Guns

[LFC]

Gaetz goes even nuttier.

Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL) suggested on Thursday that Democrats may be planning "false flag" violence following the midterm elections.

During an interview with conservative broadcaster Steve Bannon on Real America's Voice, Gaetz outlined a conspiracy theory about the midterm elections.

"That is what is happening in the lead-up to these midterms," he said. "You see all these stories now the mainstream media is starting to leak. And these threat assessments coming from the FBI that there could be midterm violence."

Gaetz defended the right of "young adults" to purchase assault-style rifles like the AR-15 that was used in a recent school shooting in Uvalde, Texas. Some pro-gun lawmakers have suggested that the minimum age for purchasing assault-style rifles should be raised from 18 to 21.

"Well, that violence is coming from their side and they're purposefully trying to disarm us by passing red flag laws and by assuring young adults cannot access various types of firearms because they want us to be in the most vulnerable position when they create these false flag acts of violence and then the counter-violence that could come against our people," he insisted.

[pnwguy]

Jun 9, 2022 18:28:57 GMT LFC said:

They absolutely refuse to do anything but encourage the purchase of more guns.

Responding to the increase in mass shootings Democrats in the U.S. House of Representatives Wednesday evening voted to raise the minimum age to buy semiautomatic weapons, like the popular AR-15 style assault rifle, from 18 to 21.

The measure passed 228-199, with all but ten Republicans voting against it. Two Democrats also opposed the bill.

Same as it ever was.

[goldenvalley]

Seeing the video of the insurrectionists last night made me realize that Washington DC's prohibition on carrying arms is a good idea. That crowd would have killed anyone in their way if they had firearms.  And apparently firearms was the next phase...having them stashed in a variety of places.  What surprises me is that the Proud Boys etc abided by the law initially. I guess they thought Congress or Pence would cave immediately.

[jackd]

Maybe the Supreme Court will hold that they can carry anywhere except the Supreme Court.

[AnBr]

And the NRA convention, and CPAC, and the Republican convention, and...

[goldenvalley]

Ohio school districts could begin arming employees as soon as this fall under a bill signed into law Monday by GOP Gov. Mike DeWine.

The law, as enacted, requires up to 24 hours of training before an employee can go armed, and up to eight hours of annual training. The training programs must be approved by the Ohio School Safety Center, and DeWine announced he’s ordering the center to require the maximum 24 hours and the maximum eight hours.

I'm sure 24 hours is enough training for someone to learn how to handle their weapon while in the presence of a person with an AR.  

www.politico.com/news/2022/06/13/ohio-governor-armed-school-employees-00039285

[AnBr]

Jun 13, 2022 22:55:23 GMT goldenvalley said:

I'm sure 24 hours is enough training for someone to learn how to handle their weapon while in the presence of a person with an AR.  

www.politico.com/news/2022/06/13/ohio-governor-armed-school-employees-00039285

It is a skill that takes a lot of practice and constant training to keep those skills honed. What a number of cops have said is that just being on vacation for just a week or two is enough to make them lose their edge in making the right decisions in a crisis situation. Enough to make the wrong choices.

[goldenvalley]

Jun 13, 2022 23:29:23 GMT AnBr said:

Jun 13, 2022 22:55:23 GMT goldenvalley said:

I'm sure 24 hours is enough training for someone to learn how to handle their weapon while in the presence of a person with an AR.  

www.politico.com/news/2022/06/13/ohio-governor-armed-school-employees-00039285

It is a skill that takes a lot of practice and constant training to keep those skills honed. What a number of cops have said is that just being on vacation for just a week or two is enough to make them lose their edge in making the right decisions in a crisis situation. Enough to make the wrong choices.

Yeah...a teacher would get nothing like that sort of training. I'm not convinced that the run of the mill police officer gets that kind of training either. One huge problem...the element of surprise and over coming the adrenaline push that comes with it which leads to either paralysis or bad decisions on the part of both teachers and cops.

[AnBr]

To be fair, those cops were probably more like SWAT team members, not day to day patrolmen.

[AnBr]

11 Cops Including Arredondo Were Inside Uvalde School ‘Within Three Minutes’ of Shooting

[LFC]

Jun 21, 2022 15:29:49 GMT AnBr said:

11 Cops Including Arredondo Were Inside Uvalde School ‘Within Three Minutes’ of Shooting

This is awful. The info at the original CNN link is even worse. They had assault rifles and 4 ballistic shields and were quickly inside the building but still did nothing. If only a teacher was carrying a handgun. I'm sure that would have solved everything.

[LFC]

An explanation of gun culture becoming the "tactical lifestyle."

