God, Guns and Hitler

I have certain misgivings about hate crime laws, but we're reminded this morning -- the eve of Pesach or The Passover, and a week before Hitler's birthday, that people who belong to hate-based organizations and creeds, who post virulent hate messages and calls for extermination on-line, need their constitutional right to keep and bear arms infringed.

I feel quite protective of our guaranteed right to free speech and our right to think what we think, but speech that incites to violence, that creates a mortal danger to the public, is something else and that's been established for a long time. Frazier Glenn Miller is a founding member of the Carolina Knights of the Ku Klux Klan and the White Patriot Party.  That's not a crime, more's the pity, nor is shouting "Heil Hitler" from the back of a police car, but perhaps we ought to consider making it a felony to belong to groups who advocate murder because as far as I know, it's illegal for felons to own firearms.

I know -- penalties and restrictions don't prevent criminals and especially psychopathic criminals from committing crimes, but there's something wrong with Mr. Miller or Mr. Cross as he often calls himself, to own weapons.  There's something wrong if  the targets of hate groups need to arm themselves or to hire armed guards or to go about in fear because we elevate and protect a right to be armed above the right to remain alive.  We shouldn't have to wait for people like that to run amok before we do anything. Threatening violence against groups or individuals should be sufficient to disarm someone. 

Lest one think that being a white, Anglo-Saxon Protestant is protection and a reason not to worry, Methodists were shot in this tragedy as well.

Standing athwart the graves of murdered children

This bit of horribly bad taste got lost on a weekend. We're two months away from the sad anniversary of the Newtown massacre. These Second Amendment First / True Americans are planning pro-guns for all rallies at the mass murder site.

NEWTOWN -- First Selectman Pat Llodra is asking gun rights organizations to stay away from this town on Dec. 14, the first anniversary of the Sandy Hook Elementary School shootings.

Three national pro-guns groups had announced on Thursday that they would hold what they're calling "Guns Save Lives" rallies in all 50 states on the anniversary. [...]

"Using our day of mourning and remembrance to focus on the guns that took the lives of our children and teachers rather than celebrating their memories is disgraceful," said Newtown Action Alliance President Dave Ackert.

So who are these upstanding citizens, you ask?

The president of the Second Amendment Foundation said the rallies are intended to "show America that there is a good side to guns."

"Our mission with Guns Save Lives Day is to assure them our groups are working day and night to thwart government gun-grabbers at every opportunity," said Alan Gottlieb said.

The other groups behind the rallies are the Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms and DefendGunRights.com.

Larry Ward, founder of the DefendGuns organization, said the rallies are "designed to counteract what certainly will be a day of activism and misinformation from the gun prohibition lobby."

And of course, the gun nuts right to glorify the very weapons that killed the victims trumps the Newtown community's right to mourn their dead with dignity because, I imagine, the media will be there. Such nice people. [photo via]

Unintended consequences

Who could have predicted insurers wouldn't want to issue policies for schools that allow any local yahoo with a gun to wander around the building?

The EMC Insurance Cos. insures 85 percent to 90 percent of all Kansas school districts and has refused to renew coverage for schools that permit teachers and custodians to carry concealed firearms on their campuses under the new law, which took effect July 1. It's not a political decision, but a financial one based on the riskier climate it estimates would be created, the insurer said.

"We've been writing school business for almost 40 years, and one of the underwriting guidelines we follow for schools is that any on-site armed security should be provided by uniformed, qualified law enforcement officers," said Mick Lovell, EMC's vice president for business development. "Our guidelines have not recently changed."

Hearing this is not sitting well with the gun absolutists because they don't see a problem. I mean, they're just protecting the children. What could go wrong?

Freedom is in the gunsights of the holder

Save us from 25 year old glibertarians with big brains and little vision. Defense Distributed successfully test-fired their 3D printed, nearly all plastic gun this week.



