Tag: Gun Laws

Thoughts and Prayers from NRA Stooges

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Splinter magazine has a complete list of, “Every Member of Congress Who Took Money From the NRA and Tweeted ‘Thoughts and Prayers’ to Las Vegas.”

I have a partial list from the article after the break. 

I only listed those who took more than $3000 from the NRA in the last election cycle. and then posted, “Thoughts and Prayers”

You will notice that they are all Republicans, and you will notice that Steve Scalise, who nearly died from a shooting is on this list.

These folks next job should involving asking if you want fries with that.

  • Roy Blunt (R-MO)
  • Barbara Comstock (R-VA)
  • Richard Burr (R-NC)
  • Mike Coffman (R-CO)
  • Chuck Grassley (R-IA)
  • Will Hurd (R-TX)
  • John Katko (R-NY)
  • Rand Paul (R-KY)
  • Bruce Poliquin (R-ME)
  • Rob Portman (R-OH)
  • Marco Rubio (R-FL)
  • Lee Zeldin (R-NY)
  • John Hoeven (R-ND)
  • Rod Blum (R-IA)
  • Bob Goodlatte (R-VA)
  • Ron Johnson (R-WI)
  • Don Young (R-AK)
  • Martha McSally (R-AZ)
  • John Boozeman (R-AR)
  • John Culberson (R-TX)
  • John Faso (R-NY)
  • Paul Ryan (R-WI)
  • Bill Shuster (R-PA)
  • Lloyd Smucker (R-PA)
  • Claudia Tenney (R-NY)
  • Tom Cole (R-OK)
  • James Lankford (R-OK)
  • John Thune (R-SD)
  • Don Bacon (R-NE)
  • Jack Bergman (R-MI)
  • Mike Crapo (R-ID)
  • Mike Gallagher (R-WI)
  • Richard Hudson (R-NC)
  • John Kennedy (R-LA)
  • Brian Mast (R-FL)
  • Markwayne Mullin (R-OK)
  • Steve Scalise (R-LA)
  • Richard Shelby (R-AL)
  • Lamar Smith (R-TX)
  • David Young (R-IA)
  • Ken Calvert (R-CA)
  • Lisa Murkowski (R-AK)
  • Pete Olson (R-TX)
  • Tim Scott (R-SC)
  • Charlie Dent (R-PA)
  • Barry Loudermilk (R-GA)
  • Patrick McHenry (R-NC)
  • Tim Walberg (R-MI)
  • Robert Aderholt (R-AL)
  • Johnny Isakson (R-GA)
  • Dave Joyce (R-OH)
  • Jason Lewis (R-MN)
  • Michael McCaul (R-TX)
  • Scott Taylor (R-VA)
  • Scott Tipton (R-CO)
  • David Valadao (R-CA)

Deplorable People of the Week

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Seattle police officers including lead plaintiff Robert Mahoney who attempted to assert a 2nd Amendment right to administer violence indiscriminately:

When the Department of Justice handed down remedies for the Seattle Police Department’s excessive use of excessive force, it told officers they would need to dial back their penchant for deadliness. Just prior to the DOJ’s civil rights investigation, the PD was responsible for 20% of the city’s homicides. The DOJ recommended officers work on their de-escalation tactics, as well as partake in training meant to steer officers away from viewing anything strange (medical conditions, mental health issues, drug impairment, behavioral crises) as something to be shot at or beaten.

Seattle PD officials adopted the DOJ recommendations and altered the department’s use of force policies. Rather than comply or quit, several police officers decided to file a federal lawsuit against the DOJ. The officers asserted a nonexistent right (the “right” to make it home alive) and hammered an existing right (the 2nd Amendment) to it in hopes of persuading a federal court that using less force less often somehow violated their right to keep and bear arms.

