Adventures in responsible gun ownership

Ye gods. Adam Kokesh is a bonafide crackpot:

The libertarian activist Adam Kokesh who called for and then canceled an armed march on Washington uploaded a YouTube video on July 4 that shows him loading a shotgun in the center of Freedom Plaza, Washington, D.C, near the White House. In the video, Kokesh cryptically warns, “We will not allow our government to destroy our humanity. We are the final American revolution. See you next Independence Day.”

You have to watch the video clip to appreciate the full scope of his insanity. This guy just exudes teh crazy.


This of course is wildly illegal in DC. The good news is he doesn't seem to have a huge following. One might assume the real reason he cancelled his giant armed march of freedom was because he didn't think he would get a good showing. Evidence being how sparsely attended his alternate July 4th protests were after he issued his call to arms.

NRA losing its firepower

Alec MacGillis takes a long look at the battle over gun safety reform and finds NRA is losing its might in the fight. It's a longish read but this is the big takeaway.

The narrow defeat of the background-check bill, it turns out, was not the end of hopes for gun reform, but the beginning.

Newtown really did change everything and the the conventional wisdom is outdated. The NRA's power to swing elections is waning.

Senator Chris Murphy, a rookie Connecticut Democrat who has taken a lead on the issue since the Newtown massacre, points out that, of the 16 Senate races the NRA participated in last year, 13 of its candidates lost. “The NRA is just all mythology,” he says. “The NRA does not win elections anymore.”

The forces for gun sense are gaining strength. Their resolve was not broken by one legislative defeat, it's hardened into a determined force that will prevail in the end. From Bloomberg's Mayors Against Illegal Guns to Gabby Giffords' group to Moms Demand Action and a growing list of gun safety activists, a coalition is growing larger every day. Their tactics are improving. The NRA's gun absolutists are loud but their numbers are shrinking. The gun sense lobby is determined to prove to the political class that aligning with that minority comes at a greater cost than defying it. We'll all be safer because of their good work.

Just one of those crazy accidents

Story got such wide play, I wasn't going to talk about the five year old kid who killed his two year sister with his very own gun. Then I saw the marketing stats for "My First Rifle."

They are available with different barrel and stock designs, including some made in hot pink to appeal to young girls.

Business has boomed since the company's inception in 1996, according to its website. In its first year, it had four employees and produced 4,000 rifles for kids; by 2008 it had greatly expanded its operations, with 70 employees and an output of 60,000 rifles a year.

Seriously. Sixty thousand of these rifles that shoot live ammunition are in the hands of kids? And please do click that link to see a photo gallery of the kids who are playing with them. It's a "crazy accident" begging to happen.

Congresswoman Colbert from South Carolina

Yes I know I keep breaking my ignore the damnable polls rule, but the latest results showing Elizabeth Colbert Busch leading Mark Sanford by 9 points evokes visions of a liberal Democratic Congresscreature from South Carolina in my head. There's something I find deliciously weird and amusing about that.

Sure it's early and anything could change, but the other breakout numbers here that are worth noticing are these:

Although Sanford's unpopularity is clearly the main reason Democrats have a chance to win in this district, it's interesting to note that there is some backlash against Republicans over last week's vote on background checks. 86% of voters in the district say they support them to only 12% opposed, and 45% of voters say the GOP's opposition to them makes it less likely they'll support the party in the next election compared to only 21% who consider it a positive. That anger over the gun vote comes despite Barack Obama having only a 41% approval rating in the district with 51% of voters disapproving of him.

When they've lost the gun loving deluded rubes over gun safety reform, maybe that pathetic display of general cowardice and GOP obstruction on background checks will turn out to be the seminal moment that broke the Republicans' stranglehold on the House.

[Big thanks for the kind link at Mike's Blog Roundup and if you're not reading John Perr's other blog, well, you're missing some of the smartest analysis on the internets.]

