Tag: Gun Laws

The NRA is a Complete Sh%$ Show

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Following the Newtown Elementary School massacre, there was a debate at the NRA on how to handle the response, with many suggisting a lower key response in response to the spectacle of parents weeping over their children’s coffins.

Wayne LaPierre decided to go hard-line, going after the grieving parents, and then, LaPierre spent over $70,000 of NRA money on a vacation in the Bahamas.

That is unbelievably cold:

Twenty young children had just been gunned down by a semiautomatic rifle in their classrooms in Newtown, Conn., in December 2012, and inside the hardened bunker of the National Rifle Association, rattled officials were wrestling with rare feelings of self-doubt.

In the past, the gun rights organization had responded to mass shootings with unapologetic, high-profile attacks on any attempt to restrict firearms. But several senior NRA officials — laid low by images of sobbing parents planning their children’s funerals rather than tucking presents under Christmas trees — thought the organization should take a less confrontational approach this time, according to multiple people familiar with the internal debate.

Over the objections of some top officials, however, NRA chief executive Wayne LaPierre struck a defiant posture. In fiery public appearances crafted by Ackerman McQueen, the organization’s longtime advertising firm , LaPierre announced that the group would create a model program to train armed security guards who could protect schools from shooters, saying that was the only measure that would keep children safe.

Then LaPierre and his wife left for the Bahamas, a trip they billed through Ackerman McQueen — and was ultimately paid for by the nonprofit organization. Their post-Christmas flights to and from Eleuthera, known for its pink beaches, cost the NRA nearly $70,000, according to internal documents and people familiar with the trip.

………

New details about how the NRA handled the tumultuous moment show how Sandy Hook —one of the deadliest mass shootings in U.S. history — divided the leadership of the powerful gun rights organization. The episode also showcased the symbiotic relationship between LaPierre and Ackerman McQueen, an alliance that defined the NRA for more than three decades, several former officials said.

During that period, the bills for LaPierre’s wardrobe and his private jet travel flowed through the Oklahoma-based ad firm, recently revealed internal documents show, a practice that critics say shrouded the nature of the costs from some NRA leaders and members. At the same time, Ackerman McQueen collected tens of millions of dollars in consulting fees and kept a tight grip on the NRA’s aggressive messaging, according to documents and people familiar with the dynamics.

Who cares about dead children when you have a movement to loot, huh?

There are a lot of repulsive people in the world, but Wayne LaPierre is in a whole new class of contemptible.

Support Your Local Police

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As bullets ricocheted and bodies fell in the hallways and classrooms at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School last year, Deputy Scot Peterson was outside the building. Instead of storming in after the 19-year-old gunman, he retreated to a position of safety.

For more than a year after the February 2018 attack in Parkland, Fla., grieving parents have demanded that Mr. Peterson — along with the gunman who killed 17 and injured 17 — be held accountable in what would prove to be one of the nation’s worst school shootings. On Tuesday, law enforcement responded with a sweeping list of charges that resulted in Mr. Peterson’s arrest. His alleged crime: failing to protect the students.

America’s long history of mass shootings have brought a variety of responses: Calls for tighter gun laws, civil lawsuits against companies that manufacture guns and firearm components, collective mourning. But Tuesday’s charges represented a highly unusual case of a lawman arrested for failing to save lives.

………

“I have no comment except to say rot in hell,” Fred Guttenberg, who emerged as an outspoken gun control activist after his daughter, Jaime, died in the attack, wrote on Twitter. “You could have saved some of the 17,” Mr. Guttenberg added, addressing Mr. Peterson. “You could have saved my daughter. You did not and then you lied about it and you deserve the misery coming your way.”

Mr. Peterson, 56, who had been suspended in the immediate aftermath of the attack and later resigned, faces 11 charges of neglect of a child, culpable negligence and perjury. He was booked into the Broward County jail with a bond of $102,000. 

Some police are concerned the charges will open up other coward cops to prosecution.

It’s a good thing that they are worrying about this.

The culture of impunity inside law enforcement is toxic.

Another Day, Another Mass Shooting………

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This time, it’s Virginia Beach, Virginia:

A gunman killed 12 people and injured at least four others in a Virginia municipal building, in the latest deadly mass shooting to roil the United States.

