Gun Play

Peter Leboon was concerned because his brother, who he said began showing signs of mental instability three years ago, had a permit to carry a concealed weapon.

"The last time I tried to get him help, we searched the whole house, six or seven of us, we couldn't find the gun," Peter Leboon said. "I found the permit, though, and destroyed it. Whatever happened to that gun, who knows?"

Christina Wilson, 28, a neighbor, said FBI agents took Leboon away in shackles on Saturday.
That morning, Leboon was outside his house screaming at his neighbors. Philly.com

Remember that obviously mentally ill man who was recently arrested for threatening Eric Cantor online? The guy who’s apparently been posting similar threats against a range of public figures, including President Obama and the pope?

He had a concealed weapons permit.

Just sayin’…

Bob Shrum: Imagine if after that had happened (the Rodney King riots), Michelle Bachmann, the Republican congresswoman has said she wants people in Minnesota “armed and dangerous,” imagine if Jesse Jackson had said that, or imagine if Maxine Waters had said that. I think what gives this its power and currency is the apparent ratification of it by a lot of Republican members of congress, people standing out there…

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The elephant in the room – the proliferation of guns in the US, coupled with incendiary rhetoric on all levels of the right, from obscure bloggers to Republican senators – is briefly touched upon at the end of this discussion on Morning Joe. Before that, you have Bob Shrum making a salient point about Republican lawmakers egging on the fringe elements in the Tea Party movement, and Pat Buchanan making the astounding assertion that the right didn’t “go off the rails” after the passage of the 1964 Civil Rights Act (which Bob Shrum thoughtfully reminds us Pat Buchanan opposed.)

Pat Buchanan: He mentioned the Civil Rights Act of 1964…

Bob Shrum: Are you still against it?

Joe Scarborough: Oh wow…

Pat Buchanan: No, no,..Who went off the rails? Did the Goldwater people go out into the street and riot? The riot was in Harlem that year! 500 people injured, 500 arrested, billions and millions of damage done….

For the record, no, the “Goldwater people” did not riot or otherwise resort to violence. They were, however, quite happy to exploit those elements of the right wing who did, the white supremacist southern Democrats outraged by the Democratic party’s support for black Civil rights. Remember? The thugs who were not only shrieking threats and obscenities at schoolchildren walking to integrated schools, but were in some cases firebombing black churches, beating up black civil rights demonstrators, and occasionally murdering civil rights activists?

As for right wingers showing up at public venues packing heat, no, it was not “just one” demonstrator, as these panelists hasten to reassure each other. In addition to the guy at the rally last summer who was carrying a loaded gun and that sign about the tree of liberty being watered, there was the fellow in Minnesota, a convicted felon, who was hanging around with a couple of loaded guns outside a venue where President Obama was speaking.

And let’s not forget that Tea Party sign that seemed to sum up the implicit message behind the repeated invocation of gun imagery by the right:

Del. Mark Cole, R-Fredericksburg, has filed legislation that would legalize bringing guns into a courthouse "when the courthouse is being used for non-judicial activities," according to an online summary. Washington Examiner

Washington (CNN) -- The number of threats against federal judges and prosecutors more than doubled over the past six years, according to a report released Monday by the U.S. Department of Justice. CNN

Why, in the name of the twelve apostles, would someone want to bring a gun to a courthouse, even when it's "being used for non-judicial activities?"

Or perhaps it would be more germane to ask, why, given the uptick in threats against federal officials, would any rational person of good will propose making such a thing legal?

Johnson told police he always wore the gun in the front of his waist with no holster, according to police reports. He placed a round in the chamber after the men approached him, then backed up a few feet and fired, according to a police report. “I told Adam that witnesses said there was no physical altercation between he and the guy he shot, that Adam had just pulled his gun,” according to a report by Coeur d’Alene police Detective C. Miller. “Adam said he knows he felt threatened. He had a feeling that something was wrong.” The Spokesman Review, 12/28/09

Guns and alcohol led to a shooting?

My goodness. Who could have predicted such a thing?