GOP dances on the graves of the dead children of Sandy Hook

By now you've heard Senate Republicans killed the gun safety bill by filibuster today. Within minutes of the vote, even as the victims of gun violence were weeping in the gallery, Mitch McConnell posted this gloat on his facebook page:



The 90% of America who wanted better protection against allowing lethal weapons to fall into the hands of homicidal maniacs responded:



I'm too disgusted to say anything tonight and really I can't put it better than this:

"Today, the U.S. Senate decided to do the unthinkable about gun violence --- nothing at all," - Gabby Giffords

And to add insult to injury, on the same day our broken Senate refused to pass gun safety reform to protect 300million+ living Americans, they unanimously passed a resolution to pardon one man, Jack Johnson, the first African-American heavyweight boxing champ. He deserves the pardon, but he died over 50 years ago.

These are the priorities of the so-called greatest deliberative body in the world.

Making guns mandatory in Missouri

Crackpot cons have such a bizarre definition of freedom. It's not enough for these guys to demand the right to wave their firearms in your face at every turn, this Missouri Republican lawmaker introduces stealth legislation to make it mandatory for every business owner to allow guns into their establishments. The bill provides:

1. Any private business that displays signage which prohibits public invitees, business visitors, and employees from carrying a concealed weapon on the premises owned or occupied by such private business shall be liable for any injury or damages incurred by such public invitees, business visitors, and employees as a result of such prohibition if such public invitee, business visitor, or employee establishes by a preponderance of evidence that having access to a firearm may have prevented his or her injury or damage.

2. Any private business that does not prohibit public invitees, business visitors, and employees from carrying a concealed weapon on the premises owned or occupied by such private business shall be immune from any liability arising from its decision to permit concealed weapons to be carried on business premises.

See what he did here? If you prohibit guns in your place of business and some wacko comes in and shoots the joint up, any litigation happy wahoo can sue you for preventing them from carrying a gun inside to shoot back because, for sure they would have been a hero. But if you allow guns into the establishment and some wacko shoots the place up, business owner is legally off the hook because, well, you should have been carrying your own damn gun so you could be the hero and stop the wacko from committing mass murder.

Here's hoping this bill dies on the Statehouse floor before it unleashes mass mayhem in Missouri. [graphic via]

Another gun show host murdered

Yet another high profile media gun guy gets murdered.

The host of The Sportsman Channel’s “A Rifleman’s Journal” was shot and killed in Montana on Friday. The gunman, seemingly a jealous husband, then turned the weapon on himself.

This seems pretty clearly a case where it would have happened no matter what because, it's Montana. I suspect they solve a lot of domestic disputes with guns there. But this is the third one in just a few weeks and the other two weren't over spurned lovers.

Steve M. tells me the wingers suspect a super secret diabolical government plot to kill all the famous gun people and then confiscate all the dispirited regular folks guns. Or something.

Lord knows I love me a good conspiracy theory but Mr. Occam is on the line reminding us famous people are always targets for crackpots. I'm thinking maybe it's not such a good idea to agitate a bunch of hot-headed, trigger happy, paranoid gun "collectors" with scary stories about gummit agents coming to git them. Nor to glorify the gun culture until it makes OK Corral shoot-outs practically mandatory.

When the answer is always a loaded gun, everything looks like a target.

Howard Kurtz is an idiot

Of course, you knew that. However, in this chock full of fail CNN piece, Kurtz confesses his abject ignorance:

I never realized that the conservative media were so eye-poppingly powerful.

This great revelation comes at the top of Kurtz mewling about POTUS, Gore and all us loser libs "whining" about how the wingnut media machine is destroying civil society. Kurtz just can't understand what the problem is here. Oh sure, Fox and Limbaugh and their lesser minions have a media operation that blasts out unfiltered bullshit and shameless lies 24/7 but gosh, President Obama has the bully pulpit.

Apparently it has escaped his notice that President Obama can speak for an hour but the entirety of BigMedia will focus on a single sentence, out of context, in their daily attempts to build traffic inducing faux scandals. Case in point being Obama's recent interview which launched a great investigation into the very serious question of exactly how often our President shoots skeet. We're now in something like day six of the relentless mass probing into this matter, surely the top concern of every American living outside the Beltway bubble.

In fact, Obama had much more to say in that interview, but most people won't know that because our very important BigMedia gatekeepers don't mention the substantive points. The focus has largely been entirely on one off-hand question at the end.

