Rep. Fincher Joins TNGOP’s Starving Children Club

[UPDATE]:

It’s not “stealing” when Rep. Fincher does it!

USDA data collected in EWG’s 2013 farm subsidy database update — going live tomorrow –shows that Fincher collected a staggering $3.48 million in “our” money from 1999 to 2012. In 2012 alone, the congressman was cut a government check for a $70,000 direct payment. Direct payments are issued automatically, regardless of need, and go predominantly to the largest, most profitable farm operations in the country.

I am literally at a loss for words. Surely Tennessee’s 8th district deserves better than a heartless bastard who has his hand in the till while telling poor children to go begging at the church door. And you call yourself a Christian with that mouth? No. That’s not Christianity. That is the opposite of Christianity. That is being selfish, greedy, and abusive.

I’m sick of these assholes and their phony faith.

—————————————————————————————

What is it with Tennessee Republicans and hungry children? First we had Williamson County GOP Chair Kevin Kookogey calling the National School Breakfast program a “perverse handout.” Yes, that’s right, making sure hungry kids start the day off right with some nutrition so they can actually learn something in school is perverse.

Then we had state Sen. Stacey Campfield’s now-infamous “starve the children” bill. And now we have Rep. Stephen Fincher, TN-08, passionately arguing to cut food stamps in the Farm Bill because, Jesus:

Rep. Stephen Fincher, R-Tenn., then quoted a verse from the 26th chapter of Matthew, saying the “poor will always be with us” in his defense of cuts to the food stamps program. 

Fincher said obligations to take care of the poor should be left to churches, not the government.

Right, that worked so well for hundreds of years when the obligation to care for the poor really was left to the churches. Also, way to cherry-pick the Bible, dude.

But also, Jesus Hates Lazy Poors:

Republican Congressman Stephen Fincher of Tennessee, who supports cuts to the program, had his own Bible verse from the Book of Thessalonians to quote back to Vargas: “The one who is unwilling to work shall not eat,” he said.

First of all, the idea that the poor don’t work is astonishingly, dumfoundingly stupid. Here’s a guy crafting policy affecting the poor and he knows absolutely nothing about what it’s like to be poor in America. But second of all, since Fincher brought the work topic up, what does he do for a living? When he’s not sucking on the taxpayer teet as a Congressmonster, of course.

Let’s ask the Great Gazoogle:

A seventh generation farmer, Fincher is a managing partner in Fincher Farms, a family business that grows cotton, corn, soybeans, and wheat on more than 2,500 acres in western Tennessee. The company has received $8.9 million in farm subsidies over the past decade, mostly from the cotton program, according to U.S. Department of Agriculture data.[6][7][8] Fincher received a $13,650 grant to help buy grain hauling and storage equipment from the state Department of Agriculture in 2009 as part of the Tennessee Agricultural Enhancement Program.[9]

Oh! So Stephen Fincher thinks it’s perfectly fine for the taxpayers to send him a handout, but when the poor need help putting food on the table, it’s sorry! Jesus says no!

OMG.

In fact, Fincher — a self-described member of the Tea Party, ‘natch — was the largest recipient of farm subsidies in the U.S. Congress, according to this 2011 report, raking in $3,368,843. This was so horrifying that at one point some pundits thought this might be a problem for him with Tea Party voters.

Guffaw.

Get real. If you’re looking for principles on the right side of the aisle you will continually be disappointed.

Rep. Stephen Fincher, you are a horrible person who uses the Bible to selectively justify your greedy, selfish ways. Woe unto you.

Repent, asshole.

Tennessee Gun Report

Seems like it’s been a while since I’ve done one of these:

 May 14, 2013:

• Kids today:

KNOXVILLE — A Bearden Middle School student arrested Monday for having an unloaded .357 magnum gun at school got the weapon from a family member, a police spokesman said.

“It’s a family member’s gun,” Knoxville Police Department spokesman Darrell DeBusk said Tuesday. He declined to say that meant the boy brought the weapon from home.

DeBusk said the student brought the gun to school “just to show it to friends.” The seventh-grade student showed the handgun to friends before authorities found the pistol.

• Kids today 2.0:

An East Tennessee State University student was arrested Sunday after campus police responded to a call about possible drug use and found a loaded handgun, according to court and school records.

Jahmar D. Adams, 19, 260 Riverview Road, Johnson City, is charged with carrying weapons on school property.

