Open carry for me, but not for thee

The decision not to indict the Officer who shot down a 12-year-old in Ohio is a horrible way to wrap up 2015. Charles Pierce (via Esquire)says what needs saying:

Is there any real point in being angry any more? Is thre any real point even to be surprised? There certainly is no point in emphasizing the damn irony that Ohio is an "open carry" state so, even if the cops assumed Rice was 18, and they also assumed his gun was real, they had no cause even to stop him, let alone open fire. Listen to the spiel that Wayne LaPierre unspools every time he's in a room with more than four people listening: arm yourselves, because the world is a hellscape of violent Others who are coming for you and your children. At its heart, open carry is about open season on the people who scare you. It's certainly not about an absolute Second Amendment right that applies to black people as well as white. Open carry is about You and the Others, and so is the training of our modern, militarized police forces. If only Tamir Rice had not been born with that congenital ability to become huge and threatening the way he did in the mind of Timothy Loehmann. If only…

These guys are okay to carry anything, but a child who is darker can't have a toy gun without being shot down like a dog.

If the world made sense, this would happen:

Via benediction

It is truly crazy to incite violence against abortion providers with lies about "baby parts", and then to become self-righteously offended when the connection between your words and someone's violent actions are pointed out. The right-wingnuts own the Planned Parenthood murders. They have cried fire in a crowded theater until some bastard started a blaze, and then they act surprised? Please . . . . .

The 2nd Amendment is More Powerful Than the 7th Commandment

People's right to bear arms always seems to be more important than people's right to expect not to be killed. Or that their kids not get killed in school. Andy Borowitz sums it up, as usual.

WASHINGTON (The Borowitz Report) – Americans who are opposed to being shot, a constituency that has historically failed to find representation in Washington, are making a new effort to make its controversial ideas heard in the nation’s capital. 

“When you bring up the idea of not wanting to be shot with members of Congress, there’s always been pushback,” Carol Foyler, founder of the lobbying group Americans Opposed to Being Shot, said. “Their reaction has been, basically, ‘Not being shot: who’s going to support something like that?’” 

Foyler, however, believes that the right to not be shot, much like women’s right to vote, the right to same-sex marriage, and other rights that were deemed controversial in their day, may be an idea whose time has finally come. 

“For years, we’ve been talking about the right to not be shot and people have been looking at us like we’re out of our minds,” she said. “But recent polls show that a vast majority of Americans, in fact, do not want to be shot.” 

While Foyler and other anti-being-shot activists believe that Washington may finally be receptive to their radical ideas, Wayne LaPierre, the executive vice-president of the National Rifle Association, is doubtful. “People who don’t want to be shot are a very narrow interest group,” he said.

American Priorities

(Via Keystone Daily Funnies)

I often think that we react to things like terror in a way that makes things worse, while we ignore things the monied interests and media don't think we can do anything about. Thus priorities are set . . . .

An amazing article: A Cop's Take on Ferguson

This is part of an amazing article from a former police officer at Daily Kos.

On the Bundy Ranch, armed protesters were violently obstructing law enforcement from performing their duties.  Sniper rifles were pointed at those law enforcement officers. Then those “snipers” openly gloated about how they had the agents in their sights the entire time. And what was the police response?  All out retreat.  Nobody was arrested. No tear gas deployed. No tanks were called in. No Snipers posted in the neighborhood. No rubber bullets fired. Nothing. Police officers in mortal danger met with heavily armed resistance and no one had to answer for it. Could any reasonable person look at scenes coming out of Nevada and say they looked peaceful?

The people who were so quick to cheer the bullies at Bundy Ranch now spew venom at the "thugs" in Ferguson. The racism in this is sickening---and obvious.

Another incredible insight:

As a cop I learned that it’s usually best to wait until you know as much information as possible before you go on the record so I’ll be completely honest;

I don’t know why an unarmed 18 year old was shot multiple times. 

I don't know what that police officer felt in the seconds before he pulled the trigger. 

I don’t know why the Ferguson Police chose to withhold details about this shooting. 

I don’t know why this police chief decided to have SWAT teams on foot patrols. 

I don't know why this police chief deployed Armored Vehicles and Snipers to this area. 