It took some amount of nerve to actually fire it by hand since an earlier string pulled test with a higher caliber bullet exploded the whole damn gun. We should qualify that the gun does have one non-plastic component, "a common hardware store nail used as its firing pin." It also incorporates a strip of non-functional metal somewhere in the body in order to render it detectable to security gates.

The owner of Defense Distributed Cody Wilson is a self-described American crypto-anarchist, free-market anarchist, and law student. He's going to post the schematics on his website for free. Clearly he's not stupid and understands the gun can be built without the metal detector strip allowing it to be carried past any security device. That doesn't concern him:

But Wilson denies advocating any sort of violent revolt in America. Instead, he argues that his goal is to demonstrate how technology can circumvent laws until governments simply become irrelevant. “This is about enabling individuals to create their own sovereign space…The government will increasingly be on the sidelines, saying ‘hey, wait,’” says Wilson. “It’s about creating the new order in the crumbling shell of the old order.”

Wilson doesn’t deny that his gun could be used for murder or political violence. “I recognize that this tool might be used to harm people. That’s what it is: It’s a gun,” he says. “But I don’t think that’s a reason to not put it out there. I think that liberty in the end is a better interest.”

Because nothing shouts freedom louder than providing the means for any homicidal maniac to produce a gun that can be carried undetected into any building. Ought to be very popular with disgruntled ex-husbands and crackpot sovereign citizens with visions of Wolverines dancing in their heads. What's even crazier is, the government gave him a license to be a certified firearm manufacturer.

It's only just begun

Our broken Senate managed to prevent any reform of gun safety regulations yesterday. In a way it's almost a good thing because there were more amendments than just the watered down expansion of background checks that failed to break the perpetual filibuster requirement of 60 votes. In fact, the GOP's Cornyn amendment to further weaken interstate gun safety laws got more votes than Manchin-Toomey, though it also failed to reach the magic number.

While many were angered and disappointed by this complete failure of good governance, few have more reason to be angry than Gabby Giffords whose op-ed ran in the NYT last night. A powerful piece but these passages get to the heart of her remarks:

Speaking is physically difficult for me. But my feelings are clear: I’m furious. I will not rest until we have righted the wrong these senators have done, and until we have changed our laws so we can look parents in the face and say: We are trying to keep your children safe. We cannot allow the status quo — desperately protected by the gun lobby so that they can make more money by spreading fear and misinformation — to go on. [...]

They looked at these most benign and practical of solutions, offered by moderates from each party, and then they looked over their shoulder at the powerful, shadowy gun lobby — and brought shame on themselves and our government itself by choosing to do nothing.

They will try to hide their decision behind grand talk, behind willfully false accounts of what the bill might have done — trust me, I know how politicians talk when they want to distract you — but their decision was based on a misplaced sense of self-interest. I say misplaced, because to preserve their dignity and their legacy, they should have heeded the voices of their constituents. They should have honored the legacy of the thousands of victims of gun violence and their families, who have begged for action, not because it would bring their loved ones back, but so that others might be spared their agony.

As Gabby and the parents of the Newtown dead and so many others have vowed, this is not over. If anything this blazing display of political cowardice has only hardened the determination to change the status quo. And as Gabby said in the op-ed, if we can't reform the laws with this Congress, then we'll change the Congress members. In the end, anger may bring more change than hope ever could.

Meanwhile, while the vote was going on, many victims of gun violence were in the gallery. One of them was Patricia Maisch who shouted, “Shame on you!”

You may remember her from when Gabby Giffords was shot on that horrible day in 2011. "Maisch was hailed as a hero for disarming Tucson shooter Jared Loughner by preventing him from reloading a fresh magazine." As she was leaving the gallery, she was detained by security. They held her for two hours, which is "approximately 115 minutes longer than a background check at a federal gun dealer," in order to run a criminal background check because she dared to briefly disrupt the proceedings -- with three words. The irony is lost on no one.