Authorities said an employee opened fire and shot “indiscriminately” Friday afternoon in a Virginia Beach municipal building that houses several city departments.

Four police officers responded to the scene and “engaged” in a “longterm gun battle” with the suspect, who was armed with a 45 caliber handgun with extended magazines and a sound suppressor, police said.

There seems to be one of these every few weeks.

F%$# the NRA.

The Saddest Thing that I Have Heard in a Long Time

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At the Stem Highlands Range charter school in suburban Denver, CO, there was another shooting.

It barely qualifies as news these days, there seems to be a school shooting every week or so.

On the other hand, this comment by an 8th grader, Gianni, is positively heart breaking:

Her son, 8th-grader Gianni, chimed in. He talked about the gunshots he heard, about how everyone fell quiet, about how he “just sat there and prayed.”

Gianni said he wasn’t surprised by what happened. He was remarkably composed for a kid just hours removed from such a harrowing scene.

“I always knew. I live close to Columbine. I always knew this would happen,” he told me. “It’s bound to happen sooner or later.”

(emphasis mine)

F%$# the NRA.  F%$# Wayne LaPierre, F%$# the political cowards who dance to his tune.

When Government Works

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Unfortunately, it’s not my government, it’s the government of New Zealand, which just passed a law banning semi-auto weapons in response to the terrorist attack on a mosque in Christchurch:

Less than a month after 50 Muslim worshipers in the city of Christchurch were fatally shot in terrorist attacks on two mosques, New Zealand passed a law banning most semiautomatic weapons on Wednesday — a measure supported by all but one of Parliament’s 120 lawmakers.

The passage of the bill means temporary restrictions imposed by Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern six days after the massacre, to prevent New Zealanders from stockpiling guns before the law went into effect, will now be permanent. The swift action by lawmakers stands in stark contrast to similar efforts in the United States, where nationwide gun control proposals have stalled despite a series of mass shootings in recent years.

………

The law outlaws military-style semiautomatic weapons and assault rifles, and violators face five years in prison. Some semiautomatic guns will still be allowed, including .22 caliber rifles with magazines holding less than 10 rounds, and shotguns with internal magazines that hold no more than five rounds. All of the weapons used by the Christchurch gunman will be banned, as well as parts and magazines that can convert lower-powered guns to higher-powered versions.

………

But while sports shooters and farmers were among those who pleaded for exemptions to the restrictions, lawmakers allowed just two: for commercial pest-control businesses and for licensed collectors of guns, or those who want to keep particular guns as heirlooms or mementos. Collectors will be required to remove a part, making the weapons nonoperational, and store that part at a different location.

And in our case, we had elementary school students, and all we got were insincere thoughts and prayers.

F%$# that.

Also, F%$# the NRA.

New Zealand Fixes Things

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In less than a week, they have banned semi-auto weapons, less than a week after the Christchurch massacre:

New Zealand has banned military-style semiautomatic weapons and assault rifles, Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern announced Thursday, just six days after attacks on two mosques in Christchurch that left 50 people dead.

A buyback program will be launched to take existing weapons out of circulation, and gun owners who do not comply will be subject to fines, she said.

“On 15 March, our history changed forever. Now, our laws will, too,” Ardern said. “We are announcing action today on behalf of all New Zealanders to strengthen our gun laws and make our country a safer place.”

The gunman who attacked the Al Noor and Linwood mosques here Friday used AR-15 rifles in the worst mass shooting New Zealand has ever seen. In addition to the 50 killed, 40 people were injured.

New Zealand has a tradition of hunting and shooting as sport, but there is no legal provision to own weapons for self-defense.

Ardern has said there is no reason for New Zealanders to own these kinds of weapons, and there is broad consensus on that argument.

The center-right opposition National Party supported the ban. Its leader, Simon Bridges, said it was “imperative in the national interest to keep New Zealanders safe.”

The changes mean that the weapons will now be removed from circulation.

After the return period has passed, those who continue to own them will face a $2,700 fine or up to three years imprisonment.

This is what it looks like when you don’t have an ammosexual lobby poisoning any discussion of gun reform like the United States.

Good on them.