I don’t know why police officers were locking up reporters. 

I don’t know how a community that is 67% black has a police department that is 96% white.

Rather than take responsibility for the slaying of a black child, the authorities attempt to paint him with the "gangster" brush. And the ignorant racists in the media and our country lap it up.

Follow the link and read the whole article. It is a powerful indictment of the brutality and overkill used in this situation. This shit must change!

Father of victim: 'Too many have died'

I have nothing to add, except this man has it exactly right, Time to kick the NRA to the curb and stop sacrificing our children on the alter of the 2nd Amendment,

We love the way you kill!

(Via Keystone Progress Daily Funnies)

The most defective part of a gun is the nut at the trigger

Gun nuts on display

(Via TPM)

A small meeting for a gun control group in Texas was disrupted on Saturday by dozens of armed, pro-gun advocates, some of whom were photographed kneeling in a parking lot and brandishing their weapons.

According to a statement from the gun control group Moms Demand Action for Gun Sense in America, four of its members were meeting inside the Blue Mesa Grill in Dallas when the confrontation took place. 

The group said the confrontation was carried out by members of an organization called Open Carry Texas. The statement said that nearly 40 armed men and women, including some with semi-automatic rifles, arrived in the parking lot outside the restaurant after learning of the small gathering on Facebook.

[SNIP]

"Our mom members and restaurant customers were terrified by what appeared to be an armed ambush," the group said in a statement. "Sadly, these bullies are attempting to use guns to intimidate moms and children and to infringe on our constitutional right to free speech. But Moms Demand Action will not be deterred. The desperate actions of this vocal minority only fuels our determination to fight for gun reform in Texas and across the country. Change will come."

The psychology of these assholes is utterly pathetic. That the voices of such morons are given precedence over the rest of society shows how sick this country has gotten. The true bravery was displayed by the mothers in the restaurant, not these gun fetishists

Who could have predicted?

The happy couple

Via ABC News

George Zimmerman was released without charges today after his wife called 911 to say Zimmerman punched his father-in-law in the nose and threatened to shoot him and his wife. 

Zimmerman, acquitted in July of the murder of teenager Trayvon Martin, claimed that he was acting in a "defensive manner" during the incident, according to police. 

Zimmerman was handcuffed and questioned by police in Lake Mary, Fla., according to Lake Mary Police Chief Steve Bracknell. 

He was later released without charges when his wife and father-in-law refused to press charges or give police a sworn statement. Police said they are reviewing surveillance video from the home and reserve the right to file charges later based on the video. 

Shellie Zimmerman called 911 shortly after 2 p.m. today and reported that her husband assaulted her father, Colin Morgan, and was waving a gun around and threatening her and her relatives, according to police in Lake Mary, Fla. 

Lake Mary police took the call "extremely seriously" and sent eight units, including officers in tactical gear with ballistic shields, to the home, according to Bracknell.
In the 911 call, Shellie Zimmerman tells a dispatcher that her husband was in his car raging, adding "he continually has his hand on his gun and he says step closer…" When Shellie Zimmerman trails off the dispatcher asks "step closer and what?" to which Shellie responds "a Step closer and he'd shoot us." 

Zimmerman, who claimed self-defense after he shot and killed Martin, told police in a statement that he was acting in "a defensive manner" during the incident and did not have his hand on his gun, according to Lake Mary police spokesman Zach Hudson. 

Shellie Zimmerman and her father said they do not want to press charges, Bracknell said. Both Shellie's lawyer, Kelly Sims, as well as George Zimmerman's lawyer were at the home, ABC News has learned. 

The 911 tapes describe a terrified Shellie Zimmerman. On the call to a police dispatcher she told police that her husband punched her father in the nose, smashed her iPad, cut it with a pocketknife and raged, "one step closer and he'd shoot us." 

"I don't know what he's capable of. I am really, really scared," she told the dispatcher.

Really? You don't know what he is capable of? You mean you don't know if he's capable of shooting someone who isn't an unarmed black child, don't you?

Safety first

(Via Keystone Progress)

This country is freaking insane

Today the Senate refused to even consider a watered-down bill to control the sale of guns in this country. But in the wake of the Boston Marathon bombings, want to bet restrictions on the sales of pressure cookers can breeze through Congress?