ETSU Public Safety Officer Waymond Babb responded to the 6th floor of Centennial Hall and was directed to the east side stairwell, according to university records on the incident.

According to Babb’s report, he smelled a strong odor of marijuana and then a “blunt” fell from above him. A blunt is a hollowed-out cigar with the tobacco replaced with marijuana.

This is how grandma and grandpa learn what a “blunt” is.

• And closer to home … Hey look! Watch this! Erm ….

Police said the Tullahoma man accused of shooting his 1-year-old son in the chest while field stripping two handguns was acting recklessly.

Witnesses said Kevin Sayre, 26, was showing how parts of one gun were interchangeable with the other one when he fired, according to Lieutenant Jason Ferrell. Sayre was charged with aggravated assault.

“You’ve got to ask yourself if a reasonable person would consider those actions reckless,” Ferrell said. “It’s our contention that it was reckless that he was even performing those steps with the child present.”

May 12, 2013:

• Call It Nutbush City Limits:

(Memphis) – A man is dead and another is on the run after an argument leads to a shooting in the Nutbush Community.

Police say they have a good idea of who the shooter is because this all started over a family argument, but people in the neighborhood are saddened that a man lost his life on Mother’s Day.

Family Members were overwhelmed with grief Sunday evening after finding out their loved one was shot to death.

Nutbush sure has changed since Tina Turner wrote a song about the West Tennessee town.

May 11, 2013:

• Don’t get drunk and try to load your Springfield XD .45 at 4 a.m.:

BRISTOL — A bullet traveled through several walls of an apartment complex on Volunteer Parkway without injuring anyone early Saturday morning.

Jarred B. Horton, 25, 1270 Volunteer Parkway, was loading his Springfield XD .45-caliber handgun while intoxicated when it accidentally discharged at about 4 a.m., according to Bristol police.

[...]

Horton was charged with reckless endangerment because he was inebriated, his wife was also in the apartment and residents were in the apartment the bullet traveled through, police said.

• Just as the Founders intended, no doubt:

Police are looking for an individual who discharged a gun next to another man’s head early Saturday morning during an apparent argument, injuring the man’s ear.

[...]

“He put the gun up next to his head and fired off to the side of him, more or less to scare him, I think,” McGill said. “And it was the gas or recoil or something which caught his ear and cut his ear.”

May 7, 2013:

• In my fantasy moonbat world, unhinged crazies don’t have guns:

According to an incident report, officers met with the victim at a Moreland Drive business. She allegedly said her estranged husband had left several threatening voicemail messages on her phone — including one that sounded as if there was a gunshot, followed by Blevins boasting that one of her dog’s was, “suffering.”

Being afraid to go to the South Creek Court residence to retrieve the animals alone, police accompanied the woman to the home. An arrest report states Blevins met police in the driveway, with deputies “immediately” noticing that he emitted a strong odor of alcohol.

When asked where the victim’s large poodles were located Blevins allegedly stated, “running around the house somewhere.” Police say he then became belligerent and unruly, ignoring officers’ commands and attempting to walk away.

When his estranged wife began making her way towards the residence, Blevins allegedly attempted to “take off after” her. He was then taken into custody and charged with disorderly conduct and public intoxication.

When the victim and an officer opened the home’s door one dog was spotted walking around, but trailing blood and suffering a gunshot wound to the neck. The woman’s second poodle was reportedly located dead on the floor of a bedroom, a bullet hole in its back.

Police say a pair of loaded handguns were found on a kitchen table, along with two bullet holes in a kitchen wall. Furniture was also allegedly flipped upside down throughout the home.

May 6, 2013:

• Hey, it’s not all bad news:

Shelby County Commissioners voted down a resolution Monday, May 6, that would have backed the idea of state legislators and county sheriffs across the state “nullifying” federal gun control laws they consider unconstitutional.

The debate about Commissioner Terry Roland’s “Second Amendment Preservation Resolution” dominated a short commission agenda that also included a resolution honoring Commissioner Steve Mulroy for donating a kidney last week to the Methodist Healthcare transplant program.

Roland said he sponsored the Second Amendment resolution because his constituents wanted it. And he insisted the resolution was simply to state the commission’s general support of the right to bear arms.

“I’m not going to change any minds here,” Roland added as the debate continued.