America’s Worst Export

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I am referring, of course, to mass shootings.

The trend has reached New Zealand:

America has long been known for its cultural exports of Hollywood movies and rock ‘n’ roll and the all-American cool that went with them. But as the whole world seems to lurch towards the abyss, our cultural products seem to be changing. Sure, we’re still cranking out 14 Marvel blockbusters a year. But it increasingly appears we are creating and spreading the aesthetics of modern fascism via an intricate web of siloed online communities. Since Gamergate, toxic ideas have popped into the Internet ether in the guise of ironic memes or nihilistic trolling and linger there until they become real in the minds of far too many. It also seems we’re spreading our national disease: the mass murder of innocents at the point of a gun.

Authorities in New Zealand say a man in his late 20s walked into two mosques in the town of Christchurch on Friday and started firing. He killed 49 people—41 at the al Noor mosque across from the sprawling Hagley Park, and 7 more at the Linwood mosque. There were more murders in New Zealand on Friday than there were nationwide in all of 2017, and gun homicides are normally in the single digits annually.

Why do young (and generally also white and Christian) men in the United States continue to do this, and why is it spreading world wide?

I Did Not Expect This

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The House passed a bill closing the gun show loophole:

The House on Wednesday passed the Bipartisan Background Checks Act, which would require background checks for all firearm sales, including those sold at gun shows and online.

Why it matters: This is the first gun control bill that Congress has considered in nearly 25 years. Gun control has been near the top of the Democratic agenda since the party took back control of the House in November’s midterms, galvanized by recent mass shootings and student-led activism.

Details: The bill, HR 8, also prohibits firearms transfers by a person who is not a licensed dealer. However, it does exclude “gifts to family members and transfers for hunting, target shooting, and self-defense,” according to the House Judiciary Committee website.

To be completely honest, I did not believe that the Dems would have the guts to do this.

Also:  F%$# the NRA.

A Consequence of Our Consumer Debt Society

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It turns out that one of the more common features of mass shootings in the United States is the use of credit cards to finance these acts:

The New York Times reviewed hundreds of documents including police reports, bank records and investigator notes from a decade of mass shootings. Many of the killers built their stockpiles of high-powered weapons with the convenience of credit. No one was watching.

Two days before Omar Mateen killed 49 people and wounded 53 more at the Pulse nightclub in Orlando, he went on Google and typed “Credit card unusual spending.”

Mr. Mateen had opened six new credit card accounts — including a Mastercard, an American Express card and three Visa cards — over the previous eight months. Twelve days before the shooting, he began a $26,532 buying spree: a Sig Sauer MCX .223-caliber rifle, a Glock 17 9-millimeter semiautomatic pistol, several large magazines, thousands of rounds of ammunition and a $7,500 ring for his wife that he bought on a jewelry store card. His average spending before that, on his only card, was $1,500 a month.

His web browsing history chronicled his anxiety: “Credit card reports all three bureaus,” “FBI,” and “Why banks stop your purchases.”

He needn’t have worried. None of the banks, credit-card network operators or payment processors alerted law enforcement officials about the purchases he thought were so suspicious.

Mass shootings routinely set off a national debate on guns, usually focused on regulating firearms and on troubled youths. Little attention is paid to the financial industry that has become an instrumental, if unwitting, enabler of carnage.

I am not sure that there is a way to use this information without further prying into the personal lives of everyone, but this is yet another data point about how the culture of guns in the United States is fundamentally broken.

Sick to Death of Ammosexuals

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Some gun fondler decided that it would be a good idea to send a bomb threat to Sandy Hook Elementary School on the 6th anniversary of the shooting.

Note that this is NOT related to the spate of threats attempting to extort Bitcoin that have been flying around for the past week or so.

In my younger days, I would have said that whoever did this deserved to get spinal cancer, but I am older and wiser now, so I wish some form of Fatal insomnia on them.  (It’s a lot worse. you literally die of lack of sleep over about a year and a half.)

If the cops find out who did this, the prosecutors need to make an example of this motherf%$#er.

Do they Actually Believe this Sh%$?