Tennessee restores Yeager's gun carry permit

You'll recall some months ago that hot-heated CEO James Yeager of the dicey gun training camp Tactical Response had his carry permit revoked because of his video "'threatening to start killing people' if President Obama took executive action on guns." This week, Yeager got his gun carry permit restored.

Here's his personal video statement. Man, he still looks totally crazy to me.



Actually, the most frightening thing I learned in the video is they took away his carry permit, but they never took away his guns. Tennesee law doesn't require that even if they take your permit to carry. He still has that huge warehouse of artillery. Apparently no psyche eval is required either, even after you've publicly threatened to kill a bunch of people with your personal giant arsenal of weapons. [More from TPM at the link.]

Senate does something about gun safety reform

It's not much so far. Really it's kind of pathetic that a simple cloture vote to allow debate is such big news.

The procedural vote followed a breakthrough by Sens. Joe Manchin, D-West Virginia, and Pat Toomey, R-Pennsylvania, who reached a compromise on broadening background checks to include private purchases at gun shows and on the Internet.

Because of the bipartisan deal, Senate Democrats backing the legislation received support from enough Republicans to approve the cloture motion, 68-31, setting up debate on the proposals and amendments expected to last for two weeks.

Only two Democrats defected and 16 Republicans voted for cloture. One of them surprisingly being my own generally useless Richard Burr. While I'm certain he'll vote against any actual reform bill, just voting to allow it to come to the floor brought out the gun loving crackpot hordes in protest. The general drift of the commentary was how dare he give OWEbama a political victory. They will never forgive this grave betrayal of their constitutional rights and they're going to kick his RINO ass out of office. Of course they'll forget all that when he votes against the final bill.

Some milquetoast bill may yet get passed out of the Senate. Then John Boehner's House gets to further eviscerate the reforms. Unlikely to solve the problems. But DC media and the Beltway junkies have something to talk about for the next few weeks. So there's that...

Harry Reid ready to bust out gun control bill

Our Senate Majority Leader tells us he is a patient man, but apparently he's lost his patience today. Harry Reid is forcing a cloture vote on the current Democratic gun reform bill. The kabuki is complicated on this move with the compromise bill still stuck in the back rooms and the above pictured GOPers being joined by Mitch McConnell threatening a filibuster, along a few red state Dems.

Not clear how serious they are about the filibuster. Josh says their resolve is failing. Surely, there are long term problems for the Republican party in blocking a vote on a bill that has the support of 90% of the voters at least on the background checks. Thing is with a misinformed public, blocking the vote won't hurt them with the rubes back home. It's not about screwing Obummer this time. The 2014 contenders have to choose between saving the party or their own sorry butts.

Mitch McConnell is one of the 2014ers and he's under fire from the left and the far right. He could demand party unity to block the bill but not sure he wants to risk it. He might lose. There's already several defectors including Grumpy Gramps McCain. If Harry actually follows through on this, could make for an interesting day tomorrow. [graphic via]

Armed and dangerous idiots

This is the stuff that makes me want to break crockery. Assholes with loaded weapons crash a gun law reform rally.



This is not responsible gun ownership. These guys didn't have to crash this event. They had to know there would be kids there. In the wake of the school murders, just seeing the guns would likely frighten the children. And in the light of the daily accidental discharges, it's fucking dangerous. If they want to strut around acting like dicks, they could hold their own damn event at a different time.

And these asshats are all about their free speech rights, but you don't have to be Einstein to figure out they're not interested in protecting anybody else's right to disagree. Clearly, their objective is to intimidate and it's working.

A member of Moms Demand Action said that she felt unsettled by their presence and said that the organizers would have to think twice before holding another event, particularly one where children could be present.

Seriously. Not that hard to imagine some idiot dropping a loaded gun that goes off and kills an innocent bystander. These are the people who should not be allowed to own guns at all. [video at the link]

How to build a big gun with a 3D printer

Should probably have titled this one, "Smart kid kills the world" because this kid seems a little crazy to me. But that aside I've been trying to visualize how this 3D printer thing works. I've seen dozens of stories about how they're using this technology to build everything from spare body parts to automatic weaponry. Now thanks to Roger Ebert at least I understand, "How to print out a firearm in the comfort of your own home."