Eric Greitens is a predator and a degenerate. We knew that and today’s ad showing him launching commando raids to murder or “hunt” RINOs (Republicans in Name Only) only cements that reputation. But his ad — of a piece with the Jan. 6th insurrection and mass shootings across the United States — is part of a much longer trajectory. While I was familiar with the different parts of the story I only really came to understand it when I read this email from TPM Reader SS ten years ago (yes, back in 2012, days after the Newtown massacre).

Read this entire email they refer to from a TPM reader from back in 2012. The writer grew up in old-school gun culture, mostly about shooting and hunting with a side of self defense. It didn't remotely resemble the boys prancing about in their little tactical outfits that we see all the time today. I have seen the shift myself in certain people I know. It really is coupled to unhinged fantasies of heroism and a child's view of simple, clear cut battles between good and evil.

The gun culture that we have today in the U.S. is not the gun culture, so to speak, that I remember from my youth. It’s too simple to say that it’s “sick;” it’s more accurately an absurd fetishization. I suppose that the American Gunfighter, in all of his avatars, is inescapably fetishistic, but (to my point) somewhere along the way – maybe in, uh, 1994? – we crossed over into Something Else: let’s call it Gonzo Fetishization. The American Gunfighter as caricature.

And that’s my point: I can’t remember seeing a semi-automatic weapon of any kind at a shooting range until the mid-1980’s. Even through the early-1990’s, I don’t remember the idea of “personal defense” being a decisive factor in gun ownership. The reverse is true today: I have college-educated friends – all of whom, interestingly, came to guns in their adult lives – for whom gun ownership is unquestionably (and irreducibly) an issue of personal defense. For whom the semi-automatic rifle or pistol – with its matte-black finish, laser site, flashlight mount, and other “tactical” accoutrements – effectively circumscribe what’s meant by the word “gun.” At least one of these friends has what some folks – e.g., my fiancee, along with most of my non-gun-owning friends – might regard as an obsessive fixation on guns; a kind of paraphilia that (in its appetite for all things tactical) seems not a little bit creepy. Not “creepy” in the sense that he’s a ticking time bomb; “creepy” in the sense of…alternate reality. Let’s call it “tactical reality.”

The “tactical” turn is what I want to flag here. It has what I take to be a very specific use-case, but it’s used – liberally – by gun owners outside of the military, outside of law enforcement, outside (if you’ll indulge me) of any conceivable reality-based community: these folks talk in terms of “tactical” weapons, “tactical” scenarios, “tactical applications,” and so on. It’s the lingua franca of gun shops, gun ranges, gun forums, and gun-oriented Youtube videos. (My god, you should see what’s out there on You Tube!) Which begs my question: in precisely which “tactical” scenarios do all of these lunatics imagine that they’re going to use their matte-black, suppressor-fitted, flashlight-ready tactical weapons? They tend to speak of the “tactical” as if it were a fait accompli; as a kind of apodeictic fact: as something that everyone – their customers, interlocutors, fellow forum members, or YouTube viewers – experiences on a regular basis, in everyday life. They tend to speak of the tactical as reality.

And I think there’s a sense in which they’ve constructured their own (batshit insane) reality.

One in which we have to live.

[LFC]

Two TPM reader replies on "tactical lifestyle." (paywalled)

Ryan Busse, former firearms industry exec, is definitely distorting his recollection of the industry 25 years ago. Once Wayne LaPierre became NRA president in 1991, and especially after Waco in 1993, the right-wing/tactical/AR-15 culture took off. The 1994 Clinton crime bill mobilized this politically. I know, I was in Congress answering a flood of constituent mail.

The “long wars” in the Middle East contributing to this culture sounds intuitively right. But it’s tricky. Far more people were mobilized and engaged in combat in World War II. My elders during the 1950s-60s – family members, virtually all my friends’ dads – were WW II vets and wanted nothing to do with dressing up in uniform and carrying a service rifle. The vets from Korea and Vietnam were similar.

What changed? The tough guy affect of the Reagan era, combined with cultural cues like the Rambo series, Red Dawn, Dirty Harry, etc., laid the foundation. The real takeoff came in the 1990s when something occurred that was absent after previous wars: a major political party, the GOP, along with affiliated groups like a radicalized NRA, mobilized the nascent sentiment into a political movement. And Newt Gingrich was in on it at every turn.

So it didn’t just “happen.” It was politically weaponized and well funded.

I am not an “everything is racism” guy. But from my perspective, “tacticool” is all about a fantasy these guys have that involves something like a Falling Down rampage where they shoot—most of the time—blacks.

As I’ve written in the past, I own some of these weapons. I have also had to get certified from time to time by instructors who are very much of this mentality. One of them, a retired sheriff, seems to think that people need arsenals because “when seconds count, the cops are minutes away.” I hear these same talking points all the time.