Mulroy, a law professor at The University of Memphis Cecil C. Humphreys School of Law, questioned why the commission would want to do that. He also questioned the wording in the resolution which called on the Tennessee Legislature to “reject and nullify the enforcement of any federal acts, laws, executive orders, rules or regulations in violation of the Second Amendment of the Constitution of the United States and of the Constitution of the State of Tennessee.”

He termed the resolution “an extreme right-wing position.”

Gee, ya think?

May 2, 2013:

• Always amazes me that all of these responsible gun owners are constantly forgetting about their guns. Seems like the first sign of a responsible gun owner is knowing where your guns are at all times:

(Memphis) A passenger at Memphis International Airport was stopped at a TSA security checkpoint Thursday morning after a .38 revolver was found in a carry-on bag.

TSA Federal Security Director Kevin McCarthy said this is the 9th gun found in a carry-on at Memphis International in 2013.

Nine guns total were found in all of 2012.

“People are not aware of what they have in their bags. The most common excuse we hear is I forgot about it or I didn’t pack my bag, but that’s not good enough,” said McCarthy.

Thursday’s passenger received a misdemeanor citation.

May 1, 2013:

• Coffee County Commissioner doesn’t think this is intolerant at all:

A Coffee County commissioner’s Facebook post suggesting Muslims are best greeted from behind a rifle barrel is prompting demands for an apology.

Commissioner Barry West’s post follows a string of anti-Muslim acts throughout Middle Tennessee in recent years, including at least four incidents of mosque vandalism. Opposition to a new mosque in Rutherford County was so strong it took federal Justice Department intervention to open it last year.

West played no active role in any of those incidents. He just put an image on his Facebook page, which shows a man aiming a shotgun under the phrase “How to wink at a Muslim.” But even that put a chill through Muslims in Middle Tennessee.

Dumbass.

April 28, 2013: 

• Art that makes a statement about gun culture comes to Chattanooga:

[...] visitors to the Main Gallery at the Association for Visual Arts weave their way through a sea of 1,000 black pingpong balls he installed and then see what awaits them on the other side — an assault rifle.

“Guns are fetishized in the U.S.,” says Murphy, an artist and assistant professor of art and technology at Georgia College. “Many, many Americans love guns. I’m creating a giant gun. Gun enthusiasts should love the piece.

“I just want people to keep talking about guns [and] why we should have guns,” he says. “Communication is necessary because I don’t see any sort of solution being proposed.”

Stay safe, y’all.

Tennessee Gun Report

Did you know that Tennessee has the sixth-highest rate of accidental shooting deaths in the country? I read that statistic buried deep in this story about parents and gun safety. You’d think a statistic like that might have been mentioned sooner amid all of the gun loonery foisted on us by the state legislature and their puppetmasters at the Tennessee Firearms Assn. Then again, maybe it was discussed and I just missed it.

With that in mind, I need to ask Greeneville, TN: WTF? This week’s gun report has two separate accidents from Greeneville, and some gun loonery that thankfully didn’t result in injury. Must be something in the water there.

Also, should we be worried that a TVA security officer patrolling outside Watts Bar Nuclear Plant was fired upon by an unknown person wearing a dark hoodie? The FBI is apparently investigating.

Meanwhile, our teen edition reports two Soddy Daisy (yes, that’s a real place) teenagers have been charged with felonies after firing on a group of people in a residential neighborhood, then embarking on a high-speed chase.

And here in Nashville at the upper-crust private school Christ Presbyterian Academy, a student was charged with bringing an AR-15 and ammo to school.

Without further ado, a run-down of recent gun accidents in Tennessee:

• April 9, 2013:

Man Accidentally Shoots Hand While Cleaning His .22 Rifle

A man accidentally shot himself through the right hand Monday afternoon while cleaning a .22 caliber rifle after target shooting, sheriff’s Deputy David Love said in a report.

Cameron Bolyard, 25, of 307 Horse Creek Road, said he was cleaning the rifle when it went off.

“He was on his back porch cleaning his .22 rifle. He said he was holding the rifle in an upright position with the butt resting on the floor and was holding the barrel end with his right hand palmed over the end,” the report said.

• April 15, 2013:

Man Shoots Self In Abdomen Attempting ‘Cross-Draw’ Move

An Oakmont Drive man required hospital treatment after accidentally shooting himself in the abdomen about 6:15 a.m. Sunday, sheriff’s Deputy Michael MacDonald said in a report.