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I know that Kentucky Governor Matt Beven is no one’s poster child for a member of the reality based community, but claiming that zombie television shows are the root cause of mass shootings is a bridge too far:

Kentucky Gov. Matt Bevin (R) has been forthright about what he believes are the root causes of mass shootings. A few months ago, he blamed gun violence on children’s access to smartphones, video games and psychotropic drugs.

Most recently, he blamed society’s obsession with a specific genre of violent entertainment.

“Seriously, what’s the most important topic that seems to be in every cable television network for example? Television shows are all about what? Zombies,” he said in an interview Tuesday with conservative Kentucky radio host Leland Conway.

Mass shootings point to deep cultural problems, Bevin said, particularly in a society that consumes daily doses of violence through the media. He acknowledged tying zombie shows to gun violence might be perceived as “trite and simplistic.” But, he argued, American culture is “inundated by the worst things that celebrate death,” including the forms of entertainment young people consume.

“These are drips, drips, drips on the stones of the psyches of young generations that are growing up in a society that increasingly said this is normal and okay,” he said. “And eventually, some of those young minds are not going to be able to handle it.”

I’m beginning to think that Matt Bevans is looking to take over Tom Cruise’s role as Les Grossman in Tropic Thunder II: Yokels in Yemen.

When Someone Says, “Good Guy with a Gun,” they mean “White Guy with a Gun.”

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Case in point, Midlothian, Illinois, where an armed security guard subdued a suspect, and was promptly shot by police:

It began in a way gun advocates have suggested would curtail violence. A gun comes out. Shots are fired. A “good guy with a gun” steps in to help before police can respond.

The tidy theoretical doesn’t account for the chaotic unknowns when police arrive and can’t tell a “good guy” with a gun from a “bad guy” with a gun.

The theory turned to grim reality at Manny’s Blue Room Bar in Robbins, Ill., outside Chicago early Sunday.

Police shot and killed the good guy. Jemel Roberson, 26, was working security.

“Everybody was screaming out, ‘He was a security guard,’ and they basically saw a black man with a gun and killed him,” witness Adam Harris told WGN.

I expect nothing but crickets from the NRA over this, because their underlying reason for existence is their advocacy for the ability of white people to shoot black people whenever they see fit.

Thoughts and Prayers

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Translated into English, “Thoughts and Prayers,” means, “F%$# You I want my A grade from the NRA, you stupid chumps!”

Case in point the response of ammosexual politicians to the mass shooting in Thousand Oaks California:

A former U.S. Marine machine gunner who may have suffered from post-traumatic stress disorder burst into a Thousand Oaks bar packed with college students late Wednesday night, tossed a smoke bomb into the crowd and opened fire, authorities said.

Eleven people were killed, in addition to a sheriff’s sergeant responding to the scene who was gunned down by the assailant minutes later.
………

The suspected gunman, Ian David Long, was found dead of a gunshot wound in a back room at the bar. The amount of blood inside the bar made it difficult to tell whether he shot himself or was killed by law enforcement, Ventura County Sheriff Geoff Dean said.

………

The bar’s patrons also frequent the Stagecoach country music festival in Indio, and some were also survivors of the mass shooting at the Route 91 Harvest festival in Las Vegas that left 58 dead last year.

Thoughts and prayers.
Thoughts and prayers.
Thoughts and prayers.
Thoughts and prayers.

What is it About the Ammosexual Lifestyle?

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Cody Wilson, who is attempting to release plans for 3D printed guns, has been charged with sex with a minor.

What’s more, it appears that solicited her on a web site geared toward this sort of sh%$?

I don’t mean to get Freudian, but this sh%$ is seriously Freudian.

2:30 p.m. update: Austin police are working with international authorities to bring Cody Wilson, an Austin man at the center of a debate about 3D-printed guns, back to the country from Taiwan to face a sexual assault charge filed in Travis County on Wednesday.

Wilson’s last known location was the Taiwanese capital of Taipei, Austin police Cmdr. Troy Officer said.

Wilson missed a scheduled flight back to the United States and is thought to have left the country after a friend of the 16-year-old sexual assault victim told him that police were investigating him, Officer said.

Police do not know why Wilson went to Taiwan, only that he frequently travels there for business, Officer said.

Wilson has been entered into a national law enforcement computer for sexual assault of a child, Officer said.