Paul Michael Merhige’s mother knew he was troubled, but she didn’t know how deeply. She didn’t know he had bought a gun.

Days after the horrific Thanksgiving Day attack, in which police say Merhige shot dead four relatives and wounded two others in Jupiter, Carole Merhige had many questions.

Among the biggest: Why was her mentally troubled son able to buy a firearm?

…Experts say the complicated business of deciding who should or should not have guns is a thorny issue rife with political pitfalls.

Palm Beach Post, 12/6/09

Bullsh*t.

Come on. This is not some troubling and complex conundrum. It’s basic. It’s logical. It’s common sense.

If someone not only has a history of serious mental problems, (as Paul Merhige does) but a record of repeatedly making physical threats, (as Paul Merhige does, including a restraining order once put on him by one of the sisters he killed) – he should not be allowed to buy a gun.

Period.

If guns are outlawed, how can we shoot liberals?

The above is one of my favorite political slogans, not because I’m against gun control, but because it so effectively distills murderous cluelessness down to its basic elements. This slogan was originally popularized some years ago by Mississippi State Governor Mike Gunn, and while it’s no longer quite as widespread on bumper-stickers and tees, it still occasionally turns up appended to the signature of some right-wing blogger.

I guess “If guns are outlawed, how can we get that family of four firmly trussed up and gagged during our home invasion?” or “If guns are outlawed, how can I take out that aerobics class?” doesn’t have quite the same kick. Many right-wing gun nuts are apparently unaware that it’s a crime to shoot someone because you dislike their politics. They’re also blissfully unaware that this does nothing to bolster the case for unfettered gun ownership.

It’s hard to equal this slogan, but the right wing does keep trying. There’s the one that says,

Gun Control Means Never Having to say I Missed You

And this one:

The First Rule of Gun Safety: Don't Piss Me Off!

And the one about the top ten gun safety tips that includes:

Always keep your gun pointed in a safe direction, such as at a hippy or a communist

All in good fun, of course, and anybody who remembers the Greensboro Massacre is bound to appreciate it.

The latest example comes in the wake of Scott Oskay’s Twitter posting last week about how people should be attending these healthcare forums armed so they can “hurt. badly” any SEIU or Acorn activists who show up. Oskay’s tweet has since been taken down, and he’s apparently allowed as maybe he tweeted in haste. (Good thing your keyboard wasn’t a gun, eh Scott?)

But while the words may change, the melody lingers on. Today, there’s this post at a website called “Ammoland” which announces: “Gun Owners Now Is The Time To Make Your Voices Heard At A Town Hall Meeting Near You!”

That’s right guys! Nothing is more likely to convince us all that gun ownership shouldn’t be regulated than seeing gun wavers demonstrating alongside the wild-eyed nut-jobs currently ranting about death panels, socialism, and birth certificates at Town Hall meetings.

I need you to be a watchdog. On my website now at Glennbeck.com there is an icon, I put it on the front page and it’s going to remain there for awhile. It is The Watchdog, the constitutional watchdog. I need you to be a constitutional watchdog. I need you to look at all of the different things that are going on…. you need to follow what you know and alert me… Pick a topic that you’re passionate about. You’re passionate about it for a reason!...Find one thing, one! And then, when they move, when you figure it out, bark like Hell! Glenn Beck, 7/30/09

Gee, Glenn, you mean like this?

Suffolk County Undersheriff Joseph Caracappa said Nancy Genovese, 53, of Quogue, was arrested for trespassing outside the Gabreskie Airport ANG facility Thursday night, and Homeland Security and the FBI are also investigating.

Caracappa said Genovese was taking photographs of the perimeter of the base. A search of her car uncovered an arsenal -- an XM-15 assault rifle, a shotgun and 500 rounds of ammunition.

A look at Ms. Genovese’s blog reveals her to be an ardent fan of Glenn Beck.

At least this one didn't kill anybody.

The Senate on Wednesday rejected letting people carry hidden guns in 48 states if they have a concealed weapon permit in any one of them, a rare victory for gun control advocates in a Democratic-controlled Congress that has been friendly to the gun lobby.

