Zombie Ideas Never Die

Stop me if you’ve heard this one before: after yet another mass shooting involving an assault rifle, Republicans and the NRA come up with a brilliant idea to solve the problem: Oh, I know! Let’s arm teachers!

I know, right? We’ve certainly never heard that one before (except, well, after every single school shooting. In 2014, 2013, 2012 ….)

And of course the dim bulb in the White House thinks it’s a brilliant idea!

It’s just so perfect that after all of this national discussion and amazing student activism we’ve seen over the past week the NRA and Republicans return to their standard solution: more guns! That is how terrified they are of even the teensiest bit of restrictions on their weapons.

And the media is acting like this is some completely new idea they’ve never heard before. Guys: we’ve had this discussion a bazillion times already. We’ve already talked about how teachers don’t want this, how it’s not an effective solution, how the problem is all the goddamn guns, not the lack of guns. How we already force teachers to pay for their own school supplies, and now you’re going to ask them to buy guns and ammo and training?

Let’s remember that at Columbine High School there were not one but two armed officers on-site:

Jefferson County Sheriff’s Deputy Neil] Gardner [the school’s community resource officer], seeing Harris working with his gun, leaned over the top of the car and fired four shots. He was 60 yards from the gunman. Harris spun hard to the right and Gardner momentarily thought he had hit him. Seconds later, Harris began shooting again at the deputy. After the exchange of gunfire, Harris ran back into the building. Gardner was able to get on the police radio and called for assistance from other Sheriff’s units. “Shots in the building. I need someone in the south lot with me.”

An armed guard shot at Eric Harris. It didn’t work. Two students murdered 13 people and injured 21.

There’s more:

Virginia Tech, the site of the deadliest U.S. gun massacre ever committed by one person, has a police department on the grounds. According to the AP, the shootings in that incident took place over just 9 minutes — it took the campus police 3 minutes to reach the building, and five minutes to break into the building, which had been locked by the gunman.

At the Colorado cinema shootings earlier this year, it took police officers just 90 seconds to get to the scene of the shooting, but 70 people had already been shot; 12 fatally.

That’s how long we’ve been talking about this. How many more school shootings will there be before we stop rehashing the same, tired ideas?

The NRA’s answer is always ALWAYS going to be “more guns.” They don’t have any other ideas than “more guns.” But the problem isn’t that we have too few guns. The problem is too many guns.

Times’ up on these idiotic zombie ideas.

Maybe It’s Not The Lack Of Training

Remember last October’s horrific story of an 8-year-old girl who was shot and killed by her 11-year-old neighbor because she refused to show him her new puppy? The kid has just been convicted by a Jefferson County Juvenile Court judge.

Here’s what happened:

MaKayla Dyer, a student at White Pine Elementary, was killed October 3, 2015, outside her home. Juvenile Judge Dennis “Will” Roach II, who presided over Tiller’s case, wrote in a court order that he was playing with MaKayla Dyer, her 11-year-old sister and her friend when he asked her to retrieve her puppies. After she said no, he went inside and came back with a 12 gauge shotgun and a bb gun, telling the girls he had guns.

“The victim then laughed at Mr. Tiller, and stated that she believed they were not real,” read the court documents. “Tiller then made certain the gun was loaded, cocked the hammer of the gun, and shot the victim just above the heart” from inside the window.

Dyer fell backwards and was later confirmed dead.

This heartbreaking story brought to you by bad parenting, gun culture, and the NRA. The 12-gauge belonged to the kid’s father, and if you think it’s perfectly okay to leave a 12-gauge within reach of an 11-year-old, you’re an asshole. Oh, but you say, it’s perfectly fine if they’ve had that Eddie Eagle training! Riiiight:

Judge Roach said Tiller had been trained in firearm safety and had been taken hunting by both his father and grandfather.

Clearly this kid was fucked up in the head, and I have to wonder why anyone would let their fucked up kid mess around with guns. I wondered this same thing about Nancy Lanza and Chris Harper-Mercer and I also wondered the same thing about Chris Kyle, who took PTSD-afflicted vets to a gun range as “therapy.” That just strikes me as supremely stupid. After every mass shooting people say “Oh, we just need to keep the guns out of the hands of the mentally ill,” yet those same people are the ones handing the mentally ill their guns in the first place!

And every time a child gets his or her hands on a gun and blows someone away we’re told “well, training …” and yet here’s a fucked up kid who had that training, which he apparently put to good use to blow away his neighbor.

So really, gun people just need to shut up, already.

