklahoma does not require that background checks be performed on gun buyers, and that’s as Wanenmacher wants it to be. Despite the fact that 92 percent of Americans favor background checks for all gun sales. Charles knows that anybody who wants a gun will get a gun. But he’s not afraid of a background check. He reached for his wallet to pay for the Glock. He was prepared to run this play the way the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives drew it up. He presented his I.D. and had a pen ready to fill out the Firearms Transaction Record for over-the-counter purchases. He was ready to allow the seller to give that information to the FBI, which would run it through the National Instant Criminal Background Check System, known as NICS.The number of background checks performed by NICS has nearly doubled, from 11.2 million in 2007 to 21 million in 2015. Polls indicate that 14 million guns were sold from 2008 to 2011, while 20 million were sold from 2012 to 2013. Over 9 million guns were sold nationwide in 2015, according to the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives. But think of how many people don’t report gun sales because they don’t trust the government, journalists, or even nonpartisan polling and research institutions. And some states are slow to update even the data they do collect. But when Charles offered to show the seller his driver’s license, the seller waved away the gesture. “Obama ain’t gonna know,” he said. In fact, sellers have the right to waive this check, in accordance with the federal Firearm Owners’ Protection Act of 1986, as long as they do not derive most of their income from selling guns. A number of states have, however, established laws making background checks mandatory for the purchase of any firearm at a gun show. But many more, including Oklahoma, may never join those states requiring this sort of vetting. So it did not matter that Charles was more than willing to abide by societal precautions meant to keep guns out of the hands of people who might do harm. The sellers themselves weren’t.Uh… NO! That is the way the Brady Bill was written.Private sales, even sales at events provided the seller isn’t a holder of a Federal Firearms License (FFL) don’t have to have a background check completed. Some states (six to date) have added “universal” background checks; though Oregon said “we didn’t really mean it” when they failed to prosecute a high profile case citing a lack of evidence; this in spite of the videotaped confession to the media.I also dispute deeply the 92% statistic as I don’t know what establishing questions were asked. Knowing data collection and human nature and having read many of these reports I know they are “general” questions and don’t get to the meat of what is understood about the existing laws making it difficult to take seriously someone who wants something that already exists.Charles didn’t seem the least bit fazed by what had occurred. He and I continued to walk through the gun show, having a look around. But I was keenly aware that I was carrying a Glock in a box, among people who, I knew well, could be armed, card-carrying members of the Heritage Not Hate clique. Charles and I encountered a number of white men and women sporting shirts that read proud member of the basket of deplorables and hats saying make America great again. They puffed their chests like they’d just whipped a bull moose’s ass in a fair fight. What was more startling—the number of Iron Eagle, SS, and swastika trinkets being worn and offered for sale. I couldn’t move when my eyes fell on a full-on Nazi officer’s uniform on display and for sale. That was one thing. It was quite another to see how many white folks were clamoring to look at it up close.Yeah, as one other commentator pointed out, NOT in 2014.Yeah, about the Nazi stuff… If they were skinheads then there is reason to worry. If they are history buffs then they want to make sure we don’t forget.Seeing a piece of history is something that SOME people enjoy, even if it is a dark side of history.I get that not everyone thinks that way, but to impugn the character of people without knowing more about them… There’s a word for that, but it escapes me now…I wondered, Has this been here all along? Is this the place where folks who hate me, and all other people who don’t look and believe as they do, feel no shame about showing it? I think I knew the answer before I consciously asked myself that question, but it scared the hell out of me all the same. It still does. I dwelled on that moment when, a week later, news surfaced about a flyer being circulated around the University of Oklahoma campus. It was titled “Why White Women Shouldn’t Date Black Men.” It alleged that biracial children “probably won’t be smart,” black men “are much more likely to have STDs,” and dating a black man “starts with rape and gets much worse.”I wondered how many of the thousands of people who visited Wanenmacher’s that weekend believed those hateful things? How many of them might’ve tried to do harm to me or Lizzie, had they known we were engaged? This is terror.Yeah, NOT in 2014….Racist Fliers Stating 'Why White Women Shouldn't Date Black Men' Found on 2 College CampusesThat didn’t happen until November 2016.Nearly all the people at the show seemed to be swapping, haggling, and hustling—all part and parcel of gun shows. Hell, when I was with Charles at another gun show, he saw a pink .22 rifle, the kind you might give to a Harley Quinn wannabe, and bought it because he just thought it was cute. He figured he might make it his truck rifle, the kind you keep on the gun rack in the back, just in case a doe crosses your path or you spot a coyote in the pasture. As Charles sauntered through the show, he had to fend off people asking You selling? How much? They just assumed he was selling because he was carrying the gun around with him. The scene reminded me of Jake and Elwood Blues, sitting in a posh restaurant and accosting a family at the table behind them: “Your women! I want to buy your women! The little girl, your daughters! Sell them to me! Sell me your children!”At Wanenmacher’s, I was both amused and horrified to see two old white men in a thoroughfare, gesticulating and arguing over an impromptu sell that seemed to be going awry.Not just gun shows, go to any swap meet and you will see haggling of all sorts.At the Wanenmacher’s gun show, folks ogled shotguns and rifles owned by dead presidents and generals. They haggled over the worth of various antique guns that no longer fired but held some value for someone who thought they were worth thousands. They bought their wives and girlfriends concealed-carry purses while purchasing for themselves calendars featuring half-naked (white) women holding exotic guns and one more banana clip for the assault rifle at home, because, well, you never know.I began picking up gun magazines, to bring myself up to speed on gun culture, but mostly for the pictures: Guns & Ammo, Concealed Carry Handguns, RECOIL, Gun Fighter, and Black Guns. Was that Black Guns as opposed to White Guns? Rainbow Guns? Polka Dot Guns? On the cover it featured a tattooed white woman holding an EraThr3 Anorexia Rifle with Leupold LCD viewfinder. In the end I couldn’t make it through a single article that day—gun-magazine prose read like an echo chamber. Readers didn’t have to worry about reading anything “politically correct,” and gun manufacturers didn’t have to think for a minute that product placement wasn’t the whole point.Well… He sure seems to understand speaking to an echo-chamber quite well.Well, that was an interesting exercise….Overall a rather pedestrian read that shows more insight into the author and his prejudices toward that which he doesn’t understand.If only there were people who might want to come along side him and teach him about firearms and their safe usage…If only there were someone who was paid to dig up information about the laws on the books and what is being proposed and what is polled and figure out what is noise and what is real signal…If only there were people who would accept a gun owner irrespective of the color of their skin or their orientation or gender preference…If only…