It’s all about being ready to kill the black guy. The Tacticool gear gives it some kind of legitimacy like you’re a cop or a soldier.

In fact, just about everything about the deranged gun movement is really just about wanting to shoot blacks at will.

[goldenvalley]

In other gun news the Texas Department of Public Safety condemned the Uvalde police response.  

“The only thing stopping a hallway of dedicated officers from entering Room 111 and 112 was the on-scene commander, who decided to place the lives of officers before the lives of children,” McCraw said. “The officers had weapons, the children had none. The officers had body armor, the children had none. The officers had training, the subject had none.”

OK so the chief was incompetent, fearful, immobile.  There were lots of other officers there. Really none of them decided the chief was frozen and they should move forward based on whatever training they had?  

[LFC]

Jun 21, 2022 20:44:39 GMT LFC said:

An explanation of gun culture becoming the "tactical lifestyle."

Eric Greitens is a predator and a degenerate. We knew that and today’s ad showing him launching commando raids to murder or “hunt” RINOs (Republicans in Name Only) only cements that reputation. But his ad — of a piece with the Jan. 6th insurrection and mass shootings across the United States — is part of a much longer trajectory. While I was familiar with the different parts of the story I only really came to understand it when I read this email from TPM Reader SS ten years ago (yes, back in 2012, days after the Newtown massacre).

Greitens, after releasing an ad that advocates armed attacks on Americans who aren't MAGAts, pulls the classic "it was a joke" whine. What a pathetic but dangerous piece of shit. Maybe he should crack a joke about gunning down children in a school while he's at it. That's some funny shit right there.

Greitens Insists He Was Just Having A Laugh With Violent Campaign Ad

Missouri Senate candidate Eric Greitens wants to know why everyone’s taking his ad featuring him and military dudes armed with assault rifles and flash grenades busting into a house to hunt down his political enemies so seriously. Can’t people can’t take a joke anymore??

• The ad “has a sense of humor,” and the backlash is just “tremendous amount of faux outrage from leftists and RINOs” (“Republicans In Name Only”, aka the people he was “hunting” in the ad), Greitens claimed during several radio interviews on Tuesday.

Another responsible gun owner.

[goldenvalley]

Jun 22, 2022 14:17:15 GMT LFC said:

Jun 21, 2022 20:44:39 GMT LFC said:

An explanation of gun culture becoming the "tactical lifestyle."

Greitens, after releasing an ad that advocates armed attacks on Americans who aren't MAGAts, pulls the classic "it was a joke" whine. What a pathetic but dangerous piece of shit. Maybe he should crack a joke about gunning down children in a school while he's at it. That's some funny shit right there.

Greitens Insists He Was Just Having A Laugh With Violent Campaign Ad

Missouri Senate candidate Eric Greitens wants to know why everyone’s taking his ad featuring him and military dudes armed with assault rifles and flash grenades busting into a house to hunt down his political enemies so seriously. Can’t people can’t take a joke anymore??

• The ad “has a sense of humor,” and the backlash is just “tremendous amount of faux outrage from leftists and RINOs” (“Republicans In Name Only”, aka the people he was “hunting” in the ad), Greitens claimed during several radio interviews on Tuesday.

Another responsible gun owner.

The people he's catering too don't have a sense of humor...see for example the folks that stormed the Capitol on 1/6.

[andydp]

Jun 22, 2022 17:51:59 GMT goldenvalley said:

Jun 22, 2022 14:17:15 GMT LFC said:

Greitens, after releasing an ad that advocates armed attacks on Americans who aren't MAGAts, pulls the classic "it was a joke" whine. What a pathetic but dangerous piece of shit. Maybe he should crack a joke about gunning down children in a school while he's at it. That's some funny shit right there.

Another responsible gun owner.

The people he's catering too don't have a sense of humor...see for example the folks that stormed the Capitol on 1/6.

Seems the joke's on him now...

Navy: Eric Greitens is no longer with the Navy Reserve or the Department of the Navy

The article has plenty of info on this "officer, gentleman, and loyal American" including how VP Pence seems to have helped him get reinstated in the Reserves.


www.kansascity.com/news/politics-government/article262743357.html

[LFC]

Jun 22, 2022 21:11:09 GMT andydp said:

Navy: Eric Greitens is no longer with the Navy Reserve or the Department of the Navy

He's a violent, semi-controlled weapon of war. He has no other suitable role in the military or government.

[pnwguy]

Jun 22, 2022 21:27:17 GMT LFC said:

Jun 22, 2022 21:11:09 GMT andydp said:

Navy: Eric Greitens is no longer with the Navy Reserve or the Department of the Navy

He's a violent, semi-controlled weapon of war. He has no other suitable role in the military or government.

Hence, the Secretary of Defense in the Trump 47 administration.  Think he'll have any qualms about shooting American protesters in the streets?