Earlier: Cody Wilson, an Austin man whose fight over 3D-printed guns thrust him into the national spotlight, faces a charge of sexual assault, according to an arrest affidavit filed in Travis County district court on Wednesday.

The affidavit said a counselor called Austin police on Aug. 22 to report that a girl under the age of 17 told her she had sex with a 30-year-old man on Aug. 15 and was paid $500.

In a forensic interview on Aug. 27, the girl told authorities that she created an account on SugarDaddyMeet.com, and began exchanging messages with a man who used the username “Sanjuro,” the affidavit said.

The pair messaged online, then began exchanging text messages.

“During this conversation, ‘Sanjuro’ identified himself as ‘Cody Wilson.’ Victim said that ‘Sanjuro’ described himself to the victim as a ‘big deal,’ ” the affidavit said.

This is both appalling and unsurprising.

What a Pathetic Punk

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If you ever want to see a portrait of cowardice, just watch Brett Kavanaugh slink away from the parent of a Parkland shooting victim:

When the father of a school shooting victim held out his hand to Donald Trump’s nominee for the supreme court on Tuesday, Judge Brett Kavanaugh looked at him, then turned without saying a word and walked out.

“I put out my hand and I said: ‘My name is Fred Guttenberg, father of Jaime Guttenberg, who was murdered in Parkland,’ and he walked away,” Guttenberg said in an interview with the Guardian.

The moment was captured in dramatic photographs, as well as on video from several different angles. In a statement after the incident, a White House spokesman said that “an unidentified individual” had approached Kavanaugh as he was preparing to leave for the confirmation hearing’s lunch break and that “before the Judge was able to shake his hand, security had intervened”.

 “If you watch the video, you see that’s not the case, ” Guttenberg said. “What the White House said was not true.”

Kavanaugh made eye contact with him “long enough for me to say who I was”, Guttenberg said. “He could have absolutely shook my hand and said: ‘I’m sorry for your loss.’ I mean – if nothing else.”

He’s a miserably excuse for a human being completely lacking in decency.

In other words, the very modern model of the modern Republican judicial nominee.

I Simply Cannot Be to Cynical or Pessimistic Enough

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The latest trial balloon floated by the Trump administration is using federal grant money to put guns IN schools.

I cannot even………

When Congress created its academic support fund three years ago, lawmakers had in mind a pot of money that would increase student access to art and music, mental health and technology programs at the nation’s most impoverished schools.

But back-to-back school shootings this year and inquiries from the state of Texas have prompted the education secretary, Betsy DeVos, to examine whether to allow states to tap the school enrichment fund for another purpose: guns.

Such a move would reverse a longstanding position taken by the federal government that it should not pay to outfit schools with weaponry. It would also undermine efforts by Congress to restrict the use of federal funding on guns. As recently as March, Congress passed a school safety bill that allocated $50 million a year to local school districts, but expressly prohibited the use of the money for firearms.

But the Every Student Succeeds Act, signed into law in 2015, is silent on weapons purchases, and that omission would allow Ms. DeVos to use her discretion to approve or deny any state or district plans to use the enrichment grants under the measure for firearms and firearm training, unless Congress clarifies the law or bans such funding through legislative action.

The Every Student Succeeds Act is, “Silent on weapons purchases,” because no one in their wildest dreams believed that someone so clueless and so bat sh%$ insane would be running the Department of Education.

In the Annals of Whining Bitches, Marco Rubio Is One for the Ages

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After the shootings at the Annapolis Capital Gazette, a reporter said, “Thanks for your prayers, but I couldn’t give a f%$# about them if there’s nothing else.”

Marco Rubio, promptly sank to his fainting couch, to the wide spread condemnation of all good people:

Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL) responded to the massacre of five journalists at an Annapolis newspaper by whining about civility — and he was quickly drowned in profanity.

A 38-year-old Maryland man opened fire inside the Capital-Gazette newsroom Thursday as part of a longstanding grudge against the newspaper, and one survivor uttered an uncensored profanity afterward on live television.

“I don’t know what I want right now but I’m going to need more than a couple days of news coverage and thoughts and prayers,” reporter Selene San Felice told CNN. “Thanks for your prayers, but I couldn’t give a f*ck about them if there’s nothing else.”