And as for Obama's alleged "whining," let's review a few excerpts of what he actually said, again in response to a direct question, about why it's so hard to get anything done in DC with a Republican minority whose sole focus is on permanent obstruction:

The truth is that most of the big issues that are going to make a difference in the life of this country for the next thirty or forty years are complicated and require tough decisions, but are not rocket science. [...]

So the question is not, Do we have policies that might work? It is, Can we mobilize the political will to act? [...]

I think what we really have to do is change some of the incentive structures so that people feel liberated to pursue some common ground.[...]

One of the biggest factors is going to be how the media shapes debates. If a Republican member of Congress is not punished on Fox News or by Rush Limbaugh for working with a Democrat on a bill of common interest, then you'll see more of them doing it.[...]

Nobody gets on TV saying, "I agree with my colleague from the other party." People get on TV for calling each other names and saying the most outlandish things.

Sounds to me like an astute assessment of what's broken in BigMedia. The only whining I hear is from Kurtz, but I guess you can't blame him. As the saying goes, the truth hurts...

Good guys with guns die too

This is tragic. This man was the living illustration for the imagined good guy with a gun, killing the bad guy with the gun scenario of the anti-reg crowd. He survived multiple tours in Iraq. He served our country by shooting the enemy -- one by one. Yesterday, he died at least partly by his own country's lax gun regulations.

Chris Kyle, a former Navy SEAL known "as 'the most lethal sniper in U.S. military history,' with 160 confirmed kills" was murdered by a shooter at a gun range in Texas. They have the shooter in custody:

Investigators said Routh, a former Marine and expert marksman who is said to suffer from post-traumatic stress syndrome, is believed to have turned his weapon on Kyle and the second victim, killing them both at point-blank range about 3:30 p.m.

If this doesn't end the cockamamie notion that more people with firearms is the answer to gun violence, I don't know what ever will. I mean, if America's number one sniper and his companion can be gunned down in broad daylight while he was in possession of a loaded firearm, what chance does anyone have?

It couldn't be more clear the only answer is better screening for firearm possession. And it seems increasingly clear we need better regulation of gun ranges and survival schools. Because if this is true, it's too irresponsibly crazy:

Their bodies were not discovered until nearly two hours later.

How is that even possible?

Breaking: Obama skeet scandal engulfs the internet

Never has the internet meme "just shoot me" seemed more appropriate than in this round of wingnut driven media hysteria currently dominating the top of Memeorandum. The only amusing aspect is witnessing David Plouffe, who only joined the twitter this week, demonstrating his quickly acquired skill at the trolling the intertubz.

After watching the furious investigation (complete with a highly controversial Glenn Kessler fact check) into whether President Obama's offhand remark about skeet shooting "all the time" is really true, Plouffe posted a photograph of POTUS shooting a gun along with a snark dripping challenge to the "skeeters":

Attn skeet birthers. Make our day - let the photoshop conspiracies begin! m.flickr.com/photos/whiteho…

— David Plouffe (@davidplouffe) February 2, 2013

Much hurling onto the fainting couches by the pearl clutchers in Zombie Breitbrat Nation ensued. Which of course triggered the snark patrols of the social nets, who leapt into the action with great volleys of mockery. Predicting this ferocious battle of wits -- failing an actual news event occurring -- will not be over soon.

Sadly, for some, it will never be over. Figure it's only a matter of time before the die-hard skeeters demand to see notarized witness affidavits and the broken shards of clay pigeons. Said evidence needing to be carbon dated for authentication purposes and provided for personal inspection to any individual concerned citizen if so requested. Parties reserve the right to amend and increase these demands at any time without prior notice.

Same as it ever was...

Shots fired on gun appreciation day

On this date in history, angry Second Amendment absolutists organized a collective action to show solidarity for their cause -- Gun Appreciation Day. A day to show the world they are many. They are strong. They are armed with cash and high-caliber firearms. And they are not afraid to use them. Shots were literally fired.

So far we know five people were shot accidentally at three different gun shows today. Three of the gunshot victims were at one show, at a safety checkpoint for private sellers. Sounds like something that might happen at a fly-by-night flea market, not so much like a well regulated marketplace for weapons of human destruction.