Deputies responded to Takoma Regional Hospital on a report of an accidental gunshot wound.

They spoke with Timothy Gray, 44, who said “he was attempting to attach his gun and holster to his left hip in a cross-draw fashion, when he accidentally discharged the firearm,” the report said. Gray shot himself with a .410 double-barrel Derringer.

• April 16, 2013:

Supervisors probing after National Guard sergeant fires weapon in local hotel
No charges filed by city police

MURFREESBORO — No one was injured Friday at the Clarion Hotel on Old Fort Parkway when a Tennessee Army National Guard sergeant “accidentally discharged” a handgun owned by a fellow Guardsman inside a room, according to Murfreesboro Police.

The incident involving Sgt. Ryan Mitchell and Sgt. Matthew Wilson is being formally investigated by the Tennessee Army National Guard, according to Maj. Darrin Haas, deputy director of public affairs for the Guard.

Mitchell was “checking out” a gun owned by Wilson at the Clarion when it “accidentally” went off in Mitchell’s room, according to a Murfreesboro Police incident report filed by Officer Charles Owens.

The bullet from the unidentified handgun ricocheted off the wall, went through a sliding glass window and lodged in the tail light of a vehicle in the parking lot, Owens reported.

Be safe, people!

Horrible People, Pilot Flying J Edition

More details have emerged in the fraud case against Pilot Flying J, the family business of Gov. Bill Haslam which is run by his brother. The company headquarters was raided by the FBI on Tuesday. And man, is this turning out to be a big ol’ shitpile.

The allegation is that the company intentionally reduced monthly rebates due trucking company customers to increase the company’s profitability on monthly P&L statements — and thereby increase sales commissions, which were based on those figures. According to the FBI affidavit, the practice was shockingly commonplace and widespread, involving a wide array of employees — account executives, regional supervisors, executive management; it was even openly discussed in a meeting attended by Pilot’s President Mark Hazelwood and CEO Jimmy Haslam III. This was no whispered back-room deal done under the cloak of secrecy — unless you’re a Pilot Flying J customer, of course. Nope, as layed out in the FBI affidavit, it was business as usual, even something discussed in sales meetings. Everyone, save customers, seemed to know about it.

Even more shocking is the incredible hubris on display in recorded conversations. “Fuck ‘em early and fuck ‘em often,” says John Freeman, Pilot’s VP of sales on page 50 of the affidavit. What a swell guy.

On Page 52 we hear Arnold Ralenkotter, Pilot regional sales director, joking with Brian Mosher, Director of National Sales, about ripping off what Ralenkotter called “a fuckin’ Russian mafia guy” in Illinois named “Pav”:

MOSHER: How’d it end up?
RALENKOTTER: Well, we agreed to the across-the-board deal. And we didn’t change a thing.
MOSHER: He doesn’t fuckin’ have a clue. He doesn’t have a clue.
RALENKOTTER: But he slid that, he slid the, you know, the Love’s offer letter, where they kinda lay it all out? Walked out of there, I said don’t change a thing. Let him believe whatever the hell he wants.
MOSHER: He didn’t have any fuckin’ clue.
RALENKOTTER: Dumbass.

Mosher and the rest treated customers like the enemy. If you were a smart negotiator, they’re all like, “How dare you! You gonna mess with me? I’m gonna mess with you.” But if a customer didn’t understand Pilot’s complicated pricing program, they’re like “Stupid rubes! You deserve to get ripped off!” Indeed, these guys seemed to take special pleasure in preying upon — no, relishing — customers’ ignorance about pricing and rebates:

SCHIMMEL: Let me ask a question. Even though, do we have an idea of what percentage of people out there truly know, have an understanding of discounts? I mean …
MOSHER: I would tell you it’s, I’m gonna say way less than 50%. I’m thinking it’s 25% or less, that really, really know on a day-in-day-out basis. Now, again, that depends, right? Because if you’re sending that customer a daily price fetch, he doesn’t have to know, all he has to do is save his e-mails, okay? Because he can go back and recalculate this stuff. (Laughter.) But the guy that doesn’t– huh?
WELCH: Some of’em. (Laughter.)
MOSHER: Some of ‘em, some of ‘em don’t know what a spreadsheet is. I’m not kiddin’. So, again, my point is this: Know your customer. Know what you’re sending him, know what his preferences are, know how sophisticated he is, okay? If the guy’s sophisticated and he truly has gone out and gotten deals from the other competitors and he’s gettin’ daily prices from us, don’t jack with his discounts, ’cause he’s gonna know, okay? But the guy that’s just sayin’ “Cost-plus, cost-plus, cost-plus, I need cost-plus.” “Why do you need cost-plus and what do you know about cost-plus? How’s cost-plus compare to retail-minus over the last three months?” “I don’t know, but Love’s is sayin’ it, so I need it.” Solution: Tell him we can do it. Tell him we can do it on a rebate.

