On Memorial Day this week, a former Marine in Texas named James got a couple calls from friends who’d spotted an unusual gathering in downtown Fort Worth: Roughly a dozen people, mostly men, were hanging out in the middle of the city’s cultural district, armed with semi-automatic rifles. James quickly knew what his friends were describing, having recently encountered an open-carry demonstration himself in the Dallas-Fort Worth area. An independent TV commercial producer who sometimes films live events, James headed downtown with his camera to get some footage.
What he saw there struck him as especially provocative. Not only had the open-carry activists come to a typically relaxed, family friendly part of town, they were displaying intimidating firearms just three days after a major gun massacre in Southern California. What he didn’t anticipate was that they would soon be pursuing him for several city blocks with cameras of their own, harassing him and later posting the footage online, where they would also level homophobic slurs and violent threats against him.
NRA opposes long rifle protests in restaurants
The National Rifle Association condemned the “scary” actions of open carry activists in Texas, including some who were shown in a video harassing a Marine veteran on Memorial Day.
The NRA also addressed recent no-gun policies put in place by several restaurants including Chipotle, which said it created the rule because “the display of firearms in our restaurants has now created an environment that is potentially intimidating or uncomfortable for many of our customers.”
In a May 30 statement, the NRA applauded Texans for the “robust gun culture” in the Lone Star State, but said recent public showings of gun support “crossed the line” and were “downright weird” (emphasis NRA’s).
“Using guns merely to draw attention to yourself in public not only defies common sense, it shows a lack of consideration and manners,” the NRA statement said. “That’s not the Texas way. And that’s certainly not the NRA way.”
Richard Martinez: a new voice demanding change
Richard Martinez will not be silenced. It is very hard, as a parent, not to agree with this man. I think that is what many of us simply do not understand. After Sandy Hook, what more will it take to have some sort of gun reform and some sort of mental health reform? Just what WILL it take?
His rage, sorrow, tenacity and determination seem to be the perfect storm. I hope he is successful in capturing the ears and commitment of America. Tech wasn’t enough. Giffords wasn’t enough. Aurora wasn’t enough. Sandy Hook wasn’t enough. Just what IS enough?
Mr. Martinez’s anguish goes beyond grief.
A grieving father’s response
Richard Martinez said:
Our family has a message for every parent out there: You don’t think it will happen to your child until it does. Why did Chris die? Chris died because of craven, irresponsible politicians and the NRA. They talk about gun rights, what about Chris’ right to live?
When will this insanity stop? When will enough people say: Stop this madness, we don’t have to live like this? Too many have died. We should say to ourselves — not one more.
We can feel Richard Martinez’s anguish. However, There is more to it than craven politicians and the NRA. Is it time to put some limits on who can buy a gun? Right now, pretty much anyone who is in the United States legally who has not been convicted of a felony can buy and own a gun. Should there be more proof of sanity, for lack of a better word? Should there be certification that the potential purchaser at least knows how to shoot the gun and to take proper care of it? We do this for drivers.
Guns a’blazing at Chipotle
Continuing…
Smart guns sound like a good idea, especially for a home where there are kids.
How on earth is a smart gun stripping anyone of their 2A rights? It doesn’t. The NRA is once again, full of it.
I would leave any establishment where assault weapons were visible. Jon Stewart is correct. We don’t know who the good guys are.
I assume that if there is an assault weapon present, I don’t want to be there. Something is going down.
Cuccinelli on the Daily Show, hawking gun insurance
Gun insurance? What a clever idea. Good money maker for the Cooch also. Maybe all gun owners in Virginia should have gun insurance. It should pay for trials and have a little liability in there for the victims so they can heal or get buried.
Is this insurance part of home-owners? What do renters do?
What does the State Corporation Commission have to say about all this?
People’s ingenuity never ceases to amaze me.
Fixing the 2nd amendment
Nothing in the Bill of Rights has caused more debate, in recent times, than the second amendment. As written, it seems that there are no limits placed on private citizens. Others would argue that the words imply a well regulated militia. Retired Justice John Paul Stevens suggests that adding 5 words to the current amendment would remove all ambiguity. What do you think?
“A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms when serving in the Militia shall not be infringed.”
Your opinion please. Why can’t states regulate guns? The Bill of Rights defines the limitations of the federal government, not the States.
Cat Scratch Racist rears his ugly head…again
Ted Nugent said:
“I have obviously failed to galvanize and prod, if not shame enough Americans to be ever vigilant not to let a Chicago communist-raised, communist-educated, communist-nurtured subhuman mongrel like the ACORN community organizer gangster Barack Hussein Obama to weasel his way into the top office of authority in the United States of America”.
How long is the NRA going to harbor this racist pig? It’s time for them to fire him and disassociate themselves from Nugent if they want to remain a viable organization. At what point does his behavior simply make the NRA a redneck organization?
