Idaho voters will find an unusual question waiting for them on Election Day: which firearm should represent the state. According to Breitbart News, the ballot offers six candidates, and the results will play an advisory role in guiding the legislature as it decides on an official state gun.
The field mixes the weapons of the frontier with those of the battlefield. Three of the six are Western icons — the 1873 Single Action Army Revolver Colt .45, the Winchester Model 1894 chambered in .30-30, and the Winchester Model 1873, the lever-action rifle popularly remembered as the “Gun That Won the West.”
The other three carry military lineage: the M1 Garand, the standard-issue U.S. service rifle of World War II, and the Colt Model 1911 .45, a sidearm that served generations of American troops. Rounding out the list is the Remington 700 Bolt Action 30-06, a rifle with deep roots in hunting camps and long-range shooting.
A symbol to go with the bird and the flower
Gun Talk Radio host Tom Gresham posted a photo of the ballot question, giving the contest wider circulation beyond Idaho’s borders.
Ryan Horsley, general manager of Red’s Trading Post — described as the oldest gun store in Idaho — made the case for the idea by pointing to the state’s existing roster of official symbols.
“We’ve got a state bird. We’ve got state flower. Why not have a state firearm?” Horsley said.
He argued that all six options have earned the designation through longevity and influence, noting that each was innovative when it arrived and that all remain in production in some form today, whether through the original makers or companies that have carried the designs forward.
“Each of these firearms … were, I mean, absolutely innovative for their time and they’re still being made today by either different companies, and you’ll have maybe evolved or whatever and so they’ve all stood the test of time,” Horsley said.
A vote that advises rather than decides
The Election Day tally is not binding. Under the arrangement described in the Breitbart report, the balloting serves an “advisory” function, giving lawmakers a read on public preference before they settle the question themselves.
That structure leaves the final call with the legislature, but it hands voters a direct, if symbolic, role in shaping how the state presents itself — a small piece of civic branding tucked alongside the races and measures that will dominate most ballots.
The six-gun slate also sets up a contest of eras. A vote for the Winchester Model 1873 or the Single Action Army is a nod to the pioneer period and the mythology that grew around it. A vote for the M1 Garand or the 1911 is a nod to the twentieth century’s wars and the industrial scale of American arms manufacturing. The Model 1894 and the Remington 700 sit somewhere between the two, tied as much to hunting and sporting use as to any single chapter of history.
Whichever firearm finishes first, the outcome will be one more entry in a long tradition of states adopting official emblems — a category that has grown to include not just birds and flowers but also, in various states, official dogs, fossils, dances, and desserts. Idaho would be adding a firearm to that list.
The Breitbart piece was written by AWR Hawkins, the outlet’s Second Amendment columnist and author of its weekly Down Range newsletter. Hawkins has an extensive background in military history, holding a PhD in the field with a focus on the Vietnam War’s brown water navy, the U.S. Navy since its inception, the Civil War, and Early Modern Europe.
For Idaho voters, the practical question is simple: on a ballot already crowded with candidates and measures, they will also be asked to pick a gun. What the legislature does with the answer is another matter — the ballot language frames the vote as guidance, not a mandate.
The measure’s backers appear to be counting on the state’s strong firearm culture to make the choice an easy one. Horsley’s framing — comparing a state gun to a state bird or flower — casts the effort as a matter of state pride rather than policy, a way of naming something Idaho residents already consider part of their identity.
Whether the legislature follows the voters’ pick remains to be seen. For now, the six options are set, the ballot question is printed, and Idahoans will get their say alongside the rest of their Election Day decisions.
Source: www.breitbart.com — https://www.breitbart.com/2nd-amendment/2026/10/11/idaho-voters-help-choose-state-firearm-election-day/