What despicable people. I wonder if Gov. Haslam regrets his decision to keep his Pilot Oil holdings out of his “near-sighted” trust, under the reasoning that,

… Tennesseans are “very familiar” with his relationship with Pilot, a privately held company with annual revenues of $20 billion.

Yes, we are very familiar, indeed. Grab the dang popcorn, peeps.

Why We Suck

There are no words.

In defense of some of the people in this video, many appear to be tourists from out of state. That’s what happens when you do “man on the street” interviews at a tourist attraction like the Tennesseee Aquarium, and the Chattanooga newspaper staff should have known better than to ask a “who’s the governor of Tennessee” question at a place with a high concentration of tourists. They should have taken this bit to Kroger.

But clearly not all of them are, especially the idiots who think Phil Bredesen is still governor. And to those people I say: if you can’t fucking pay attention, then you deserve all the wingnuttery you get.

You know who benefits from ignorance, complacency and disengagement? The status quo. The plutocracy. The powerful. The people in charge.

Haslam Family Biz Investigated

[UPDATE]:

Pilot Flying J has issued a completey useless BS statement, which they call FAQs. And they are hilarious. I’m not sure

Was it necessary to conduct a “raid”?

and,

Was this politically motivated?

… are really the most Frequently Asked Questions in this case, but whatever. Also, the question

Is it a “criminal” investigation?

… can now be answered in the affirmative, according to CEO Jimmy Haslam’s press conference, which is in progress. Apparently the issue is rebates to some customers.

————————————–

First: I’ve got nothing to say on the Boston bombings. I’m thinking plenty, but speculation is pointless and counterproductive. I am, once again, in awe at the good we see in people when tragedy strikes. Our first responders rushing in to harm’s way, not knowing what awaits them … ordinary folks helping the injured … we pull together, and we make it through. Boston, my prayers are with you.

On to other news. Yesterday, around the same time as the news out of Boston broke, we heard that the Knoxville offices of Pilot Flying J were raided by the FBI and IRS. Flying J is the national chain of truck stops and convenience stores owned by Gov. Bill Haslam’s family; his brother, Jimmy, is its CEO.

From the story:

In April 2009, Pilot settled a price-gouging suit brought by Tennessee attorney general. Pilot settled similiar suits in Georgia and Kentucky.

Good to know. We still don’t know what this raid is about, however. Also of interest:

The Haslams have carefully guarded details about the size of their fortune. Gov. Haslam has refused to release his tax returns or how much of Pilot he still owns, saying the information could violate the privacy of other owners.

Haslam did make his success in business a selling point of his 2010 campaign for governor.

See how that works? Haslam wants all the credit for being a successful businessman, without revealing any details of said business. It’s more of this “just trust me!” crap we get from Republicans. Trust has to be earned, governor.

I didn’t want this story to get lost amid all of the other news today. Definitely something to keep an eye on.

Tennessee Gun Report

It’s been a busy week for gun accidents in Tennessee. The most responsible gun owners ever have left a bloody trail over the past seven days, primarily in Middle Tennessee. They’ve left guns where children could access them, shot themselves while trying to intimidate a spouse, shot their family and friends while handling guns. They just can’t seem to control these things, can they? Some people have died, others have nearly died, and others were patched up at the hospital and sent home. Near as I can tell, no charges have been filed in any of these cases charges have been filed in just one incident.

And I’m sure we all feel safer knowing Tennessee gun loon James Yeager, who lost his carry permit after threatening on YouTube to “start killing people” if new gun control measures were passed, has his gun permit back.

A recap of the past week’s accidental shootings across Tennessee since last Monday:

• April 8, 2013:

4-year old grabs gun, accidentally kills wife of Tenn. deputy

LEBANON, TENN. — A 4-year-old who picked up a gun at a family cookout killed the wife of a Wilson County sheriff’s deputy, authorities said Monday.