Rubio was apparently more upset by the reporter’s obscenity than the murders of five of her colleagues.

“Sign of our times… the F word is now routinely used in news stories, tweets etc It’s not even F*** anymore,” Rubio tweeted. “Who made that decision???”

Needless to say, I am not alone in calling him a complete candy-ass over this.

This the only Tweet I’ve found that doesn’t drop an F-bomb is this one:

Five journalists died yesterday and that’s your takeaway? For the love of heaven, try to understand that word didn’t kill anyone. Bullets fired from a gun did.

— Pam Pritt (@pamprittWV) June 29, 2018

Time for Thoughts and Prayers, Again, and Again, and Again, and Again

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A lone gunman blasted his way into the Capital Gazette newsroom in Annapolis with a shotgun Thursday, killing five people dead and injuring two others, authorities said.

Journalists dove under their desks and pleaded for help on social media. One reporter described the scene a “war zone.” A photographer said he jumped over a dead colleague and fled for his life.

The victims were identified as Rob Hiaasen, 59, a former feature writer for The Baltimore Sun who joined the Capital Gazette in 2010 as assistant editor and columnist; Wendi Winters, 65, a community correspondent who headed special publications; Gerald Fischman, 61, the editorial page editor; John McNamara, 56, a staff writer who covered high school, college and professional sports for decades; and Rebecca Smith, 34, a sales assistant hired in November.

Police took a suspect into custody soon after the shootings. He was identified as Jarrod W. Ramos, a 38-year-old Laurel man with a longstanding grudge against the paper.

“This was a targeted attack on the Capital Gazette,” said Anne Arundel County Deputy Police Chief William Krampf. “This person was prepared today to come in. He was prepared to shoot people.”

Ramos has been in a dispute with the paper since 2011, so this is not related to the incitements of inverted traffic cone Donald Trump, Elvis impersonator wannabee Milo Yiannopoulos, or the rest of their ilk.

It was just an asshole with a gun.

Maybe the problem is the guns.

Why I Get No Ad Revenue

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Because they keep serving up ads like this:

Seriously Google™ Adsense™?

You looked at my blog, and you saw my regular use of the term, “Ammosexual,” to describe gun fondlers, and you thought that my reader(s) would be a good place for a f%$#ing ad from the f%$#ing US Concealed Carry Association?

What the f%$# were you thinking?

My standard disclaimer on any post about the aforementioned service applies:

Also, please note, this should be in no way construed as an inducement or a request for my reader(s) to click on any ad that they would not otherwise be inclined to investigate further. This would be a violation of the terms of service for Google™ Adsense™.

So Much for the Free Market

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Banks have decided to clamp down on financing gun purchases, and Republicans in Congress are trying to stop them:

When Congress decided not to take significant action after a spate of mass shootings this year and last, some big banks opted to take matters into their own hands by restricting financing for gun sellers.

Now, Republican lawmakers are pressing regulators to stop banks from doing so, over concerns they are veering too far into social activism.

………

“If you’re going to turn us into a nation of red banks and blue banks, you’re making a mistake,” Senator John Kennedy, a Louisiana Republican and member of the banking committee, said in a recent interview before the latest shooting. “Don’t come crying to us when you screw up and you want the American taxpayer to bail you out.”

Mr. Kennedy said he planned to file complaints with the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau against banks that are effectively restricting gun sales by setting their own rules on legal products and refusing to do business with gun makers and retailers that do not comply. He is also working to get Republican colleagues to join him in writing legislation to stop banks from discriminating against gun buyers.

Major banks have taken a series of steps this year to prevent guns from falling into the wrong hands. They are restricting their credit card and banking services to gun retailers and halting lending to gun makers that do not comply with age limits and background check rules determined by the banks. They are also freezing out businesses that sell high-capacity magazines and “bump stocks,” attachments that enable semiautomatic rifles to fire faster, even though such products are legal under federal law.

………

Gun advocates have viewed the moves as a direct assault on the industry.

………
Gun lobbyists that usually direct their resources at attacking Democrats have now jumped into the fray to take on banks, pressing Republican lawmakers to use their influence to make the banks back down.

Hypocrisy much?