But enough about the crass commercialism of the day. On the PR side, they also held protests. Tell me the NRA didn't fund this banner.

[BuzzFeed photo Many more at the link.]

I looked at the photos and saw mostly middle class people who are probably not hoarding guns. They're simply panicked by the false rumors flooding their news streams. Guns make them feel safer and they believe the government is trying to take them away from everyone. They're not a danger to society. The problem is those other faces in the crowd who aren't as competent -- or emotionally stable. Weeding that element out is the only way to make all of us safer -- whether we want to carry a gun, or not.

President Obama lays down the gun law

[Charles Dharapak photo]

Quite a day at the White House. Our President schooled Congress on how governance is done. Barack Obama showed some breathtaking leadership in a presser on gun policy reform where he made very clear he is tired of trying to reason with high stakes grifters who callously misinform gullible people for their own profit.

Obama even pointedly quoted Ronald Reagan before he laid out his executive actions to reduce gun violence. Think Progress translates the legalese into the real world effects of Obama's executive actions. And provides the best quote:

The President referenced one child’s letter that read, “I know that laws have to be passed by Congress, but I beg you to try very hard.”

“I promise that I will try very hard,” he said.

Don't see how he could be trying any harder than this. Screw the nitpicking about what he didn't do. This is the boldest move towards sensible gun policy I've witnessed in my rather long lifetime. A black President, governing in an impossibly hostile environment, just stood up all alone at a podium and made himself a target for millions of misinformed, angry white guys who are frantically amassing personal arsenals of viciously lethal firearms. If that's not leading from the bully pulpit, then what the hell is?

To quote our darlin' Joe Biden, "This is big fucking deal."

Trigger happy

David Keene is right about mass panic buying of high caliber guns and high capacity ammo clips happening because gun hoarders are afraid President Obama going to take their guns away. But the NRA President is surely lying when he denies the NRA is actively fostering the fear of everything in service of their bottom line. Their own fundraising pitches make a mockery of that absurd claim.

Fear drives sales. The NRA gained somewhere around 100K memberships post Sandy Hook. And let's not forget the benefits to the rest of the gun industry. Panic buying drove up pricing at least fivefold. Gun shops across America are literally empty. Sold out to the last damn bullet.

Profit. The gun industry is making a killing. Unfortunately, literally in the somewhere around 700 gun deaths just in the weeks since Sandy Hook happened. Some were murders; more often they were tragic accidents. Many of those deaths were children. But the answer for Mr. Keene is certainly not less guns.

Keene dismissed policies that would limit the availability of assault weapons or high-capacity magazines, two proposals that are likely to be included in the recommendations of Vice President Joe Biden’s gun task force. “We don’t think any of those things work,” he said. “You should absolutely be able to compromise on things that accomplish the purpose. Our objection to those things is that they interfere with people’s rights without doing anything to solve the problem.”

Hard to convince a guy whose fortunes depend on accelerating gun sales that sensibly restricting access to his product is the solution to firearms abuse.

Gun crazy

Honest, I don't want to keep writing about gun nuts but this guy is clearly a menace to society. The good news is, James Yeager lost his state permit.

Tennessee Department of Safety and Homeland Security has suspended the handgun carry permit of a local man who threatened to "start killing people" to protect his Second Amendment right.

In a statement released Friday officials said they had suspended the handgun carry permit of James Yeager, CEO of Tactical Response based on "material likelihood of risk of harm to the public".

The bad news is, that's not nearly enough. All this does is prevent him from legally carrying a loaded gun into his local Waffle House. It doesn't take away his mighty arsenal of weapons, all of which are stored -- fully loaded -- in some warehouse on his property. I mean he's got rocket launchers on hand.

And now having seen this video of Yeager doing an interview with a local TV station where he vainly attempts to mitigate the blowback from the video that went viral, I'm convinced the guy is the most dangerous kind of grifter of all. A batshit crazy mid-level grifter who actually believes in his own whacked out conspiracy theories. Also, having just reviewed Steve M.'s research on Yeager, he clearly has a messiah complex and a serious anger management problem.

