By Dan Zimmerman via TTAG
By now you’ve probably seen the prank video Sacha Baron Cohen made with a bunch of gun rights supporters. Not everyone he was fooled by his “Israeli commando” disguise. When Cohen went into a Riverside, California gun store in another ludicrous get-up last year, the gun store owner smelled a rat, too.
From foxla.com:
It happened at Warrior One Guns & Ammo in February 2017. That’s when owner Norris Sweidan told FOX 11 Cohen and a camera met him while claiming to be filming a documentary about a Hungarian immigrant wanting to buy a gun.
“He comes in, off the bat you can see in the video I’m looking like, this guy does not look like a Hungarian immigrant, tight ass leather pants, a beard, it just didn’t fit,” Sweidan said. “The moment his words came out of his mouth I was like this guy is full of s***.”
Sweidan told FOX 11 Cohen said he wanted to buy a gun, but said it with a very odd sounding accent he didn’t find credible.
It seems a little healthy skepticism goes a long way. As soon as Sweidan let Cohen know his cover was blown, he made tracks fast.
He says after Cohen left the store, he left his crew behind.
“We’re talking to the people they don’t wanna give us an answer, we basically told them to get the f*** out, you guys are all full of s***, have a great day, get out,” Sweidan said.
He said it’s obvious what Cohen’s intentions were.
“Once I knew it was Borat, we already know his game and his bull*****, so we knew he’s here to make a mockery, and of what? Gun owners? The gun business, gunshops,” Sweidan said.
As Dyspeptic Gunsmith (who forwarded this to us) said, “I would have been much harder on him – I would have gone along with it up front, and then found a way to get the LEO’s responding to my location.”
Surely there must be a law against buying a firearm using a false identity. Even in California. It would have been a shame if he’d been frog marched out of the store for violating federal gun laws.
If only more of the people in Cohen’s video had been a little more aware like Mr. Sweidan, a lot of embarrassment could have been avoided.
