Soulless vampires tweeted this out in the aftermath of a school shooting. https://t.co/EyEsZVWs3f
— The Hoarse Whisperer (@HoarseWisperer) November 14, 2019
Almost the same moment gunfire erupted in Santa Clarita (about 11 ET), Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith objected to moving a background check bill added to the Senate calendar on March 4. Said it shouldn't be "fast tracked" and it might stop her from lending a rifle to a grandson. pic.twitter.com/jmxqL564OK
— Michael McAuliff (@mmcauliff) November 14, 2019
"TOO SOON!" scream the conservatives who have no desire to do anything to prevent mass shootings. https://t.co/5unzQO8tnK
— Ragnarok Lobster (@eclecticbrotha) November 14, 2019
Reminder that after saying they would present their own gun violence plan after El Paso & Dayton mass shootings, the White House has produced nothing at all on the issue https://t.co/vuqZA46Pz8
— Garrett Haake (@GarrettHaake) November 14, 2019
I know what I tweeted is true given the reaction from those representing the 3 in 10 Americans who actually own guns. https://t.co/fTru71uUEX
— Malcolm P. Johnson (@admiralmpj) November 14, 2019
Jesus. pic.twitter.com/XzGATeoLOh
— Bear Braumoeller (@Prof_BearB) November 15, 2019
Matt McIrvin
Every school shooter is a gun salesman.
The Moar You Know
I’d have figured that Steve Scalise would at least have seen the light, given that he came within a few inches of getting greased by that asshole who shot up their softball game.
Nope. He’s right at the front row of the chorus demanding more guns for all.
We’re getting a first-class demonstration in this country on how one’s tribe trumps (appropriate choice of words, no?) any other considerations.
Flanders' Other Neighbor
Last month, my daughter’s middle school went on lock-down because some kid was outside with a toy rifle with the orange tip removed (or something, something, never got a straight answer) which made it look real. Someone noticed and the whole procedure happened fast. My daughter is an 8th grader. She said kids were scared and crying, and she seems to have sucked it up and did her level-best to assure them it would be okay by staying calm and positive. Apparently a number of teachers did not do very well, themselves.
She was a wreck for the next few days, but I can’t even express how proud I am of her, and how sick I am of these people prioritizing weapons over kids.
One guy I met once on a bicycle tour from Fort Ord to SLO back in the late ’90s was in a workplace shooting a dozen years before where he never got physically injured. He still wasn’t even able to kill a spider in his home – he’d take it outside. Which as I’m typing this and remembering that tour, is what my daughter does these days. I thought it was just a thing like her going vegetarian recently. Hmm.
Heywood J.
Scalise is proof that, in the end, a dirtbag remains true to their nature, no matter what. It would be nice to think that his near-death experience would have made him more reflective and contemplative, but that’s too much to hope for these days. He is what he’s always been.
Adam L Silverman
Notice how they’ve photoshopped Biden’s, Warren’s, Buttigieg’s, and Harris’s faces in the graphic that the NRA tweeted out?
FelonyGovt
The photos in this morning’s LA Times of tearful parents hugging their terrified kids at Saugus HS made me cry. This is an outrage.
Heywood J.
Not that I would ever dream of interfering with Confederate Gramma’s inalienable right to lend out her firearms, but I don’t think it’s too much to ask that if her grandson then goes out and holds up a liquor store or tunes up a Walmart, she has some liability for his actions as well.
That “lendin’ out muh gun” thing is a lie. I have friends who have dozens of guns; it would never occur to me to ask to “borrow” one (although they probably would lend me one). But that may be because I can actually pass a background check.
Heywood J.
@Adam L Silverman: Looks like something out of a Ben Garrison cartoon.
The NRA is a domestic terrorism organization. I make sure to remind my gun friends about that every time they brag about their lifetime memberships.
Heywood J.
[comment deleted]
Adam L Silverman
@Heywood J.: It’s also bullshit, because the way the bill is worded, loaning a known individual a firearm, for instance when at the range or hunting together, would not require a background check and a transfer of ownership.
Heywood J.
@Adam L Silverman: Right, those are the only circumstances I can ever recall where I’ve used someone else’s gun, as a one-off situation where the owner was present. They make it sound like people just go over to each other’s houses and swap Bushmasters for the week or something.
JWR
@The Moar You Know: “I’d have figured that Steve Scalise would at least have seen the light,”
I mentioned that some time ago, and was told that he might be suffering from a form of PTSD, which can be exhibited in any number of ways, (as far as I know.)
The Moar You Know
@Heywood J.: Oh, is it ever. NOBODY borrows guns. I’ve never even heard of anyone doing that before this nonsense came up.
If anyone I knew asked to borrow mine (especially family, because I know how some of those fuckers are) I’d:
Adam L Silverman
@Heywood J.: Nope, it showed up. Some folks are having a glitch that requires the page be refreshed after posting a comment to see it.
Adam L Silverman
@Heywood J.:
@The Moar You Know:
I’ve borrowed my SWAT sniper friend’s when he does my quarterly training. This way I don’t have to purchase an arsenal I don’t need in my personal life in order to keep my skills fresh for my professional life were I to deploy again.
