Guns

[LFC]

So we have 6 dead in a seemingly random shooting at families watching a July 4 parade in Chicago. How did the GOP candidate for governor respond? Pray a little and move on.

Get Over It, People

Darren Bailey, the Trump-endorsed Republican nominee for Illinois governor, put out a video about the July 4 parade shooting in Highland Park which urged people to “pray for justice to prevail,” and “then let’s move on and let’s celebrate the independence of this nation.”

• The alleged shooter was still at large at the time Bailey posted the video, something the candidate himself noted in his message immediately before saying everyone needs to get over the shooting (which left six people dead): “The shooter is still at large so let’s pray for justice to prevail, and then let’s move on and let’s celebrate the independence of this nation.”

• Bailey put out a statement (we’re not gonna call it an apology) later saying he apologized “if” he “diminished the pain being felt across our state today.”

This asshat was more blunt. The gun slaughter in America is totally acceptable to these people, as long as they get to keep their guns.

[goldenvalley]

Jul 5, 2022 14:25:26 GMT LFC said:

So we have 6 dead in a seemingly random shooting at families watching a July 4 parade in Chicago. How did the GOP candidate for governor respond? Pray a little and move on.

Get Over It, People

Darren Bailey, the Trump-endorsed Republican nominee for Illinois governor, put out a video about the July 4 parade shooting in Highland Park which urged people to “pray for justice to prevail,” and “then let’s move on and let’s celebrate the independence of this nation.”

• The alleged shooter was still at large at the time Bailey posted the video, something the candidate himself noted in his message immediately before saying everyone needs to get over the shooting (which left six people dead): “The shooter is still at large so let’s pray for justice to prevail, and then let’s move on and let’s celebrate the independence of this nation.”

• Bailey put out a statement (we’re not gonna call it an apology) later saying he apologized “if” he “diminished the pain being felt across our state today.”

This asshat was more blunt. The gun slaughter in America is totally acceptable to these people, as long as they get to keep their guns.

Pretty soon folks like Bailey will drop the prayer suggestion and just say "move on."

[LFC]

MTG has things all figured out. I guess she's not getting enough money from Big Pharma.

Police have released very little information about the person of interest in the Highland Park parade shooting, but Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) thinks she has it all figured out. The conspiracy-minded congresswoman took to Twitter to somehow blame “Big Pharma” for the tragedy. “When are we going to have an honest conversation about drug abuse, mental illness, and SSRI’s [antidepressants] And deadly side effects. Are we really going to keep pretending?” she tweeted. To be clear, no one in any position of authority has said the man in custody, Robert Crimo, is a drug user or has a mental illness diagnosis, and his uncle said he knew of no such problems.

[pnwguy]

One would think Big Pharma would want to promote More Guns to insure more gun violence, which requires more drugs for their victims.

Maybe MTG just forgot to chalk it all up to Satan and his Liberal Democrat Minions.

[pnwguy]

Jul 5, 2022 14:25:26 GMT LFC said:

So we have 6 dead in a seemingly random shooting at families watching a July 4 parade in Chicago. How did the GOP candidate for governor respond? Pray a little and move on.

This asshat was more blunt. The gun slaughter in America is totally acceptable to these people, as long as they get to keep their guns.

It might be less likely under a DeSatanist coup in 2025.  But if it's a Dumpster coup, I expect any peaceful street demonstrations to be met with roving pickups full of brownshirt militia opening fire on anyone they deem the enemy.  Rwanda is their model, only they have guns instead of machetes.  

We on this board are all cockroaches to the Proud Boys, Oath Keepers, and 3 Percenters.  And they expect that if they get charged with anything the pardons will flow.  Their SCOTUS allies will rule that federal pardons overrule state charges.  

All hail the rebirth of America into The Divine Kingdom of MAGAstan.  

[LFC]

Jul 6, 2022 14:29:57 GMT pnwguy said:

All hail the rebirth of America into The Divine Kingdom of MAGAstan.  

Of course once they succeed they will turn on each other. The Christianists will tell them how to live and they'll want to shoot anybody who causes them butthurt. Neither group is anything without an enemy to coalesce around and when they've defeated one enemy they'll always find another.

[LFC]

Another close call?

Police in Richmond, Virginia, announced Wednesday morning that they prevented a potential mass shooting planned for July 4. The department said they received a tip about the possible attack, leading them to confiscate several firearms. No further details were given but Police Chief Gerald Smith is expected to hold a press conference at 2 p.m. ET Wednesday. The thwarted attack adds to the long list of incidents that marred this year’s Independence Day, including the massacre in Highland Park, Illinois, allegedly carried out by a 21-year-old who bought a gun legally even though he previously hoarded weapons and threatened to “kill everyone.”