Josephine G. Fanning, 48, died Saturday at her home about 7 miles south of Lebanon, according to the Wilson County Sheriff’s Office.

The shooting occurred while her husband, Wilson County Deputy Daniel Fanning, 51, was with another relative looking at guns in a bedroom of their home, according to the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation.

The 4-year-old and Josephine Fanning walked into the bedroom where a loaded weapon was on top of the bed, TBI spokeswoman Kristin Helm said. The boy, a relative of the couple, picked up the gun and fired one round that struck Josephine Fanning.

• April 8, 2013:

Woman Reportedly Shot by her 2-Year-Old

CARROLL COUNTY, Tenn.- Carroll County Sheriff Deputies are investigating after a new mother was hospitalized for a gunshot wound to her stomach, Sunday.

Carroll County Sheriff Andy Dickson told WBBJ 7 Eyewitness News that the mother Rekia Kid, 22, was shot in the stomach by her 2-year-old son at her Lavinia home, Sunday. Investigators said the mother was sleeping with her three-week-old baby and toddler at the time of the shooting. Dickson said they believe the toddler accidentally shot his mother after finding a Glock 9 mm stored underneath Kid’s pillow.

• April 9, 2013:

Report: Man shot self in knee amid domestic dispute

A Columbia man accidentally shot himself in the knee while drawing a gun during a domestic dispute with his wife and was jailed four days later after being treated for the injury, according to an incident report.

Randall Floyd Lovett, 60, 694 Mt. Olivet Road, was arrested Monday and charged with aggravated assault after things “went crazy” — his own words to deputies — while arguing with his wife shortly before midnight April 4.

[...]

“Mrs. Lovett says that Mr. Lovett reached across his body with his right hand and stuck it down into an armrest on his left side,” the report continued. “As he was pulling his hand out of the armrest, Mrs. Lovett saw the gun and it immediately discharged into his left knee.”

• April 11, 2013:

Woman Seriously Injured In Accidental Shooting At Home

NASHVILLE, Tenn. – A woman was seriously injured after police said her future son-in-law accidentally shot her in the stomach.

Police said the 42-year-old woman was brought to Skyline Medical Center in a private vehicle around 10:15 p.m. Wednesday. She had suffered a gunshot wound to the abdomen, and was taken to Vanderbilt University Medical Center due to the life-threatening nature of the injury.

Can’t imagine why we’d want to stop any of this! And then we have an even longer list of people just being stupid with their guns, like this father-son duo who pulled a gun on a drive-thru window cashier because she accidentally left off an order of chicken wings. Or this woman who pistol-whipped another woman with a loaded gun over a downtown Memphis parking space. Or the Knoxville man who pulled a gun on police officers arresting his son for a road rage incident. That last one lost his life.

Freedom!

Most Responsible Gun Owners EVAH-Take Our Word For It!

When I see legislators doing reactionary stuff like this, my first thought is, what are you trying to hide?

The Senate today joined the House in voting to close the state’s handgun carry permit records to the public. Lawmakers say they want to protect the privacy of our nearly 400,000 citizen gunmen. But their real goal is preventing the media from finding out when one of these Barney Fifes shoots his foot or someone else.

The AP recently looked at public records and found that 2,133 people have had their permits revoked or suspended for criminal charges or orders of protection over the last two years in Tennessee. Handgun permit owners have killed or been accused of killing 16 people in the past five years in this state. One of the shootings started as argument over how close together two SUVs were parked.

The NRA would rather the public not learn about all that murder and mayhem because it makes voters wonder what the hell our lawmakers are thinking when they keep expanding gun rights.

Yep, that sounds about right. Now when the loonz say, “CCW holders are the most responsible gun owners ever,” we can no longer respond, “Yeah? Prove it.” We’ll just have to take their word for it. And you know something is wrong when Southern Beale and Lt. Gov. Ron Ramsey are in agreement. Back in February Ramsey said:

“Having the handgun carry records open actually helps the cause of the Second Amendment,” he said in an interview Thursday. “Because people can go look at those and realize that they truly are law-abiding citizens.”

I guess they’re not law-abiding citizens, or else the legislature wouldn’t be trying to hide this information. So, thanks Tennessee legislators, for proving our point.