What It Takes To Get An “A” Rating From The NRA

I’m just now catching up on all the news I missed from the past week. This is absolutely hilarious:

NASHVILLE — U.S. Rep. Scott DesJarlais, R-Tenn., has gotten a boost in his reelection bid in the form of an endorsement from the powerful National Rifle Association’s political arm.

“On behalf of our five million members across the country, the National Rifle Association Political Victory Fund is proud to endorse your candidacy,” wrote James J. Baker, the group’s director of federal affairs in a July 14 letter.

The NRA-PVF gave DesJarlais an “A” rating.

DesJarlais is facing a tough reelection fight after it was revealed that the pro-life Tea Party wackaloon is a serial philanderer who pressured at least one mistress to have an abortion, while his wife had two abortions. This is a pattern with pro-lifers: my abortion is necessary and perfectly fine. Yours, not so much.

But here’s what I love about the NRA endorsement: this is the guy who allegedly dry-fired a gun outside his then-wife’s locked bedroom door and held a gun in his own mouth for three hours during an argument with her.

An “A” rating from the NRA, yessirree. And they wonder why we call them gun-humpers.

Most Responsible EVAH

Seems like Washington State has more than its fair share of gun incidents. This story out of Seattle is especially scary, also hilariously funny, if such a thing were possible:

SEATTLE — A drunk man with a legally carried pistol picked a fight with a bartender using the unimpeachable argument of “it’s a free country” early last Friday in downtown Seattle, according to the Seattle Police Department.

According to the police report for the incident, the bartender was putting away his business’ deck furniture in the 1900 block of First Avenue around 12:30 a.m. when the suspect walked up to him and started moving things around, such as the chain and poles separating the business from the sidewalk.

The bartender later told officers he asked the suspect to stop messing with things, and the highly intoxicated suspect responded by yelling, “Hey, it’s a free country!”

Yeah, that’s always my favorite argument, too. The man’s gun fell out of his hip holster as he started an actual physical brawl with the bartender. The man grew so violent that he had to be subdued by two people:

When officers arrived, they found the bartender and the employee from next door holding the screaming suspect down.

According to the report, the next-door employee handed the gun over to police, and officers handcuffed the suspect, who refused to calm down.

A quick check on the suspect and his gun revealed it was registered to him and he had a valid concealed weapons permit for it. In addition to the gun, the suspect also had a number of work-related knives on him.

Wondering what a “work-related knife” is. Maybe he’s a chef?

Anyway, so glad these model citizens are running around our communities with guns. And I’m so glad that here in Tennessee the rest of us — including the news media, which reports stories like this — are banned from knowing who’s legally carrying and who isn’t. I guess it’s just way too embarassing when one of these model citizens ups and does something to destroy the NRA’s “most responsible gun owners” meme, yes? Guess what we don’t know won’t hurt us?

You know your argument sucks when your solution is a gag order.

Things The NRA Was For, Before They Were Against

This is interesting. Here’s Wayne LaPierre, speaking to NRA members after the 1999 Columbine shooting:

First, we believe in absolutely gun-free, zero-tolerance, totally safe schools. That means no guns in America’s schools, period … with the rare exception of law enforcement officers or trained security personnel.

We believe America’s schools should be as safe as America’s airports. You can’t talk about, much less take, bombs and guns onto airplanes. Such behavior in our schools should be prosecuted just as certainly as such behavior in our airports is prosecuted.

Rare exception? But that’s not what he’s saying now. What the hell changed?

(And by the way, let’s do prosecute all of those Tea Party Republicans who keep “forgetting” they’ve got a loaded gun in their bag when they arrive at the airport. People like California Assmeblyman Tim “God and Guns” Donnelly, who does not have a concealed carry permit yet still was stopped by TSA with a loaded Colt .45 and an extra magazine stashed in his carry-on. If you haven’t read this story, it’s hilarious. Donnelly said he had the weapon with him because he was getting death threats, and also he wanted to “hide it from his wife.”)

But I digress. Back in 1999, Wayne LaPierre also gave the following testimony before Congress:

We think it ‘s reasonable to provide mandatory instant criminal background checks for every sale at every gun show. No loopholes anywhere for anyone. That means closing the Hinckley loophole so the records of those adjudicated mental ill are in the system.

Got that? No loopholes, anywhere, for anyone. Now fast forward to this week and LaPierre calls universal background checks a “nightmare.”

What changed? I’m sure this has something to do with it:

More than 50 firearms-related companies have given at least $14.8 million to the Fairfax, Virginia-based group, according to the NRA’s own list for a donor program that began in 2005. That same year, NRA lobbyists helped win passage of a federal law that limited liability claims against gun makers. Former NRA President Sandy Froman wrote that it “saved the American gun industry from bankruptcy.”