[pnwguy]

Jul 6, 2022 16:37:00 GMT LFC said:

Another close call?

Police in Richmond, Virginia, announced Wednesday morning that they prevented a potential mass shooting planned for July 4. The department said they received a tip about the possible attack, leading them to confiscate several firearms. No further details were given but Police Chief Gerald Smith is expected to hold a press conference at 2 p.m. ET Wednesday. The thwarted attack adds to the long list of incidents that marred this year’s Independence Day, including the massacre in Highland Park, Illinois, allegedly carried out by a 21-year-old who bought a gun legally even though he previously hoarded weapons and threatened to “kill everyone.”

Give Steve Bannon more time to whip up new Patriots to create Chaos.  Gunshot victims are the price of Freedom!  

[LFC]

I ... can't ...even, Chapter 2,541.

Rep. Debbie Lesko (R-AZ) caused a stir this week when she took the floor of the House to oppose a gun safety bill and in the process seemed to vow to shoot her own grandchildren.

“I have five grandchildren,” the congresswoman began in her Tuesday speech. “I would do anything—anything—to protect my five grandchildren. Including, as a last resort, shooting them, if I had to, to protect the lives of my grandchildren.” Growing more angry, Lesko then accused Democrats of trying to “take away my right to protect my grandchildren” and “the rights of law-abiding citizens to protect their own children.”

After Lesko’s remarks started to pick up steam on social media Wednesday, with gun rights activists including Moms Demand Action founder Shannon Watts expressing concern over her apparent priorities, the congresswoman issued a statement that did not seek to clarify her comments but rather attack her critics.

“It never ceases to amaze me the lengths gun control zealots will go!” Lesko wrote on Twitter. “They turned my speech about protecting Second Amendment rights and my right to protect my grandchildren from violent criminals into a claim I would harm my own grandchildren. Absolutely ridiculous!”

[LFC]

Here's the trail of the gun used to gun down the Hyde Park parade audience. The supplier likely doesn't grasp the direct line from the merchandise they sell to spinning up damaged, mentally unstable people like the shooter.

The high-powered rifle police believe Robert “Bobby” Crimo used to kill seven people and wound dozens more was legally purchased online and picked up from local gun dealer Red Dot Arms, the proprietor of the Illinois store confirmed to The Daily Beast.

The owner of Red Dot, who asked that his name not be used, told The Daily Beast Crimo bought the Smith & Wesson M&P 15 semi-automatic rifle from a retailer in Kentucky called budsgunshop.com, which sells the weapon for under $700 with free shipping. Police say Crimo obtained the weapon after a September 2019 incident that led to cops confiscating 16 knives, a sword, and a dagger from Crimo’s home in the Chicago suburb of Highland Park.

As The Daily Beast previously reported, state police said Crimo’s father, Robert Crimo Jr., signed his son’s application to obtain a state Firearm Owners Identification, or FOID card, in December 2019. This even though the son was said to have attempted suicide and to have threatened the family.

Budsgunshop.com could not immediately be reached for comment.

In a telephone interview on Wednesday, Red Dot’s owner said that the Lake Villa, Illinois, store was closed and that he was at home when ATF agents contacted him on Monday morning after the shooting at a July 4 parade. He said he immediately made the 10-minute drive to the store and pulled the paperwork, a Form 4473 bearing the rifle’s serial number and Crimo’s name.

“We meticulously do the paperwork,” the owner said. “That's, that's our job. That's what we do to track.”

Red Dot describes itself as “a multi-faceted business dedicated to the education of individuals on the proper use and care of firearms… Our family-owned business, headquartered in Lake Villa, Illinois, services our customers out of seven warehouses nationally, offering products from over 250 manufacturers.”

The shop sells a range of AR-15s, AK-47s, and other rifles, starting at about $300. It also carries a variety of far-right merchandise, such as stickers glorifying armed militias like the 3 Percenters and others bearing slogans including “Molon Labe,” a taunt used by the right wing that means, “Come and take it.”

[jackd]

You meant Highland Park not Hyde Park.

[goldenvalley]

Jul 7, 2022 16:15:15 GMT LFC said:

I ... can't ...even, Chapter 2,541.

Rep. Debbie Lesko (R-AZ) caused a stir this week when she took the floor of the House to oppose a gun safety bill and in the process seemed to vow to shoot her own grandchildren.

