Gunnuttery category archive

Belle Rose is quantifying the courtesy:

There was one in Harrisonburg a few days ago. And as of today, at least 283 across the United States of America since the Newtown massacre on December 14, 2012. That averages nearly 19 per day. We’re talking about gun deaths. Afghanistan is safer.

Via Bob Cesca’s Awesome Blog.

Brothers in arms.

Authorities say a Wilmington (NC–ed.) man who thought he was shooting an intruder ended up killing his own brother.

Inculcate politeness from an early age.

A one-year-old from Bessemer City (NC–ed.) was in the hospital Friday night, receiving treatment for a gunshot wound in his arm.

Having armed policemen on site would no doubt have prevented this:

According to police, a suspect was being processed on domestic violence charges when a struggle ensued. The suspect then somehow obtained a weapon and opened fire.

One officer was hit twice in the abdomen, below his bullet proof vest. Two other officers, a male and female, suffered graze wounds.

The gunman was shot and killed inside the station.

As Suzy said, “Oh. Wait.”

Via Political Prof.

In the Kansas City Star, John Lantos carries NRA logic rationale bullshit to its ultimate conclusion: For school safety, arm the kids.

Some might object that kindergarteners are too young to use weapons safely and responsibly. The evidence suggests the opposite. Fewer the 1% of murders are committed by 5 year olds.

Schools should be required to teach five year olds to use Glocks and Berettas responsibly. After all, they’re going to need them when they grow up. Responsible handgun use is more useful than learning about myths like evolution or global warming.

But the most powerful argument for arming our five year olds is this: they are armed anyway. Every year, more than 500 children in the United States fatally shoot themselves with guns that they obtain in their own homes every year.

Practicing politeness.

Two men who were likely drunk and most definitely armed decided to have a little target practice early Friday morning on a soup can in a Belltown alley.

Bad idea.

Police arrested both men, who had concealed weapons permits, and sent them to jail. Police also confiscated their guns: a.38-caliber revolver and a 9mm Glock.

In related news, the Booman calls the roll.

Dick Polman points that that, second amendment, schmecond amendment.

It’s all about the Benjamins. A nugget:

Because this is all about money. In terms of annual business, the American gun industry is worth $12 billion. The NRA’s budget annual budget is $250 million; it depends not just on membership dues, but on lavish industry contributions. For instance, the gun-making firm Sturm Ruger just finished a one-year sweetheart deal with the NRA; it gave the NRA a dollar for every gun sold, and the NRA’s take totaled $1.2 million. And the gun retailers get in on the act, too. The CEO of Cabela’s, a hunting and outdoor gear chain, recently gave the NRA $1 million in cash.

In other words, the NRA exists to do the industry’s bidding. The NRA can talk all day (and it certainly does) about the Second Amendment and about its stalwart defense of Freedom, but its real job is to keep the industry fat and happy and profitable – by ensuring that it sells more and more guns. What’s good for the gun industry is good for the NRA, and vice versa.

Strip away the rhetoric, and that’s what you have.

They should get a room already.

I go away for one day, one damn day, to take my aunt some cheese straws for Christmas, and return to a new list of innocents dead of the politeness of an armed society.

These were actually lured into a trap and picked off like pigeons.

The NRA’s city on a hill is Dodge City. The hill, Boot Hill.

Via Bartcop.

Via Bartcop.

A story about the Sandy Hook shootings quotes a local resident on the shooter’s mother (for some reason, that sentence below was in the print edition of my local rag, but omitted from the online version):

“She was from gun culture. Live free or die. That was truly her upbringing,” said Ford, who often met the New Hampshire native and other friends at a regular Tuesday gathering at My Place, a local restaurant.

Indeed.

Via Bartcop.

More properly, they fear the truth shall set us free–from them.

Bloomberg considers the NRA’s coverup tactics. A nugget:

Faced with government-funded research that contradicts NRA claims on gun safety, the gun lobby moved to defund the research and silence the researchers. When news reporters tried to learn which gun shops repeatedly supply violent criminals with firearms, the NRA lobbied to have gun-trace data exempted from the Freedom of Information Act. When advocates of transparency in campaign finance proposed the Disclose Act in Congress to require disclosure of top donors to political advertising campaigns, the NRA once again marched to the beat of its own 100-round drum: The organization obtained an exemption to keep its information secret.

The list goes on. The NRA-backed Tiahrt Amendment requires the Justice Department to destroy records after gun-purchase background checks, making it harder to identify and catch straw buyers who work for criminals. As part of its war on information, the gun lobby has blocked efforts to put sales records into an integrated database, making the data more difficult for law enforcement officers to retrieve and organize, and complicating efforts to analyze gun trafficking patterns.

The list does indeed go on. Follow the link for the rest.

There has been another outbreak of politeness, this one in Pennsylvania.

Three people were shot to death this morning near Hollidaysburg before Pennsylvania State Police killed the suspected gunman.

Three state troopers were injured while tracking the suspect, but they have all been treated and released from a hospital.

It was perfectly timed to illustrate the cravenness of the NRA’s positions on everything.

Video games don’t kill people.

Gun nuts kill people.

Start young to learn politeness.

Mount Holly police are investigating two juveniles who fired a BB gun at a Gaston County school bus, according to a news release. The window was shot out just before 4 p.m. Wednesday when the bus was on Stone River Parkway in Mount Holly. After a short investigation, officers determined that two kids, ages 11 and 13, had fired the BB round at the bus.

Mark Dillon examines our societal fascination with firearms. A nugget:

But the availability of guns is not the only issue we have to ponder in the wake of the Newtown horror. The idea of the gun, the symbol of the gun, the culturally recommended uses of the gun — vengeance, assassination, mayhem (and almost never the kind of self-defense the NRA claims justifies near-unlimited gun rights) — is in fact as powerful as the gun itself. And ubiquitous and graphic depictions of gun violence serve as the best promotion the idea of the gun, as well as the gun itself, could ever have.

While millions and millions of guns are sold each year (10.8 million guns, generating $4 billion in revenue, according to the National Shooting Sports Foundation), you see far less advertising for gun brands than for motorcycles, smart phones, breath mints, power tools or constipation cures. Look at the movie ads this weekend if you don’t believe that gun = cool, gun = power, gun = right.