The National Pressure Cooker Association just isn't that powerful . . . .

How screwed up our priorities are

When one incompetent guy tries to set fire to a shoe bomb on a plane and fails, everyone has to take off their shoes to fly. The POTENTIAL possibility of a liquid explosive being brought onto a plane is there---with no indication that I know of that it has happened---and no one can have too much shampoo on a plane now.

And while some complain about it, most passengers grin and bear it as a necessary inconvenience to keep them safe.

But thousands of people get shot every month by unregulated guns, and we can do NOTHING??? We live in a sick society alright. The only difference I can see is that air travelers don't have as strong a lobby giving money to Congresspeople to legislate their interests.

It's a goddam shame.

So close to the truth . . . . .

WASHINGTON (The Borowitz Report)—Senate Republicans today vowed to filibuster a controversial bill supporting the right not to get shot.

G.O.P. leaders lambasted the bill, arguing that the right to go to school, work, or one’s home without fear of being shot was not guaranteed by the U.S. Constitution.

“The Second Amendment makes it very clear,” said Sen. Mike Enzi (R-Wyoming). “The right to bear arms shall not be infringed by a tiny minority’s desire not to be shot.”

But according to the pollster Harland Dorrinson, of OpinionFact Polling, the right not to get shot, while controversial, is beginning to gain traction with the American electorate.

“Like gay marriage, not getting shot is an idea that has taken some getting used to, but people are starting to wrap their brains around it,” he said.

Poll numbers notwithstanding, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell said today that he would join the effort to filibuster any not-getting-shot-related bill: “The only way we Republicans can protect our democracy is by preventing a vote.”

Just to piss off the gun nuts:

(Via Funny or Die):

Cold Dead Hand with Jim Carrey from Jim Carrey      

Freedom for me, but not for thee:

Ya know, I'm all for a new civility and respect in our public discourse, but it seems like a lot of folks aren't (via Alternet):

The father of one of the young victims of the Sandy Hook massacre in Newtown gave testimony last night at the Connecticut General Assembly, but was interrupted by gun advocates. [3]

Neil Heislin, whose son Jesse was killed by Adam Lanza during the school shooting, was speaking to legislators to urge them to make changes to laws around guns. The teary father said [4] “changes have to be made...The worst day of my life was the day when this happened...Why do we need 30-round magazines or cartridges?” Heislin also said that "the sole purpose of those AR-15s or AK-47s is to put a lot of lead out on the battlefield quickly, and that's what they do. And that's what they did at Sandy Hook Elementary School on the 14th."
The CT Mirror reports [4] that when Heislin “wondered aloud how such guns [like the AR-15 and AK-47] could be privately owned, someone shouted, ‘The Second Amendment!’”BuzzFeed notes [5] that The Connecticut Post [6] “put the number of hecklers at ‘as many as a dozen.’”

The heckling came even as “Heslin spoke while holding a gilt-framed portrait of him and his son, taken when Jesse was a baby,” the CT Mirror notes. [4]

Here is a father who has suffered incredibly as a result of our inability to stop gun violence, and he is heckled by Second Amendment fundamentalists. Well, let me exercise my First Amendment Rights to say: FUCKING ASSHOLES!!!!

 

The rights of citizens to be safe, to have their children be safe, these rights mean nothing to the self-centered jerks who scream "Second Amendment" at a grieving father. They are cowards and jackasses.

We are sacrificing our children on the altar of the Second Amendment

As far as I can tell, America is sacrificing its children on the altar of the Second Amendment. That seems to be okay with our politicians and the NRA, which is basically the lobbying arm of the gun industry. It is NOT okay with me, and we need to take action to see that incidents like the one in Connecticut (and Oregon, and Colorado . . . .) become harder to commit and rarer to happen. Have we lost our will or our minds?

And speaking of losing our minds, folks like Mike Huckabee who said "We ask why there is violence in our schools, but we have systematically removed God from our schools . . . ." are know-nothing vultures who are trying to leverage this horrible tragedy into a theocratic platform. Using the deaths of the children to make such a vile and senseless point is reprehensible.

To put it another way, this man and those who parrot his words are repugnant, asinine jackasses.