Opponents said it would force states with tough concealed weapon permit restrictions to let in gun carriers from states that give permits to convicted criminals, minors and people with no firearms training.

A strong majority of the Senate, in a 58-39 vote, supported the measure… AP 7/22/09

The only reason it didn’t pass was they fell two votes short of the 60 they needed.

Also in this article:

Last February the Senate voted 62-36 to eliminate most of the District of Columbia's strict gun control laws. In May, President Barack Obama signed into law a consumer credit card act that also restored the rights of people to carry loaded weapons in national parks. Sixty-seven senators voted for that gun amendment.

What is going on? At a time when political crazies are talking more and more openly about stockpiling weapons and overthrowing the government, have politicians lost their collective minds when it comes to guns? Or are they simply wetting their pants at the thought of making Wayne La Pierre and his crowd angry?

The victims, who were off-roading near a residential area about 40 miles northeast of Houston, were struck with shotgun pellets late Thursday after stopping their vehicles near the Trinity River so the children could go to the bathroom, said Liberty County Chief Deputy Ken DeFoor. MSNBC 5/8/09

According to the Houston Chronicle, the couple who fired the shots, Gale and Sheila Muhs, live in a house fronted by a sign reading, “Trespassers will be shot. Survivers will be reshot!! Smile I will.”

Two of the victims, one of them an adult, the other a 7-year-old boy, are in critical condition with shotgun wounds to the head. The boy is on life support dead.

Too many Americans have the idea that waving a gun and shooting it is nothing more than an acceptable way of showing anger and disapproval. It’s possible that the Muhs, who apparently shot blindly, imagined it would be like a scene in a movie -- a couple of windows would be blown out, and the vehicles would peel out, do a U-turn and take off, accompanied by comic banjo music.

The reality of shooting someone is, of course, very different.

"If you don't matter to God, you don't matter to anyone." Thxs to Democratic Underground

Most likely the creators of this ad are trying to say that atheism results in the belief that “nobody matters.” Unfortunately, the voiceover sounds more like what the kid’s thinking as he sets himself up to blow away an atheist.



Even as intended, the ad is more likely to offend rather than convince, and it inspires a multitude of questions:

Are we truly to believe that atheists are a bunch of murdering moral nihilists?

Or, that the children of atheists are prepared to mindlessly shoot people they meet on remote country roads?

Or, that the fear of Hell the only thing preventing believers in God from inflicting mass mayhem on their neighbors?

Do the people who put this together really imagine that atheists watching this commercial are going to be convinced to convert by it?

Perhaps they do. Perhaps they imagine me, in the act of feverishly cleaning my gun in front of the TV, stumbling across this ad and being riveted by it. "At last!" I think, wiping away a tear, "Someone understands the utter bleakness within me and offers an alternative! I don't have to wander the back-roads in an undershirt picking off random pedestrians with my handgun!"

Are they really that dumb?

Or is this actually intended to gin up some scare-mongering animosity towards atheists?

A 23-year-old man named Richard Poplawski killed three Pittsburgh police officers in a standoff today in Pittsburgh, PA. Apparently it began as a domestic disturbance call.

One friend, Edward Perkovic, said Poplawski feared "the Obama gun ban that's on the way" and "didn't like our rights being infringed upon." Another longtime friend, Aaron Vire, said Poplawski feared that President Obama was going to take away his rights, though he said he "wasn't violently against Obama."

Vire said Poplawski had an AK-47 rifle and several powerful handguns, including a .357 Magnum. AP 4/4/09

Dave Neiwert of Crooks and Liars points us to a creepily prescient Pittsburgh Tribune story from March 25th about the drastic rise in gun sales. Especially interesting are the last two paragraphs:

Ladd Everitt, spokesman for the Coalition to Stop Gun Violence, a lobbyist group, said peaks in gun purchases are common. His group is most concerned about weapons stockpiling. Data shows that those people buying guns already are firearm owners, he said.

"I don't think it's soccer moms," he said, "who are going to the store and buying AK-47s and the like."

Three cops dead.

23 years old.

Given enough guns, frightened people can do so much damage.