The NRA operates under an “ignorance is bliss” policy, forcing groups such as the Violence Policy Center to turn to sketchy news reports:

No comprehensive data exists on non-self defense killings by private citizens legally allowed to carry concealed handguns. Concealed Carry Killers offers examples from May 2007 to the present of such incidents, which are taken from news reports and the limited state data available. These examples are only an unknown fraction of the unreported number of similar incidents that routinely occur across the nation.

Currently, Concealed Carry Killers documents 377 incidents in 32 states resulting in 508 deaths. In nearly 80 percent of the incidents (300) the concealed carry killer has already been convicted (126), committed suicide (167), or was killed in the incident (seven). Of the 67 cases still pending, the vast majority (55) of concealed carry killers have been charged with criminal homicide, four were deemed incompetent to stand trial, and eight incidents are still under investigation. An additional 10 incidents were fatal unintentional shootings involving the gun of the concealed handgun permit holder. At least 14 of the victims were law enforcement officers. Twenty-three of the incidents were mass shootings, resulting in the deaths of 103 victims.

I would remind the loonz and NRA lapdogs that shutting the door on factual debate is a two-sided blade. You can keep telling the world that CCW holders are the safest, bestest, most wonderful gun owners ever, but you can no longer prove it. Those of us on the other side of the issue will keep saying otherwise, and you can’t prove we’re wrong.

By the way, sealing gun records is one of those ALEC-sponsored “model” bills. They’ve been cropping up all over the country lately. Virginia just passed a similar bill, so did Mississippi, and the issue has come up in Maine and elsewhere. I’m sure nobody is shocked to learn our legislature is doing the gun manufacturers’ bidding.

Riding In Cars With Tennesseans

Add “moto-wanking” to the list of bizarre (and illegal) things prominent Tennesseans have done while driving:

A former alderman and vice mayor from Mount Carmel, Tennessee, has been arrested on charges of indecent exposure after a female motorist said he “‘fondled himself’ and made obscene gestures while they drove beside each other on Interstate 26.” William Lee Blakely, 30, had previously been investigated on similar charges in 2010, but the case was dropped when the woman who initially reported that incident “declined to move forward with the prosecution to avoid embarrassment.” At a preliminary hearing in the new case, three women testified that they had witnessed Blakely exposing himself on the freeway at high speeds.

I’m not sure what it is about Tennessee but apparently we do all sorts of odd things in our cars. We had ex-Republican House member Julia Hurley’s infamous “dog-surfing” incident, and then we have Rep. Curry Todd’s DUI-with-a-gun incident. We’ve got this teenager who stole a big rig, causing a multi-car accident on I-15 in California, all because he thought zombies were chasing him. And don’t even get me started on the whole why-can’t-people-in-Williamson-County-drive thing.

Sigh.

Seriously, I’d feel sorry for William Blakely but apparently he’s a habitual moto-wanker. And driving down the interstate at 90 mph with your dick out the window is just not safe, on so many levels. Dude needs to get some help, and I hope he finds it.

The Most Responsible Gun Owners EVAH

Why the hell won’t this Nashville man be charged for negligence?

NASHVILLE, Tenn. – Police said a man was cleaning his gun when it discharged, and a shot was fired into a neighboring apartment.

Police were called to the apartment complex on Arbor Knoll Boulevard around 1:30 a.m. Friday. They said a man was cleaning his handgun when it went off, and a bullet flew into the apartment next door.

Fortunately, no one was hurt.

Investigators said the gun owner won’t face charges because he has a carry permit. His identity was not released.

First of all, kudos to NewsChannel5 for using the ol’ passive voice gun dodge. Notice the man was cleaning his gun when it discharged, all by its own self. A shot was fired for some mysterious, unexplained reason! Not, the man fired his gun into a neighboring apartment, by accident. Nope, the man didn’t do a damn thing, he was just sitting there with his hand on the trigger when the gun went kaboom all by itself. Amazing.

But second of all, if you’re a CCW holder and you’re such a dumbass you don’t know to make sure all the bullets are removed before cleaning your gun? Yeah, you’ve lost the right to call yourself a responsible gun owner. And you should not only have your CCW permit yanked but you should be charged with negligence. There could have been a kid on the other side of that wall.

[UPDATE: sadly, in Texas on Sunday, there was a kid on the other side of that wall.]

Dumbass.

This shit pisses me off like you would NOT believe. No, gun owners. I do not feel safer knowing you’re out there.