The promo video Steve put up from Yeager's training camp is mindblowing. He threatens to shoot his kid's friends in the face (if necessary) and describes his inner circle as a frat house with machine guns. Even his supporters describe him as an asshole. Oh, and a giant bottle of bourbon is one of his important supplies in the field, in case he gets stuck behind enemy lines. Or something.

Yeager is the poster boy for people who shouldn't have guns at all. If this guy cracks, not having a permit isn't going to stop him from an all out massacre of his perceived adversaries. The state needs to shut down that training camp and take away all his weapons in the interests of public safety. But he's a white guy in the south, so not holding my breath.

You may ask yourself, how did we get here?

I've got ten other things I'd rather talk about but the gun nuts mounted a full assault on sanity today. I can hardly keep up with the incoming barrage of crazy. So I'm just getting to this genius PR move for "gun rights activists."

Larry Ward, chairman of the national Gun Appreciation Day gun rights advocates have planned for the weekend of President Obama's second inauguration...

Brilliant. Prove how reasonable and responsible "gun rights activists" are by holding a mass demonstration featuring angry white guys fondling lethal weapons while a black guy they hate is being sworn in as president. Who averages 30 death threats a day.

But it's not at all about racism, cause the good ole boys are now BFFs for life with that other black guy who also happens to have a national holiday at the same time.

"I think Martin Luther King, Jr. would agree with me if he were alive today that if African Americans had been given the right to keep and bear arms from day one of the country's founding, perhaps slavery might not have been a chapter in our history," Ward said.

Hell, they should have passed out those guns right from the git-go to those "savages" and made it a fair fight when they were ripped from their homeland to be traded like chattel. And I have this dim recollection that those "negros" did get guns right around the time of the "War of Northern Aggression." Still took them another hundred years to get the right to vote in the South.

But no disrespect intended and they're very sorry if any humor impaired person was offended by their choice of dates for the event. This is totally about the honoring the Constitution and the Second Amendment.

Meanwhile Snipy Wonkette remembers how supportive these folks were when armed black people exercised their 2nd Amendment rights:

Perhaps the 1960s icons the guns uber alles crowd should really be loving on are the Black Panthers, who did indeed dig guns. History reminds us, however, that back when black people loved guns, white people with guns decided they were super into gun control:

Don Mulford, a conservative Republican state assemblyman from Alameda County, which includes Oakland, was determined to end the Panthers’ police patrols. To disarm the Panthers, he proposed a law that would prohibit the carrying of a loaded weapon in any California city…

Republicans in California eagerly supported increased gun control. Governor Reagan told reporters that afternoon that he saw “no reason why on the street today a citizen should be carrying loaded weapons.” He called guns a “ridiculous way to solve problems that have to be solved among people of good will.”

Same as it ever was. Only this time it's about accumulating superior fire power. That the gun lobby profits greatly from the hysteria is purely coincidental.

Ask us about our AK-47s

Meet the newest poster boys for better gun regulation. Two 22 year old lame-brained gun nuts terrorize a Portland neighborhood by casually strolling the street armed to the teeth. These two idiots are probably just attention whores who wanted to see themselves on the teevee but that doesn't make them any less dangerous to the public safety. But of course they claim the best of intentions.

The men told officers they were hoping to educate the public about gun rights.

"Exercising my rights with a rifle to try to decrease the demonizing of peacefully exercising your rights in public," one of the men told Fox 12. He said his name is Warren, but did not want to provide a last name.

“This happens to open that line of communication, to let people know that you can defend yourself in a time of crisis or any time that you want to,” Boyce added.

Meanwhile, the residents and business owners were sent into panic mode, locking doors and hiding in closets while flooding the police with 9/11 calls. The police mentioned to the dimwitted pair this was wasting law enforcement resources and could interfere with responding to actual threats. They were not impressed.

Warren said he hoped people would approach them and talk to them, instead of calling police.

"What they really should do is observe the person to determine if the person is aggressive," he said of seeing someone with a gun in public. "We're not doing anything threatening to anyone."