The crowdfunded lawsuit didn’t get very far. The district court pointed out the 2nd Amendment does not create a “right” to defend yourself, much less attempt to guarantee officers’ personal safety. Gun ownership is regulated, not a free pass for cops to violate PD use of force policies as they see fit. It also tossed a variety of other rights violations claims, noting these were even more tenuously connected to the officers’ protest of the new use of force policy than the 2nd Amendment claims.

The officers appealed this decision because of course they did. Despite raising less than $4,000 of their $100,000 legal defense fund goal, the officers apparently had enough funding to lose twice. The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals has rejected [PDF] the officers’ ridiculous rights violation assertions. (h/t Kevin Gosztola)

These guys are not peace officers, they are a clear and present danger to the community.

Thoughts and Prayers, and Nothing Else

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We’ve had yet another mass shooting, with the highest death toll yet for a single killer. (If you count various forms of race riots and Indian massacres, the death toll is not so remarkable)

At first, it sounded like fireworks — a loud, crackling noise. Then the awful realization began to spread, unevenly, through the huge crowd.

 It dawned on people when they heard screams, when they saw bloodied victims collapse around them, or when others stampeded for the exits, trampling some of the people in their way.

 Many of the terrified concertgoers followed their instincts and crouched or lay flat, not realizing that they remained exposed to a gunman lodged high above them. Others surged into surrounding streets and buildings, leaving behind debris lost in the panic — drink cups, shoes, and cellphones that kept ringing for hours, as relatives and friends tried to reach their loved ones and find out if they were safe.

 By sunrise on Monday, the staggering toll at an outdoor country music festival on a cool desert night was becoming clear: at least 59 people killed, the police said, and 527 injured, either by gunfire or in the flight to safety.

 A lone gunman perched on the 32nd floor of the Mandalay Bay Resort and Casino had smashed the windows of his hotel suite with a hammer, taken aim at a crowd of 22,000 people, and committed one of the deadliest mass shootings in American history. Late on Monday, law enforcement officials said they still had no idea what the motive was.

 The gunman had 17 firearms, including a handgun, in his suite, according to Sheriff Joseph Lombardo of the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department. And when the police searched the shooter’s house on Monday, “we retrieved in excess of 18 additional firearms, some explosives, and several thousand rounds of ammo,” Sheriff Lombardo said. He added that they also found ammonium nitrate, a fertilizer sometimes used in making bombs, in the gunman’s car.

God bless America, huh?

Of course, we will be in the politicians, “Thoughts and Prayers,” but I expect nothing meaningful to happen.

Here’s hoping that NRA President Wayne LaPierre mishandles a gun and shoots his own testicles off.

Naah ……… I’m not bitter.


See full Tom Tomorrow cartoon here.

The NRA is Racist at its Core

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Trevor Noah Noticed the Hypocrisy

The NRA can be relied upon to defend the most outrageous justifications for gun owners.

It famously had a nationwide advertising campaign describing federal agents as, “Jack Booted Thugs,” which led former President George H. W. Bush to resign his life time membership.

There is nothing that can stay the NRA’s absolutist rhetoric, the above case was a full throated endorses of the Branch Davidians in Wako, unless it involves a black person:

Amid the national fury over the death of Philando Castile at a traffic stop in July — a shooting made more horrific by his girlfriend’s Facebook Live broadcast of his final moments — some condemned the National Rifle Association’s near silence on the matter.

The organization had been quick to defend other gun owners who made national news. Castile had a valid permit for his firearm, reportedly told the officer about the gun to avoid a confrontation, and was fatally shot anyway after being told to hand over his license.

So some NRA members were furious when the organization released a tepid statement more than a day after the shooting that merely called it “troublesome” and promised that “the NRA will have more to say once all the facts are known.”

………

On Tuesday, video of the traffic stop was made public, showing Castile calmly telling the officer about his firearms — followed within seconds by the officer shooting him and cursing in what sounds like a panic.

So outrage is boiling again.

And still the NRA has nothing to say.

This is not a surprise.  The whole modern gun control debate has been steeped in racism.

