Tag: Crime & Punishment
The Less Influence They Have, The More Radical the Pro-Gun Groups Grow
There’s an interesting list of numbers on the website, Meet the NRA. Ladd Everitt, communications director of the Coalition to Stop Gun Violence, recently called the National Rifle Association a “paper tiger.” With this record, I can see why.
- The National Rifle Association of America Political Victory Fund received a 0.83% return on the $11 million they spent during the 2012 election cycle, the worst performance of any Super PAC that spent over $5 million in the election.
- NRA PACs spent more than $13 million to defeat Pres. Obama alone, all for naught.
- The NRA spent $100,000 in eight Senate races, and lost seven of them.
- Of the 30 House incumbents who lost, 17 were endorsed by the NRA.
Maybe the NRA’s political fortunes are in part behind the rise of the even more radical Gun Owners of America (GOA). GOA refused to endorse Sen. John McCain in 2008 because they thought his record on “gun rights” (yes, apparently guns have rights) was weak. They endorsed Rep. Ron Paul in 2012 because they admired his inability to compromise.
And although Everitt continued to reference the more widely recognized NRA when he appeared recently on the Diane Rehm Show and described the unhinged nature of the new Burt Gummers of the world, he was probably also thinking of the GOA:
We often tell people this not your grandfather’s NRA. And, you know, the modern pro-gun movement today is marked by what we would call insurrectionist ideology, which is this belief that the NRA and others have put forward that there is an individual right under the second amendment to essentially shoot and kill government officials when you personally disagree with democratically enacted laws.
Dick’s Sporting Goods Is a Good Sport. The Chain Has Stopped Selling ‘Modern Sporting Rifles’
Big ups to Dick’s Sporting Goods, which has quit selling any guns at all near Newtown, Conn., and has stopped selling what pro-gun fans call, “modern sporting rifles,” aka, the type of military assault rifle that was used to kill 20 children and six adults in the recent mass shooting.
While the suspension of the sales of “modern sporting rifles” is temporary, it’s a step. Please show Dick’s your support for making the move permanent, and if you need a soccer ball, some running shoes, or new fishing gear, you know where to go.
It Never Seems to Be the Right Time to Discuss Gun Policy
White House spokesperson Jay Carney on the shooting in Connecticut:
“I think it’s important on a day like today to view this as I know the president, as a father does and I as a father and others who are parents certainly do, which is to feel enormous sympathy for families that are affected and to do everything we can to support state and local law enforcement and support those who are enduring what appears to be a very tragic event. There is, I’m sure, will be, rather, a day for discussion of the usual Washington policy debates but I don’t think today is that day. [Emphasis added]
In what universe is entertaining the idea of limiting the public’s exposure to guns, “the usual Washington policy debates?” When was the last time Washington debated this topic? When Jimmy freaking Carter was president? Like 80 or 90 or several hundred mass shootings ago?
We never think today is the right day to stand up to the National Rifle Association and the Gun Owners of America, but it’s always a fine day for multiple funerals.
And the first person who says, “If those little kids or the teachers had their own guns, this never would have happened,” is going to get blasted — verbally — by me. The answer to too many guns is not more guns.
Vote Fraud IS a Problem — Among Republicans
2
Number of Republicans arrested for vote fraud on Friday, Nov. 2. In Las Vegas, a 56-year-old registered Republican woman attempted to vote at two polling stations on the same day. In Portland, Ore., an elections office worker was caught filling in any blanks on ballots with a straight Republican ticket. There were no reports of Democrats committing vote fraud, but if you hear of any, please leave a link in the comments. P.S. Doctored videos by James O’Keefe don’t count.
In Florida, A Felony Conviction is Forever When It Comes to Voting
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Number of felons who have completed their sentences or been paroled and had their voting rights restored in Florida under Gov. Rick Scott (R/Tea) in 2011. By contrast, in 2007 when Charlie Crist (R/NPA) was governor, 38,871 former felons were allowed to vote again. The Florida Parole Commission has a current backlog of 21,197 applications even as a study by FPC showed that ex-felons whose civil rights are restored are less likely to re-offend.
Is John Lennon Still Dead? Then No Parole
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Number of times Mark David Chapman has been denied parole for shooting and killing John Lennon in 1980. Besides Aug. 23, 2012, Chapman was denied parole every two years after he became eligible: 2000, 2002, 2004, 2006, 2008, and 2010.
If Guns are the Problem, More Guns are the Solution
I also believe that a lot of gun owners would agree that AK-47s belong in the hands of soldiers, not in the hands of criminals. That they belong on the battlefield of war, not on the streets of our cities.
Pres. Obama, making a rare statement in support of restricting the types of assault weapons, and presumably, military protection gear, tear gas canisters, and other explosives used by the Batman movie theater killer. Obama, who is constantly accused of leading the charge for gun control (Bumper sticker: “I’ll keep my guns and money, you keep the change”) has actually been little threat to gun ownership. Meanwhile, gun supporters have successfully reframed the debate from needing guns for hunting to needing them for personal protection. According to the gun lobby, safeguarding one’s home explains the rise in stockpiling of paramilitary weapons and ammunition since 2008.
Fortune Magazine Shows What You Suspected: Weak, NRA-Written Gun Laws Are to Blame for Fast and Furious
Fortune magazine proves what everyone who doesn’t watch FOX News suspected: The congressional investigation into the Fast and Furious program is a partisan witch hunt, and much of the responsibility for the murder of U.S. Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry has to go to the gun lobby, which blocks maintaining a database of firearms.
A six-month Fortune investigation reveals that the public case alleging gun walking is replete with distortions, errors, partial truths, and even some outright lies
Quite simply, there’s a fundamental misconception at the heart of the Fast and Furious scandal. Nobody disputes that suspected straw purchasers under surveillance by the ATF repeatedly bought guns that eventually fell into criminal hands. Issa and others charge that the ATF intentionally allowed guns to walk as an operational tactic. But five law-enforcement agents directly involved in Fast and Furious tell Fortune that the ATF had no such tactic. They insist they never purposefully allowed guns to be illegally trafficked. Just the opposite: They say they seized weapons whenever they could but were hamstrung by prosecutors and weak laws, which stymied them at every turn.
Indeed, a six-month Fortune investigation reveals that the public case alleging that [ATF Supervisor Dave] Voth and his colleagues walked guns is replete with distortions, errors, partial truths, and even some outright lies. Fortune reviewed more than 2,000 pages of confidential ATF documents and interviewed 39 people, including seven law-enforcement agents with direct knowledge of the case…How Fast and Furious reached the headlines is a strange and unsettling saga, one that reveals a lot about politics and media today…
“Republican senators are whipping up the country into a psychotic frenzy with these reports that are patently false,” says Linda Wallace, a special agent with the Internal Revenue Service’s criminal investigation unit who was assigned to the Fast and Furious team (and recently retired from the IRS). A self-described gun-rights supporter, Wallace has not been criticized by Issa’s committee.
…Irony abounds when it comes to the Fast and Furious scandal. But the ultimate irony is this: Republicans who support the National Rifle Association and its attempts to weaken gun laws are lambasting ATF agents for not seizing enough weapons—ones that, in this case, prosecutors deemed to be legal.
Take a few minutes and read the whole piece.