Right. Because who among us, when seeing two big, beer-bellied 20 somethings on the street carrying semi-automatic assault rifles doesn't immediately want to run over and ask them about their black guns? Especially in the aftermath of Sandy Hook and the numerous shootings since.

They say it's not the first time they've pulled this stunt. It's not illegal. Maybe we should do something about that.

An accidental army of paranoid gun nuts

It appears James Yeager isn't ready to give up the limelight just yet. He apparently took down yesterday's crazed video but Yaeger has a new warning today.



If you can't watch the video, here's the basic text:

Now, I don't condone anybody doing anything rash. I do not condone anybody committing any kind of felonies up to and including aggravated assaults or murders. Unless its necessary.

Right now, it is not necessary. I understand that my video was very volatile. You have no idea how many people that sent me emails and texts and call me like 'Right on! My shit's clean. My bag is packed. You tell me when and where.' You have no idea how quickly I accidentally assembled an army. I assure you, a quite formidable army. But now is not the time. It's not time yet.

But, it is time to get ready!

I remind you Yeager runs a training camp for gun nuts and terrified upper middle class people prepping for a breakdown in society that guys like Yeager promise is just over the next horizon. And if necessary, he'll crash civil society himself with "volatile" videos like this. Good for his business don't you see?

I don't know if he's just a shameless grifter looking to promote his product or an actual lunatic. Either way, he probably belongs on locked psyche ward where he can't poison the public discourse with this insanity.

Not a well regulated militia

James Yeager, CEO of Tactical Response, a Tennessee company hawking "weapons and tactical training" apparently wants to cash in on the confiscation paranoia currently surging in the black gun crowd. Yeager posted this video rant to fire up the fear factor to eleventy. You really have to click through and watch him deliver this script:

"Vice President [Joe] Biden is asking the president to bypass Congress and use executive privilege, executive order to ban assault rifles and to impose stricter gun control," Yeager explained in his video message. "Fuck that."

"I'm telling you that if that happens, it's going to spark a civil war, and I'll be glad to fire the first shot. I'm not putting up with it. You shouldn't put up with it. And I need all you patriots to start thinking about what you're going to do, load your damn mags, make sure your rifle's clean, pack a backpack with some food in it and get ready to fight."

The CEO concluded: "I'm not fucking putting up with this. I'm not letting my country be ruled by a dictator. I'm not letting anybody take my guns! If it goes one inch further, I'm going to start killing people."

Not sure he really meant it. Pretty sure he's just a mid-level grifter who was trying to figure out how to better fleece the rubes. Also guessing alcohol may have been involved in the making of the video. Evidence being, (a) he took the video down quickly and (b) he has something to hide.

Think our would be Commander Yaeger of the New Revolutionary Forces, once sufficiently sober, realized the video might expose that his business model is built on fraud.

On his personal website, Yeager's Corner, Yeager says he's a "TN Department Of Safety Certified Firearms Instructor."

But Dalya Qualls, a spokesperson for the Department of Safety and Homeland Security, told TPM that's just not the case.

"I have confirmed with our Handgun Unit that Mr. Yeager is not a Department of Safety and Homeland Security certified handgun instructor and Tactical Response is not a department certified school," Qualls said in an email.

Of course it's also possible our would be Commander Yeager is a brilliant opportunist and a crackpot. Not linking, but I visited his website. This from the FAQs inspires all sorts of confidence in his training methods. And by confidence, I mean horrified disbelief verging on pure terror.

Is lodging REALLY free in Camden?

Well sort of. Our founder and CEO James Yeager has a 2,000 sq ft “Team Room” in the first floor of his home. It has 12 bunks, couches, tables, wireless internet, bath, fridge, coffee maker, microwave, awesome library and DVD collection and unmatched camaraderie with fellow students. It has a “frat house” like atmosphere that some students love and others hate. This is the private residence of James Yeager and is not owned by Tactical Response. This is just a show of kindness and is only for Tactical Response students (not schools we host at our range).