Calling it printing is somewhat deceiving. It's more like you design it in 3D and then build the model from the specs with a fairly simple machine. They're using plastic in this video. Not sure how that would work with metal. Would think you need a much different setup to build that. And I'm still mystified on how they would build body parts. I mean what do they use for the human tissue in the construction? Nonetheless, rather astounding technology.

Senate keeps assault weapons safe

Lots of pissed off leftys on the interwebs this afternoon when news got out that Harry Reid won't bring the assault weapons ban to the floor. Me, I've been preparing for that disappointment from the beginning. No way he was going to find 60 votes. He says they can't even get 40 because of all the Dem defections.

Shouldn't be a big surprise. Look at the what DiFi's bill would do:

Feinstein's bill would impose a ban on the sale and manufacture of more than 150 types of semi-automatic weapons with military-style features. Her measure was one of four bills approved by the Senate Judiciary Committee over the last two weeks.

You're not just fighting the NRA here, it's a battle against the entire gun industry lobby. I do think they should try to add it as an amendment though and require a roll call so every single one of the bought off Senators has to go on record with a yes or no vote. No, not holding the breath for it.

Meanwhile, all is not lost. There's some good reforms that could very well pass.

The three other gun control bills approved by Judiciary are: a measure requiring universal background checks, a measure aimed at increasing security at schools, and a bill cracking down on the illegal trafficking and straw purchasing of firearms.

Not that keen on the school security thing. Figuring it's about as effective a protection as TSA at the airport. That one will probably pass though, because the parents need some security theater. And if we can come out of this with the background checks and cracking down on straw purchases, it would be big win. I'm be happy to get that much myself. [graphic via]

GOP plays politics with public safety - Part One

[photo via Greg Fallis]

Employing the classic Republican projection tactic, GOP Sen. Ted Cruz accused President Obama of playing politics with gun safety reforms. In the world according to NRA beholden Republicans, our President and all citizens concerned with the overly easy availability of firearms are hypocrites. And by the way he didn't see anything at all odious about the NRA's hideous pro-gun ad which was definitely not about the President's daughters. Pay no attention to the fact they were referenced in the opening ten seconds of the ad. And we'll just ignore the NRA's ad was premised on a outright lie.

But please let's not trouble Mr. Cruz with those damned librul facts. It would interfere with his false statements made about firearm availability:

"There actually isn't the so-called gun show loophole. It doesn't exist. Any licensed firearm dealer that sells at a gun show has to have a background check," he said.

I guess that's technically half true. I'm reasonably sure the majority of licensed dealers are responsible sellers. But that's not the loophole. The problem is irresponsible private sellers at gun shows like this 70 year old guy with a huge stash of high powered weapons for sale:

Asked who could buy his Uzi semi-automatic weapon with a bundle of 30-round magazines, Norm replied, "Anyone who has $2,000."

And this father/son team anxious to close a single sale:

At Saturday's show, a teenager named Jacob walked the aisles with an AR-15 slung over his shoulder and a "For Sale" sign pinned to his chest. For $1,800, Jacob said, the deal would include magazines of 20 and 30 rounds.

Jacob turned the final stage of the transaction over to his father, Doug, who declined to give his last name.

Told that his would-be buyer lived in California and the weapon was illegal there, Doug said it didn't matter.

"As far as I'm concerned," Doug said. "I'm selling you a DVD player."

Just a little free market capitalism between strangers no doubt to take advantage of the inflated prices caused by gun industry alarmists. Somehow this doesn't shout "taking personal responsibility" to me.

Wanting to shut these dark deals down is not the same as trying to prevent responsible owners from buying firearms. But if the gun hoarders want to call pointing out the insanity of this lax regulation playing politics, well fine. Deal me into the game. I'm playing to win this round.