What a coinky-dinky. The assault weapons ban expired in March 2004, and in 2005 the NRA gets the Bush Administration and GOP-led Congress to push through liability immunity for gun manufacturers. That was convenient. And then NRA created its “Ring Of Freedom” program to reach out to high dollar corporate donors. Not a surprise the NRA did a big about-face on gun laws, is it? They know who butters their bread.

For more, read this:

The report, Blood Money: How the Gun Industry Bankrolls the NRA, reveals that since 2005 contributions from gun industry “corporate partners” to the NRA total between $14.7 million and $38.9 million. Total donations to the NRA from all “corporate partners”–both gun industry and non-gun industry–for the same time period total between $19.8 million and $52.6 million. The vast majority of funds–74 percent–contributed to the NRA from “corporate partners” come from members of the firearms industry: companies involved in the manufacture or sale of firearms or shooting-related products.

What’s frustrating to me is that the news media has tripped over itself handing Wayne LaPierre a microphone to spout his pro-gun nonsense, yet no one has asked him about the NRA’s complete reversal on policies like background checks and gun-free schools.

This opinion piece from MSNBC purports to look at “how the NRA became the fringe,” and traces the group’s evolution into what is basically an anti-government organization. But even this piece overlooks the elephant in the room: the NRA’s positions really changed when they started getting more money from gun manufacturers, gun retailers like Walmart, and the arms industry.

Memory Hole: NRA Edition

From May 2011 comes this item:

If all goes as expected in Pittsburgh today, American Conservative Union President David Keene will be elected president of the National Rifle Association at the organization’s board of directors meeting.

One person who presumably will not be attending the event is Keene’s son, David Michael Keene, who according to news reports and trial documents was convicted and sentenced to 10 years in prison for a 2002 road-rage incident in which he fired a handgun from his moving vehicle at another car on the George Washington Memorial Parkway in Virginia.

I guess if you’re the president of the NRA, having your son go to prison for using a handgun in a road rage incident is considered a positive. Yeah, keep reminding everyone about all of the gun safety seminars you guys hold. Riiiight.

There are no words.

[UPDATE]:

• NRA board member Robert K. Brown, founder and publisher of Soldier Of Fortune, was shot in the leg in an accidental gun discharge incident.

• NRA board member Bob Barr was also involved in an accidental gun discharge:

A few weeks before the election, he was at a fund-raiser in a supporter’s home and someone handed him an antique .38-calibre pistol, which went off in his hands. No one was injured, but afterward Barr was ridiculed. His opponent called him a “loose cannon” and promised to “wear a bulletproof vest” at their next joint appearance. At a campaign event, one of Barr’s two sons attacked a man who had come dressed as Yosemite Sam, claiming to be “Bob Barr’s Official Gun Safety Trainer.” The scuffle was filmed by a news crew. “Everybody was trying to say, ‘Oh, no, we don’t know who did that,’ and then we look at the footage and it is Bob’s own son,” one of Barr’s former advisers told me.

Amazing.

Extreme To The Extreme

[UPDATE]:

Apparently Wayne LaPierre’s nutball idea was proved to be a massive failure at Columbine over 10 years ago. ‘Nuff said. (h/t, Mistermix.)

——————————————-

Someone, somewhere — probably John Cole at Balloon Juice, but I don’t remember exactly — said post-Newtown killings, membership in the NRA should be a badge of shame along the lines of membership in the KKK. And thanks to Wayne LaPierre’s bizarre press conference this morning, we should be well on our way.

This makes absolutely no sense unless your organization represents one group only: gun manufacturers. Not sportsmen, not gun owners, but manufacturers. And we’ve pretty much established elsewhere on this blog that this is who they are, so end of discussion.

I’ve traveled a fair bit in my life, and one thing I recall from my travels to far-flung lands years and years ago was how in some countries, you had jack-booted military types with assault rifles slung over their shoulders patrolling airports. You didn’t see it everywhere but you would see it in more Third World-type places, places known for instability, and places which had experienced some terrorist activity. Back in the ’70s you’d see them in front of the El-Al Airlines counter in Athens and Rome. It always made me feel extremely uncomfortable, like, I couldn’t get out of there fast enough uncomfortable.

America has never been that place. We’ve never been a militarized police state, the unstable Banana Republic where the army patrols public gathering spots. That is not who we are. If that is who you think we should be — if that is who you want us to be? — then get the fuck out. As I said earlier, move to Somalia. Uzbekistan. Syria. Knock yourself out getting your G.I. Joe jollies in some war-torn shithole. Leave our kids alone.

