Gunnuttery category archive

Honor freedom of religion, courteously.

A 51-year-old man was charged with shooting at a mosque he lives near in north suburban Morton Grove (Illinois–ed.), according to authorities.

Police confiscated a “high-velocity air rifle” from the home of David Conrad, who lives just east of the mosque. He was charged with three counts of aggravated discharge of a firearm and one count of criminal damage to property, all felonies. He’s scheduled for a bond hearing on Monday.

Maybe penicillin will help.

Compete courteously.

As Susie points out, this ad ran the same day as yet another whack-job bigot ran amok using yet another gun to kill yet more persons just for being.

Chauncey Devega examines what will not happen after the shootings at the Sikh temple in Wisconsin:

As I wrote here (link in the original–ed.) regarding John Holmes and the relationship between Whiteness, media framing, and mass murder, today’s barbaric happening in Wisconsin will not lead to a national conversation about “40ish year old bald white men” who go on murder sprees.

As such, we will never see a special investigative report called “White in America: Why do White Men Commit Mass Shootings?” on any major news network in the United States.

Likewise, there will be no special congressional hearing or “Beer Summit” where a panelist dares to ask either “What is wrong with white men?” or “Are white men exhibiting pathological violence in response to the Age of Obama?”

The victims were brown. They wore turbans.

That’s all the explanation anyone will need.

Follow the link to read the rest.

Mel Schwartz and Jesse Schwartz try to probe the origins of gunnuttery. A gunnugget:

The collective chauvinistic spirit of America defends our national interests and shores with immense vigor. This is part of the psyche of our culture, an eighteenth century remnant of the need to protect our nascent nation from legitimate threats. Yet there is another, more antiquated archetype that we remain wed to: the individualistic chauvinism born in the gunslinger, frontier spirit of the Wild West. In that not-so-bygone era, a cross exchange would be grounds to un-holster your weapon and blow away your enemy. This motif, and the root of our chauvinism from the micro perspective, survives in the stand your ground laws recently exposed by the shooting of Trayvon Martin in Florida.

The violent “Wild West” of gunslingers and shootouts was a myth nurtured by dime novels, then by Hollywood.

It would appear that the writers of the above have bought into that myth as fully as have the gun nuts who fantasize of being the Man with No Name or his latter-day counterpart, Dirty Harry, packing heat and spraying lead when the mood strikes.

That indicates the power of the myth over the reality.

The dream: every city, Dodge City; every hill, Boot Hill.

Fundamentally, these weapons fetishists are deeply bent.

Following in the footsteps of the tobacco industry . . . .

It can’t possibly be because they fear facts, now, can it? A nugget from Dan Morain in the Sacramento Bee:

. . . if the National Institutes of Health had granted money to a researcher delving into the reasons for mass shootings, there might have been trouble. In an Orwellian use of power politics, the gun lobby led by the National Rifle Association has in many instances muzzled federal agencies’ ability to fund basic research into gun violence.

“This is a deliberate effort to keep evidence from being collected,” said Dr. Garen Wintemute, a UC Davis Medical School professor and one of the few researchers in the nation who focuses on guns and gun violence. “It is one more way to prevent policy reform. It’s a brilliant strategy.”

Dick Polman imagines Father Knows Best as told by the full-metal-jacket Viagra crowd.

Rear your children with politeness.

Police say a 4-year-old Dale City boy died Wednesday after finding a gun in a family member’s pickup and shooting himself with it.

It happened in a car parked in the 14800 block of Empire Street in Dale City about 3:25 p.m. Wednesday, Prince William police spokesman Jonathan Perok said in a news release.

A female family member called 911 and told police the boy, now identified as Kyrell Kyyon McNeill of the 14800 block of Empire Street, accidentally shot himself in the head, Perok said.

No doubt that, if all the neighbors had been packing heat, this would not have happened.

Or something like that.

If nutcases packing heat is the problem, more nutcases packing more heat is unlikely to be the solution.

It is not polite to shoot yourself in the brain while paying the bill.

KDFW-TV, Dallas/Fort Worth, said Canady, who has a concealed-weapons permit, was reportedly reaching for his wallet in the checkout line but grabbed the pistol he was carrying instead. The gun went off, wounding Canady in the buttocks. The bullet then hit the floor and sent fragments into the other two victims.

An off-duty officer saw the incident and confronted Canady, who allegedly ran off.

Via TPM.

Honest, Occifer, it was only a game!

A Pennsylvania teen already charged with aggravated assault in the Russian roulette shooting of his 15-year-old friend could face new charges now than the victim has died.

Noz muses about calls not to “politicize” stuff. A nugget:

. . . in the fall out from the aurora shooting i kept seeing people cautioning that we should not politicize the tragedy. but why not? politics matters, at least if you use the word “politics” to refer to the discussion of policy changes. if something horrible happens and you have an idea that you think might prevent something like that from happening in the future, or that might make similar tragedies a little bit better, why shouldn’t you speak up about it? it makes no sense to tell people it is wrong to do that.

(snip)

i really can’t think of any time the “politicizing” objection ever comes up other than when some nutball takes advantage of the lax gun laws in the u.s. and blows away a bunch of innocent people. when that happens, then suddenly asking serious questions about the policies that allowed that to happen is a grievous sin against the victims of the tragedy, in the way that practical questions following any other kind of tragedy is not. it’s a crazy double standard, one that manages to shut down real discussion of an issue that certain parties don’t want discussed.

Follow the link to read the snippage. It’s worth the two minutes.

I’ve learned that it’s “politics” when you lose, a “process of negotiation and compromise” when you win.

The BooMan:

Anyone who tells you that they could have stopped the Aurora massacre is either lying or wrong. This lunatic fantasized that he was the Joker. The gun nuts think they’re Clint Eastwood. No difference.

Also, they won’t give up their full-metal-jacket Viagra.

Read the whole thing.

The Tamba Bay Times analyzes Florida cases in which the “stand your ground” defense has been successful and finds that it seems to have backfired like a cheap gat (follow the link for examples and statistics and the full-sized chart):

A Tampa Bay Times analysis of “stand your ground” cases found that it has been people like Moorer — those with records of crime and violence — who have benefited most from the controversial legislation.

The gun nuts’ dream:

Every outing, a joker’s joke; every city, Dodge City; every hill, Boot Hill.

Guns are their Viagra twits.