Americans who are familiar with the abbreviation “OAS” may think of Organization of American States, but when I was a kid in France the same group of graffiti letters painted on a wall referred to the Organisation Armée Secrète (“Secret Army Organization”) that was opposed to granting Algeria its independence. How many members here might object to “DEM” or “SJW”? Numbers are generally much less controversial, but I know one woman who is chagrined to this day by the fact that her social security account number contains “666.”Īnd of course different letter combinations are more likely to offend someone if, like guns, the product is sold in many different countries. Imagine what a rabid antigunner would think of “NRA,” or even worse, “INRA,” on her car. The more letters that are used together, the harder it can be to avoid a combination that offends someone. I was actually somewhat surprised when plates with “MUD” showed up in my area many off-roaders probably sported it with pride, but not so many BMW owners. It was only part of the plate (the rest was numbers) and the letter combination was just like countless others that had been used, but some people were outraged at the idea it would be on their vehicle. I remember reading about backlash against some state’s use of “GAY” as part of a license plate. The problem, however, with letters is the difficulty of avoiding things that people don’t want spelled out or abbreviated. Glock figured out a long time ago that letters give you more options that just numbers.
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