This One's For You, Smith29-2

I'm tired of leaving links at the Post Star site, so just going to do a little blog posting today. Once again want to give a Hometown thumbs up to Kathleen Parker. When they're right, you gotta acknowledge it. So here's commenter Smith29-2:

The one thing I get sick and tired of hearing is the "gun lobby'. You know who the gun lobby is? Gun owners, the elderly veteran who lives down the street, fought in Korea or WWII who hunted his whole life, never got in trouble. He's the gun lobby. The father who just got his kid a .22 rifle, he's the gun lobby, the woman who bought a handgun because after fourth or fifth time her ex violated the order of protection and realized that the ten minute plus response time from the cops after she called 911, she's the gun lobby. Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton, and the suck ups to both and their like in the media would have you believe the gun lobby are rich executives, they're not. The gun lobby is everyday people, people who are sick and tired of being treated like criminals for doing nothing wrong. Gun sales are the highest they've ever been, why? Because of the lack of response from the GOP and being treated like criminals for exercising a right they have.

I did leave a comment on the Home Depot shoplifter shooter. As to the father who just bought his kid a .22, guess I could have mentioned the father of Dylann Roof and the mother of Adam Lanza. I'll just point out this guy who's also the NRA.

Authorities discovered a laundry list of weapons and ammo in Stockert’s truck which included an unloaded 12-gauge pump shotgun, a bolt-action rifle, 289 rounds of .22 caliber long-rifle bullets, 71 rounds of 12-gauge shotgun ammunition and two rounds of .223 rifle ammunition, plus a 12-inch machete and an 18-inch billy club.

The Congress can't approve that money for mental health soon enough. 

Thank You Texans

I've been remiss in extending my thanks to the people of Texas for so enthusiastically agreeing to take part in the experiment involving total firearm insanity. How total? Here's the Texas AG:

The attorney general of Texas said late Monday that banning guns in college dorm rooms violates the state's newly approved "campus carry" law,...

"If a public institution of higher education placed a prohibition on handguns in the institution's campus residential facilities, it would effectively prohibit license holders in those facilities from carrying concealed handguns on campus, in violation of the express terms of Senate Bill 11,"

Sure it may sound crazy to you, Don't worry though. It's not open carry, it's concealed carry.

“When people hear campus carry, they’re like ‘Oh my gosh, guns are going to  be all over campus’ but it’s really not going to  be that way,” Christopher Lee says. He’s student body vice president at UNT in Denton. “Students aren’t just going to be walking around with guns on their hips.”  

Oh my gosh indeed.

Only those 21 years and older can get a license.

Thank God for that anyway. In fairness:

The UNT task force studied Colorado, the state with the most years of campus carry law – 12. There had been few campus gun incidents there.

I'll be thankful to be watching from the relative safety of upstate NY.

Assorted Links On Guns

In no special order. Here's Tbogg:

We’re tired of lunatics bursting into schools and slaughtering screaming 6-year-olds with assault weapons.

We’re tired of weekend warriors strutting around Home Depot looking for toilet plungers while dressed like they’re setting out on a midnight raid to capture Osama bin Laden; AR15 at the ready in case someone jumps the line at the self-check out.

We’re tired of heavily-armed home-schooled Constitutional scholars who steal or occupy property belonging to all Americans because… freedom. They’re not patriots, they’re gun-packing thieves — and not very bright ones at that.

But mainly we’re tired of dying from gunshot wounds.

Tom had the deaths at my next link at 157. It's at 205 when I just looked. It'll pretty much rise by the minute though, so look fast. Another link from that piece contains a wealth of studies refuting the stupidity of ho so much. 

Lots of good stuff there, but just to point out two stories: 

Despite the astronomical odds against being killed, this fear of home invasion often drives people like Becca Campbell of Ferguson, Missouri, to gun ownership. This past November, Campbell was riding home in a car with her boyfriend after purchasing a gun, preparing for the unrest expected to follow the grand jury decision about whether to pursue criminal charges against the policeman who killed Michael Brown. She joked that “we’re ready for Ferguson,” waving the gun. Distracted, the boyfriend ran into the car ahead of them, and the gun fired, killing Campbell.

And:

In light of the overwhelming evidence that guns are a public health threat, gun advocates often retreat to an “it could never happen to me” mentality. This worldview is tragically mistaken. Consider the case of Veronica Dunnachie. She was, by many gun advocates’ definition, a good gal with a gun. A strident voice for gun rights, she was an open carry advocate, dedicated to expanding the unlicensed open carrying of firearms. In Texas, open carry is currently restricted to long guns; she pushed to include handguns. She frequently attended rallies and protests organized by Open Carry Tarrant County (an offshoot of Open Carry Texas). In a domestic dispute on Dec. 10, she allegedly shot and killed her husband and stepdaughter.Horrified, Dunnachie called a friend, telling him she “had just done something bad” and, at his urging, checked herself into a nearby mental health clinic.

