Not just the libs. Some self-professed gun owners claim to be angry too.

Brian Kemp’s running in the Republican primary for governor of Georgia. The good news is that there’s no clear-cut frontrunner; the most prominent candidate is probably Lt. Gov. Casey Cagle. The bad news is that, as Georgia’s secretary of state, Kemp himself is only a little better than anonymous. He needs to get his name out there. How do you grab voters’ attention and earn some populist cred by making the local liberals mad at you?

Why, you, ah, point a loaded shotgun at a teenager at point blank range.

This ancient dad joke, in which a daughter’s young suitor is impressed at gunpoint to mind his manners, is weirdly in vogue lately. At least Jay Feely had the sense not to point his gun at the boyfriend while brandishing in his daughter’s prom photo. Kemp’s presenting himself here as Mr. Second Amendment but he’s breaking the NRA’s cardinal rule of gun safety for a laugh.

Still, I’m kind of happy he did, as we wouldn’t have gotten this important advisory from Teen Vogue otherwise:

These dads who are so eager to stay armed around their daughters’ potential suitors should keep in mind that recent research on child marriage has shown shotgun weddings don’t last.

I’m reasonably sure the shotgun isn’t being brandished here to warn Jake that he’ll have to make an honest woman of Kemp’s daughter if he knocks her up. But thanks for the factoid, Teen Vogue!

Are these “dad with a gun” gags ever going to progress past the warning stage, incidentally? After so many of them, I need closure. The next ad should be Kemp stumbling across Jake getting fresh with his little girl in the backseat and blowing him away on the spot. If you want to show Georgians you’ve got the toughness needed to lead the state, you need to be willing to waste a boyfriend from time to time.

Believe it or not, Kemp’s ad isn’t the splashiest political spot on American TV these days. Meet Don Blankenship, Republican candidate for Senate in West Virginia and stern opponent of, ahem, “Cocaine Mitch.” I thought no politician would ever top Trump for coining insidiously memorable derisive nicknames for his enemies, but I stand corrected.