Free speech be damned. He can say whatever he wants. At some point, however, the NRA is going to have to take ownership of his remarks as long as he sits on their board of directors. If I were the NRA and the NRA my parents used to belong to, I would want to at least try to sound like the voice of reason.
Additional offensive remarks by Nugent.
Gun show arrests on the rise
RICHMOND, Va. (AP) – The percentage of people arrested after being denied permission to buy firearms at Virginia gun shows has increased over the last two years.
The Richmond Times-Dispatch reports that 10.6 percent of the people who were denied permission to buy guns in 2011 were charged with an offense related to being someone legally prohibited from possessing a firearm. That increased to 12.4 percent in 2012 and to 27 percent last year.
Thomas Baker is a criminologist at Virginia Commonwealth University. He says that while the upward trend is a positive sign, it’s important to note that those who weren’t arrested after failing a background check could simply go to a private seller at a show and buy a gun. Existing law requires only federally licensed dealers to run background checks.
No guns allowed at McAuliffe’s inauguration
Virginia legislators who lawfully carry concealed handguns at the state Capitol can’t bring them to Virginia’s inauguration Saturday due to stricter U.S. Secret Service security protocols due to the attendance of Bill and Hillary Clinton.
As The Virginian-Pilot reported Saturday, the former president and his wife, a past U.S. senator and secretary of state, plan to be at the Jan. 11 ceremony in Richmond for the swearing in of their longtime friend, Terry McAuliffe, as the state’s 72nd governor.
Because of that, House of Delegates Clerk G. Paul Nardo in an email Friday advised members of the 100-seat House of “special, one-time security arrangements” similar to those when Queen Elizabeth II visited the Capitol in 2007.
Guns sales up: Now I can sleep better at night
Richmond Times Dispatch:
Sales record: Virginia gun sales set a new high for
Black Friday as the number of firearms sold statewide continues to soar
and is just days away from setting an annual record.
Gun transactions in Virginia totaled 3,902 on Black Friday, a 1.2
percent increase over the previous record of 3,856 transactions on the
same day in 2012, according to the latest Virginia State Police figures
of mandatory criminal-background checks of gun buyers.
What is causing this rush to buy a gun? Is there something happening I don’t know about?
Everyone needs to help break Virginia’s record. Go out and buy a gun. Make sure you get a trigger lock while you are at it., especially if you have children in the home.
Dulles Expo gun show slammed by Marylanders
Days before strict gun laws begin in their state, many Marylanders flocked south.
The Dulles Expo Center in Chantilly, Va. hosted a gun show Friday evening, selling many weapons and magazines Maryland residents will not be able to purchase starting Oct. 1.
The bill requires people who buy a handgun to submit fingerprints to Maryland State Police. It also bans dozens of assault-style weapons, but those who owned the weapons before the law goes into effect will be allowed to keep them. The bill also bans 20-round magazines.
Marylanders, like Elgin Fontaine, trekked to Chantilly. Fontaine bought an AR-10 assault weapon, one of the 45 of its kind that will be banned in his state beginning Tuesday.
“The ban is going to wipe out a lot of guns, and this particular style of gun I have is going to be banned,” Fontaine said.
Maryland Gov. Martin O’Malley released a written statement through his spokesperson saying, “The vast majority of Marylanders support these commonsense efforts to reduce gun violence. The new law will take effect Tuesday and it will make families safer.”
A few more rascally Constituional issues
There seems to be some cognitive dissonance here for sure.
Jon Stewart: Shooter passed background check with flying crazy
Surely background checks aren’t this limited. I notice that illegal alien is right in there as a reason to prohibit guns sales. However, having your microwave tell you to kill people is not.
Although not stated in the Stewart segment, I also head that the Rhode island police called Navy and apprised them of Alexis’s mental illness issues. That message is still probably sitting on someone’s desk. Meanwhile, 2 people are dead.
The background checks apparently aren’t adequate. The gun laws apparently aren’t adequate if this shooter bought a gun legally in Virginia.
Part of me thinks something this tragic shouldn’t be in a comedian skit. The other part of me thinks the background check must all be a huge joke so why not.
George Zimmerman: The worst publicity in the world….
Apparently George Zimmerman chose to tour a gun factory in Florida recently. The Joe Scarboro team on Morning Joe had a lot to say about the trip:
Yahoo News:
According to the TMZ story, Zimmerman got a personal tour of the Cocoa, Fla., facility from the son of Kel-Tec’s founder and owner. The story includes a picture of Zimmerman and a man wearing a Kel-Tec shirt. TMZ says it was taken on the assembly plant floor. The entertainment website reported that Zimmerman inquired about purchasing a tactical shotgun; however Kel-Tec’s website says the company doesn’t sell firearms directly to the public.
Late Friday afternoon, Kel-Tec sent Yahoo News a statement “concerning this leaked bit of information by someone unassociated with Kel-Tec.”
“He simply wanted to see the manufacturing facility,” the statement said of Zimmerman’s visit. “This is a common occurrence with our customer base that live close by or may be traveling through.”