Adam L Silverman
@JWR: Or he’s just the same “David Duke without the baggage” white supremacist asshole he’s always been.
ThresherK
Lifelong Nutmegger here. Senator Chris Murphy (D, natch) has again done us proud.
JWR
@Adam L Silverman: I just figured that out. ;) But it’s kind of an adventure trying to get around and figuring out an ever changing site.
The Moar You Know
@Adam L Silverman: OK, you’re the first I know who borrows firearms. Good to know it’s a thing.
Now, I assume that you go to the range, he’s there with weapons, you load up, do your qualifications (all the time with him standing right there), he says “nice job, Silverman, one ragged hole” or “Jesus, Silverman, lay off the coffee cause you’re spraying everywhere like a burst hose”, and then you unload, put everything in their cases and go home. That about right?
Because when Confederate Grandma is talking about “lendin’ her boy a shootin’ iron”, she’s not planning on being there with the weapon, and that to me seems…gosh, problematic at best.
JWR
That would certainly explain it.
Just Chuck
My eyes were fully opened when I saw all those gun-humpers, our Guardians Of Liberty Protecting Us From Tyranny, come out in force to protest … health care. They don’t protect us against tyranny. They are tyranny.
No more fucking compromises. Repeal the Second Amendment.
Adam L Silverman
@The Moar You Know: Usually we go to breakfast first and each have about a pot of really strong coffee. But that’s pretty close to what happens.
FlyingToaster
Oh, I know several people back in the midwest who borrow guns. Usually it’s because they’ve got a varmint moved in on their exurban property so they call a friend/colleague/shooting buddy and borrow a rifle for the weekend so that they can shoot the damn groundhog before it undermines the detached shed.
But the gun comes back on Monday.
JGabriel
Michael McAuliff via Anne Laurie @ Top:
As intended.
What the hell makes people think indiscriminately loaning out *guns*, especially to children and without supervision, is a good idea?
The Moar You Know
@Adam L Silverman: OK. I do that too, occasionally take first-timers (friends) to the range. I’m literally standing right next to them the entire time. To me, that isn’t borrowing. I guess it could be construed as such.
Would you agree that what Confederate Grandma seems to be proposing is a beast of a totally different character? Because, damn, I wouldn’t hand my own mother a gun* and say “bring it back when you’re done”. To let a weapon registered to you out of your sight, with ammo, in someone else’s possession? Insanity of the highest order.
*she voted for Trump, so just no fucking way that’s happening
PenandKey
@ The Moar You Know #25:
When I was a teenager I didn’t own a rifle and my grandfather borrowed one of this buddy’s to teach me how to shoot and to take me deer hunting. We had it for a week and the only stipulation we were given was to make sure it was undamaged and cleaned before returning it.
While the “borrow my gunz!” line is overblown, it’s not like the concept is a complete fabrication. Hell, in my neck of Wisconsin it’s not even that uncommon.
Adam L Silverman
@The Moar You Know: She is. I normally don’t think of it as borrowing either, but it has become a cri de couer for the 2nd Amendment Absolutist crowd regarding universal background check laws at the state level. Washington state’s, which I understand is a bit loosely worded, is the Ur example.
For me, a properly worded universal background check bill exempts supervised loaning of weapons for range and/or hunting use, as well as giving as gifts for immediate family members. But private sales would no longer be exempt and would require a background check and a formal transfer of ownership.
The Moar You Know
@Adam L Silverman: My highlighted part is the only part of your otherwise eminently sane proposal that gives me heartburn. This is how both Adam Lanza and Elliot Rodgers got their weapons. I think family members are extremely poor judges of whether someone is fit to have a weapon or no, and they should probably have to go through the background checks like everyone else.
Would I take that exemption to get the rest enacted? Yeah. I wouldn’t feel good about it, but I’d do it.
ola azul
test
Adam L Silverman
@The Moar You Know: It’s only there because I think that’s what it would take to get it enacted.
Kattails
yes I did notice. It made me want to punch the person who did it. Somewhere delicate and painful.
PenandKey
@Adam L Silverman: I have to agree. As much as I would rather see every single gun transfer require a background check, I simply don’t see a version without that sort of exemption passing. The outrage over being told by the government that you can’t give or pass down a firearm to your own family would, in my eyes, be a deal breaker in many parts of the country. This is especially true in communities, like the Upper Midwest, with a strong hunting culture.
Zinsky
Looking ahead – there will be no firearms allowed on space ships. Just sayin’….
WaterGirl
@JWR: I get that! The alternative is to take the site down while the fixes are being made, and I’m pretty sure nobody wants that. :-) But I’m willing to be wrong about that.
Ruckus
@Heywood J.:
Doesn’t actually passing a background check teach you that you don’t actually need a gun?
I know many think we live in war zones but we really don’t.
I worked with a guy back in the late 60s that carried a gun. Now knowing him told me that there might actually be people that might want to shoot him, but they would know him and actually be aiming specifically for him.
Ruckus
@The Moar You Know:
You are talking actual rationality.
Republicans are not rational. If they were they wouldn’t be republicans.
Rationality means that you can assess a situation and see reality. Republicans are told what to think and accept that as reality. That’s not rational.