The use of open carry by the Black Panthers in California led to the adoption of restrictive gun laws in California, signed into law by Ronald Reagan, and this led to the 1968 Gun Control Act, and then the NRA went insane, because they wanted guns to protect themselves from black people.

The silence of the NRA is not a bug, it’s a feature.

This is Profoundly Odd

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The Westminster attacker has been identified as as Khalid Masood, age 52.

I am rather surprised at this age.

This is well beyond the age that you typically find people going violent jihadi.

I’m wondering if this was more of a generic sort of spree killing (and yes, I know how awful that concept sounds) than an act of terrorism:

A 52-year-old ex-convict from Birmingham was named on Thursday as the man who carried out the terrorist attack on Westminster in which he and four other people died, while eight others were arrested as police hunted for evidence of a wider conspiracy.

Khalid Masood, a man who had used a string of aliases, was described by police as a criminal with a 20-year record of offending, who had once been investigated for extremism but was assessed as posing a low risk.

Theresa May told MPs Masood had been previously known to MI5: “Some years ago, he was once investigated in relation to concerns about violent extremism. He was a peripheral figure. The case is historic – he was not part of the current intelligence picture.”

Amber Rudd, the home secretary, later added that Masood had spent time in jail, but not for terrorist offences, while the Metropolitan police said “Masood” was in all likelihood not his birth name.

While he did have a rather extensive rap sheet, it appears that his prior criminal activity ended over a decade ago:

Police revealed that Masood, born in Kent on Christmas Day 1964, had a string of criminal convictions. In a statement, the Met said: “He was known to police and has a range of previous convictions for assaults, including GBH, possession of offensive weapons and public order offences.

“His first conviction was in November 1983 for criminal damage and his last conviction was in December 2003 for possession of a knife.”

Daesh did claim that he did it for them, but did not include his name in their press release, which implies that there was no direct connection.

All in all, it’s rather odd.

What the Hell?

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It appears that there was a terrorist attack in London outside of Parliament:

Five people have died, including a police officer, and at least 20 people have been injured in a major terror attack outside the Houses of Parliament, the Metropolitan police have confirmed.

 Mark Rowley, the head of counter-terrorism at the Met, said a police officer had died after being stabbed by a lone attacker attempting to enter the House of Commons. The suspect was shot and killed.

 Moments earlier, at about 2.40pm, the attacker drove a vehicle at speed into pedestrians on Westminster Bridge, near parliament, killing two people.

 Rowley said at least 20 people, including three officers, were hurt in the attack on the bridge. A diplomatic source told Reuters three French students were among the injured.

“This is a day we’ve planned for but hoped would never happen. Sadly it’s now a reality,” Rowley said. “The attack started when a car was driven over Westminster Bridge hitting and injuring a number of members of the public, also including three police officers on their way back from a commendation ceremony.

“The car then crashed near to parliament and at least one man armed with a knife continued the attack and tried to enter parliament.

I’m not really sure what to think at this point, except for one thing: If it had been the United States, as opposed to London, it would have been a gun, not a knife, and the death toll would likely have been in the double digits.

What?  The wrong time to argue for gun control? Too soon?

It’s always too soon to talk about gun control, it seems.

Understanding Ammosexual Deviancy

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A new study has shown that ½ of all guns in America are owned by just 3% of the population.

Let’s run the math: (rounding a bit) There are about 320 million people in America. There are something north of 300 million guns in America.

3% of 320 million people is 9.6 million people.

½ of 300 million guns is 150 million guns.

That means that each of the serious gun fondlers has an average of 15⅝ guns per member of the ammosexual community.

Actually, I rounded.  The article is a bit more dire:

More specifically, the survey showed that the 3 percent owned 133 million guns. Each of these 7.7 million “super-owners” possess between 8 and 140 firearms for an average of 17 guns per person. For some context, most of America’s estimated 55 million gun owners own, on average, three guns and nearly half have one or two, according to the survey.

17 guns per person isn’t just someone who has a lot of guns, this is a deranged nut with a firearms fetish.