To just end on a light note:

Black Op Arms owner Mark Limoges showed up for his interview with CNN sporting a special edition AR-15 like one that the company had recently presented to Trump.

“This is an exact replica of the gun we gave Mr. Trump,” he explained. “It has our Black Ops Arms symbol on it with our Black Ops Arms symbol on the handrail. And the other side, we have the ‘Live Free or Die’ with the American flag on the handrail.”

For the remainder of the five minute interview, Limoges continued to hold the weapon across his chest, pointing it upwards.

He's going to make them pry it from his cold, dead fingers.

“Most of the people that come in [to the gun store] are real nervous about what Mr. Obama is going to do to limit their chances of getting weapons,” he said.

That's because they're nuts who listen to propagandists. 

Link to a piece on Chris Gibson, gun fetishist for governor. Shout to Kathleen Parker: 

It is one thing to be in the pocket of the National Rifle Association. It is another to do nothing and then assume a superior posture of purposeful neglect, as though do-nothingness were a policy and smug intransigence a philosophy.

That's beautiful. I'm going to definitely steal that. 

It's Like Woodstock for Wingnuts

Please arrest them and charge them with anything you can think of. They got away with their bullshit at the Bundy Ranch. If we are to be nation of laws, they must be dealt with.

A group of militants broke into and seized the federally owned headquarters of the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge in Oregon, The Portland Oregonian reports.

They can't be allowed to continue. 

Ammon Bundy once helped his father repulse the government in an armed showdown on a Nevada desert. He was Tasered for his effort.

Ryan Payne, an electrician from Montana, joined that same standoff and boasted of organizing civilians into sniper squads that drew a bead on federal agents.

And not long ago, Jon Ritzheimer worried the FBI with his threatening rants against Muslims in Arizona and elsewhere, according to press reports.

Thank God for this.

The Hammonds don't want to be part of the outsiders' cause, and neither do many in Harney County.

Doolittle link.

Charles Pierce link.

Link from Ray Cranston at Shaw's place. Hungry, hungry terrorists. 

The New Year's Looking Better Than the Old

First, in ringing out 2015.

 A father and heavy drinker fatally shot his wife and two others after an argument over the washing machine on New Year's Eve in the Los Angeles suburbs.

The son, Christopher Morey, wrestled the gun away from his father and fatally shot him. He has been arrested for murder and is being held on $1 million bail. While such domestic shootings are particularly difficult to predict, they are declining nationally, as are felony crimes.

I saw the story a few days ago, but not the wrinkle about the dispute over the washing machine. It's nice to see that this type of shooting is declining. We takes our good news where we can find it. 

Wilfred Calzadilla, brother to victim Ernesto Calzadilla, said his brother was a friend of the family, but he had generally stopped going to the house because of worries about the father, who drank heavily and owned a large collection of guns. Local law authorities had visited the house to investigate dozens of times, according to the Los Angeles Sheriff's Department.

"Mixing alcohol and guns never ends good," Wilfred Calzadilla told the Associated Press.

Words to live by, Mr. Calzadilla. 

I don't see prayer as a long range solution to gun deaths, but it's worth a try when that's all you've got. 

Pitting prayers against bullets, an armed intrusion at a church on New Year’s Eve ended in peace.

At a eastern North Carolina congregation Thursday night, an emotionally distraught man walked in with a rifle in one hand and ammunition in the other. But it did not turn into a scene of terror. Instead, hugs and prayers ensued, and the man stayed for the rest of the service before being taken into custody by police.

I'm definitely feeling more optimistic about 2016 now. 

Jerry Seinfeld With the Coolest of Presidents

I like Seinfeld's advice on handling hecklers. "You seem upset. I'm so sorry. Let's talk." Wingnuts hate when you respond to them politely. They're looking for you to get as unraveled as they are. 

Who Do You Root For?

It's Trump against the Union Leader. Is there a way they can both lose?

On Monday, the Union Leader — which has endorsed Chris Christie in the primary — published a front-page editorial written by its publisher, Joseph McQuaid, in which he criticized Trump for some of his rhetorical excesses and compared him to Biff from “Back to the Future,” a stereotypical bully. 

And here's Trump on McQuaid:

“I’ve watched this guy and, honestly, he’s a loser,” Trump said.

He really needs a thesaurus. Stock up on popcorn for when this starts to happen.

New Hampshire is absolutely critical to Trump’s campaign. Even if his support is not as fragile as many people have assumed, there is one thing that could crack it. It’s not his voters realizing that Trump isn’t a reliable conservative, or that he understands nothing about policy, or that he’s a jerk. The one thing that could really hurt Trump is if people start to see him as a loser. 

You think he's unhinged now?

It’s hard to overestimate just how central the idea that Trump is a winner is to his candidacy. (It’s also quite obviously central to his own self-image and psychology, which is part of why he’s constantly accusing people he doesn’t like of being losers.)

Where does he go from there if he loses badly in this campaign? He's gonna have that big "L" on his forehead forever, the biggest of 2016 losers.