[LFC]

Oh, boy. We have the "most significant" gun control legislation in 30 years. It doesn't even include universal background checks despite the overwhelming popularity among even Republicans. Only criminals and the most rabid right-wingers (or do I repeat myself?) are against it.

Polls consistently show majority support for gun background checks

Polling expert Steven Smith at Washington University in St. Louis told us that "90% — or nearly 90% — support for background checks is a common finding in nationwide surveys." While polls show majority support among Republicans, it is lower than 90%.

As an example, Smith pointed to a 2021 survey by the Pew Research Center that found 92% of Democrats and 70% of Republicans support background checks for private gun sales. Overall support was at 81%.

When other pollsters asked Americans if they supported background checks for all sales, they found similar numbers:

• Quinnipiac in 2021 found 89% overall support, with support among 98% of Democrats and 84% of Republicans.

• Morning Consult/Politico in 2021 found 84% support overall, including 91% of Democrats and 77% of Republicans.

• ABC/Washington Post in 2019 found 89% support overall with support at 96% for Democrats and 83% for Republicans.

• Gallup found 92% overall support in 2018, including 96% of Democrats and 86% of Republicans.

The wording for such questions can vary slightly from poll to poll.

In an April 2022 poll, The Economist/YouGov asked about requiring "criminal and mental background checks" for all gun buyers — a specific phrase we didn’t see regularly in all polls. It found 72% overall either strongly or somewhat favored, while 83% of Democrats and 68% of Republicans held that view.

[LFC]

Jun 21, 2022 20:44:39 GMT LFC said:

An explanation of gun culture becoming the "tactical lifestyle."

Eric Greitens is a predator and a degenerate. We knew that and today’s ad showing him launching commando raids to murder or “hunt” RINOs (Republicans in Name Only) only cements that reputation. But his ad — of a piece with the Jan. 6th insurrection and mass shootings across the United States — is part of a much longer trajectory. While I was familiar with the different parts of the story I only really came to understand it when I read this email from TPM Reader SS ten years ago (yes, back in 2012, days after the Newtown massacre).

The ad generated a label of "mentally unstable." Sometimes the AI reviewing these things is spot on.

[LFC]

Now we have to arm fast food workers. Hooray for responsible gun ownership!

A customer was apparently so enraged by the liberal serving of mayonnaise on his Subway sandwich that he pulled out a gun an opened fire in the Atlanta fast-food shop, police and witnesses said.

Cops say the suspect whipped out a gun during the dispute and shot two employees, killing one and severely injuring another. Officials have not yet released the name of the victims nor the suspect.

[pnwguy]

Jun 27, 2022 16:56:17 GMT LFC said:

Now we have to arm fast food workers. Hooray for responsible gun ownership!

A customer was apparently so enraged by the liberal serving of mayonnaise on his Subway sandwich that he pulled out a gun an opened fire in the Atlanta fast-food shop, police and witnesses said.

Cops say the suspect whipped out a gun during the dispute and shot two employees, killing one and severely injuring another. Officials have not yet released the name of the victims nor the suspect.

Stand your ground on mayonnaise!  Just say yes to mustard.

The shooting comes just weeks after a Chinese food deliveryman in New York was allegedly shot dead by a customer who was angry he didn’t receive enough duck sauce.

Yeah, but this guy was probably smuggled in from Chy-na, so he got what he deserved.

[LFC]

Jun 27, 2022 18:41:34 GMT pnwguy said:

Stand your ground on mayonnaise!  Just say yes to mustard.

Maybe the guy just watched this scene from "The Whole Nine Yards" once too often.

And remember, guns don't kill people. People kill people ... for incorrect condiment portions.

[LFC]

Abbott and Paxton are likely trying to hide their NRA partnership after the Uvalde shooting.

A legal watchdog group has filed a lawsuit in Texas accusing the state’s governor, Greg Abbott, and its embattled attorney general, Ken Paxton, of trying to conceal records of any discussions their offices may have had with gun advocacy groups, including the National Rifle Association, in the wake of Uvalde shooting.

The suit, filed in a Texas district court on Thursday by the nonprofit American Oversight, claims that both officials responded to an open records request pursuing details of their interactions with gun lobbyists in a manner too implausible to be believed. Both the Office of the Governor and the Office of the Attorney General claim that no such records exist, that there are no interactions to speak of.

Abbott cancelled a scheduled public appearance at the NRA’s Houston convention two days after the shooting. He also recorded a statement for the NRA in his office that week, which mentioned the shooting, and was played on stage in his absence.

“It is not credible that no senior official in the Governor’s Office was communicating with external entities focused on gun advocacy during a period of time that included both a major mass shooting event and the National Rifle Association annual meeting in the state,” the complaint says.