You people are extreme to the extreme.

A Tale Of Two Accidents

Two tragic and preventable accidents. Both result in death, caused by one person’s irresponsible, negligent behavior. In one, the person responsible is arrested for manslaughter and faces 20 years in prison. In the other, police call it a tragic accident. So sad, so devastating. Lesson learned.

I really don’t get why everyone agrees if a drunk gets behind the wheel of a car and the inevitable tragedy occurs and they kill their friend, there’s a penalty to be paid. They go to prison, sometimes for years. But if a gun loon who’s too fucking irresponsible to remember there’s always a bullet left in the chamber kills his kid in the parking lot of Twigs Reloading Den, that’s just a sad accident.

No. There are no accidents. Just inevitable, predictable tragedies, the likes of which Lt. Gov. Ron Ramsey and the rest of gun loons here want to inflict on us with Tennessee’s “guns in parking lots” legislation. Because the NRA loons say people can’t commute to work unarmed. Where the hell are they commuting from, Baghdad? Kabul? Seriously?

Y’all need to stop giving these people a pass. You folks who say gun owners are always so responsible need to start laying the hammer down on those among you who are irresponsible. Because until you start doing that, your argument carries zero weight.

So you people who leave a loaded handgun lying around for your kids to find (and the inevitable occurs), or for your three-year-old to mistake for the Wii controller, or you think the church porch is a great place to disassemble your 9mm and shoot your friend in the leg, or you shoot your pastor’s daughter in the head because a church closet is the perfect place to show off your gun, I want to know that your ass is going to jail for a long, long time. If you’re that stupid and irresponsible and negligent, then I don’t want you walking or driving around me, armed and dangerous.

Gov. Ramsey and the rest of the gun loons in this state think we need to have a guns-in-parking lots bill? Let’s first start prosecuting the shit out of the negligent gun owners who kill and wound people because they’re too stupid to remember their firearms are loaded. Instead of just calling it “a tragic accident.” There are no accidents.

NRA Member Of The Week

Some people are just too stupid to be allowed to own guns. Like, this guy:

Wild West City owner pleads not guilty in shooting stunt that left actor paralyzed

by Joe Moszczynski/The Star-Ledger
Monday August 11, 2008, 4:22 PM

The owner of the Wild West City theme park pleaded not guilty today to charges in connection with a shooting during a staged gunfight that left a cowboy actor paralyzed.

Michael Stabile, 59, pleaded not guilty in Superior Court in Newton to 13 charges that include violations of New Jersey firearms laws; aggravated assault; tampering with evidence; hindering apprehension; and violating a law intended to protect the public safety.

The charges stem from the shooting of Scott Harris, 39, during a performance of the “Sundance Skit” at Wild West City in Byram on July 7, 2006, when a bullet struck Harris in the forehead and caused severe brain damage.

The shooter, then a 17-year-old fellow cowboy actor, accidentally loaded a .22-caliber revolver owned by the theme park with real bullets instead of blanks while running late for the shootout skit.

And who thought it was a smart idea to keep the real bullets anywhere near the blanks?

Idiots.

>Hell Freezes, I Thank The NRA

>Why? Because they just took away the trusty old standby argument they’ve used against every Democratic candidate since forever:

“They’re gonna take away our guns!!!”

Well, no we’re not. We can’t. Even if we wanted to (which we don’t). The Supreme Court just said we can’t. Thank you, NRA and SCOTUS! They’ve trotted out that ridiculous “they’re gonna take away my gun” nonsense so many times, it’s become like kissing babies and eating barbecue: an expected part of every campaign.

It’s even resulted in ridiculous moments of Democratic pandering like this one:

So thank the heavens we will no longer be subjected to that tired old warhorse. We won’t have to see pictures of Barack Obama trotting through a Midwestern field in a brand-new LL Bean hunting jacket, or wearing hunter orange at some Florida hunting reserve. Democrats don’t do that type of pandering very well, it always rings false–whether it is or not. Chalk that up to another label conservatives stuck us with, despite the fact that there are plenty of Democratic sportsmen and women who love their guns.

Now we don’t have to worry about defending ourselves against the stereotype of the anti-gun liberal. It was never true anyway, but now it doesn’t matter. Thank goodness that’s over! Whew. Now we just have to say, “hey, even if we wanted to, we can’t. End of discussion.” The point is moot.

That fear-mongering talking point that’s been a standby of every single election since forever? Kiss it goodbye, GOP. It has been effectively retired. I guess that just leaves you with God and gay-hate to hammer your base into the polls from now on, eh? Too bad for you those don’t seem to be working so well lately.