But not to worry. If you're not into the frat boy scene, lots of nice hotels nearby. And the pricing is clearly designed for an upper middle class demo. Like the Sandy Hook shooter's mother. Priciest option appears to be: High Risk Civilian Contractor - CQB (Raids and Rescues) at 5 Days / $1750. But you have to go through a lot of steps to get to that class. Low end for newbies starts with: Basic Fighting Pistol at 1 Day / $100 which qualifies you for the real class: Fighting Pistol at 2 Days/$450.

Oh and he rents firearms for training:

For Camden classes, yes we do.
- Pistol (Glocks 9/40/45): $25/day
- Shotgun (12 ga): $40/day
- Carbine (AK): $40/day
- Precision Rifle: (.308) $50/day

Firearms rental includes magazines and the support gear (sling, holster, mag pouches, etc.) that you need to complete the class. E-mail Info@TacticalResponse.com well ahead of time to reserve yours. Rental does NOT include ammunition (yes we have been asked that). Guns must be returned at the end of each training day.

The big money is in the ammo. Thanks to paranoia induced hoarding, the price has exploded.

This guy isn't the only one running one of these prepper schools. I've read about three other ones just this week. I'm guessing there are thousands of them. Only the "happy frat house" dwellers are preparing for war. They're mostly geared to upper middle class homeowners who want to protect their stuff when the promised hordes of poors storm their estates to take it.

They don't appear to be well regulated.

Second Amendment solutions

To be clear, I support gun rights for responsible owners. I know many of them intimately. But this happened all across America in the week after the Newtown massacre. At gun shows. Where not everyone does a background check.

More than 200 people lined up at each of three entrances on Saturday morning to pay the $8 entrance fee to the Will Rogers Memorial Center in Fort Worth, which has an exhibit hall spanning 25 acres. They crowded the aisles of the show and stood two-deep at booths for assault weapons and ammunition clips.

At all three shows the attendees were overwhelmingly white men, with some women and very few ethnic minorities.

These are people who honestly believe without a shadow of doubt they are right -- both morally and intellectually -- and everyone else is either wrong, evil, or both.

Bob Hofmeister, whose wife owns Xtreme Sports, a gun dealer with a table at the Kansas City show, said the business sold 15 to 20 AR-15s in the past week.

"Some of these people just want to show their rights to own guns," Hofmeister said.

Because freedom, and nothing quite says public safety like tens of thousands of paranoid gun hoarders rushing out to panic buy semi-automatic weapons and stockpile high capacity ammo clips.

If more guns is crazy, Wayne LaPierre doesn't want to be sane

Hot on the heels of the most bizarre press conference ever, NRA chief Wayne LaPierre is making the rounds of the bobblehead shows to defend the NRA's hare-brained position on gun regulation, that being, there should be absolutely no additional regulation whatsoever. Surprisingly, Dancing Dave challenged that idiotic NRA stand:

GREGORY: This is a matter of logic, Mr. LaPierre, because anybody watching this is going to say ‘hey wait a minute. I just heard Mr. LaPierre say that the standard is we should try anything that might reduce the violence. And you’re telling me that it’s not a matter of common sense that if you don’t have an ability to shoot off 30 rounds without reloading, that just possibly you could reduce the loss of life? Would Adam Lanza have been able to shoot as many kids if he didn’t have as much ammunition?’

LAPIERRE: I don’t buy your argument for a minute.

In fact, Wayne LaPierre can't believe you people don't get that the only obvious solution to gun violence is more guns. An arsenal in every house and an armed vigilante on every street corner and at every school house door is the ticket.

This is of course, just a restatement of LaPierre's tone deaf, mendacious NRA presser where he blamed everything from the media to video games for murderous rampages while he insisted it certainly had nothing to do with the easy availability of high-powered guns.

I still can't quite wrap my head around the insanity of this response from the NRA. If you somehow missed it, you can read the transcript of the NRA presser or watch the video. But the whole thing can be summed up by Mr. LaPierre's exact quote:

"This is the beginning of a serious conversation. We won't be taking any questions."

And while Wayne LaPierre was having this one-way serious conversation, a lone gunman went a murder spree in PA where among others, he killed a woman hanging Christmas decorations at a church and three armed policemen were injured. Which in the world according to the NRA would not have happened if only everybody was armed and ready to shoot at will.