“I have five grandchildren,” the congresswoman began in her Tuesday speech. “I would do anything—anything—to protect my five grandchildren. Including, as a last resort, shooting them, if I had to, to protect the lives of my grandchildren.” Growing more angry, Lesko then accused Democrats of trying to “take away my right to protect my grandchildren” and “the rights of law-abiding citizens to protect their own children.”

After Lesko’s remarks started to pick up steam on social media Wednesday, with gun rights activists including Moms Demand Action founder Shannon Watts expressing concern over her apparent priorities, the congresswoman issued a statement that did not seek to clarify her comments but rather attack her critics.

“It never ceases to amaze me the lengths gun control zealots will go!” Lesko wrote on Twitter. “They turned my speech about protecting Second Amendment rights and my right to protect my grandchildren from violent criminals into a claim I would harm my own grandchildren. Absolutely ridiculous!”

It's fun to point that out but the woman was clearly on a rant.  People say unintentional things in such a state.  We know she didn't mean what she said. 

[LFC]

Gun nuts are trying to get a case striking down NJ's assault weapons ban in front of right-wing, partisan hack SCOTUS.

A group representing over a million New Jersey gun owners has sued New Jersey law enforcement officials in federal court to overturn the state’s ban on semiautomatic firearms and assault weapons.

The Association of New Jersey Rifle & Pistol Clubs Inc. filed the complaint Friday, a day after the U.S. Supreme Court ordered Maryland to reconsider a similar ban there in light of its ruling declaring a constitutional right to carry handguns in public.

Scott Bach, who heads the association, hopes the Maryland remand means New Jersey’s 32-year-old ban will fall too — like its “justifiable need” requirement did after the U.S. Supreme Court last month relied on the Second Amendment to overturn a concealed carry regulation in New York.

“We’ve been waiting decades for this moment,” Bach said.

New Jersey lawmakers in 1990 criminalized the possession of about 66 semiautomatic rifles and shotguns and those that have either a pistol grip, folding stock, or a magazine that holds more than six rounds, according to the complaint.

In 1996, the state Attorney General’s Office defined such guns assault weapons if they have a combination of things like a grenade launcher, flash suppressor, bayonet mount, or telescoping stock. In its complaint, the association challenged that definition too, calling assault weapons “a gross and misleading misnomer … developed by anti-gun publicists.”

Lawmakers made possession of such guns a crime of the second degree, punishable by up to 10 years in prison and $150,000 in fines, according to the complaint.

But recent Supreme Court rulings have made such firearms constitutionally protected, and New Jersey should allow them for self-defense, hunting, and sport, the association argued.

[LFC]

"Responsible gun owners." Uh, huh.

During a trial in West Virginia earlier this year, witnesses tell The Daily Beast, a state court judge whipped out his handgun, waved it in the air, and left it on the bench with the barrel pointing directly at the corporate lawyers who had irritated him.

Circuit Judge David W. Hummel Jr., who oversees cases in the tiny city of New Martinsville, repeatedly told The Daily Beast it never happened. When reached by phone in March, he initially professed shock at the allegations. On subsequent phone calls, however, his story kept changing as he claimed to recall more details about the incident.

“I did not have my 1911 at any point during that trial,” he said then, referring to a common type of semi-automatic pistol. “It was secreted in a drawer on the bench. I never showed my 1911 at the trial whatsoever—at any point during that trial.”

That judge is now under investigation by the state’s judiciary for violating the profession’s code of conduct, according to three witnesses now sharing information with law enforcement and official communications about the investigation reviewed by The Daily Beast. The judge’s own staff has since told an investigator that the judge did, in fact, display his gun openly during an attorneys-only hearing and boasted about having it in his possession, according to two of those witnesses.

Too so many gun nuts it really is all about projecting power.

[LFC]

"Responsible gun owner." Uh, huh.

In the latest addition to the pantheon of tough-guy gun-toting GOP grandstanding videos, Rep. Ronny Jackson (R-TX) spoke up in defense of gun rights on Monday in a clip of him wielding two assault rifles—one of which was aimed at his own right foot.

Social media users reacted to Jackson’s show of force with both dismay and amusement, with some pointing out the dangerous way he was holding his rifles, at least one of which appeared to be loaded. This isn’t the first time the former Navy admiral has come in for ridicule.

[LFC]

Police skew strongly Republican. Well, they voted for it and now they've got it. "Be safe out there", but good luck with that.

The gun company that made the AR-15-style rifle used to kill 49 people at an Orlando nightclub in 2016 and another four at an Indiana mall this month is now gearing up to mass-produce an even more lethal weapon of war for the civilian market.

SIG Sauer’s new MCX-SPEAR fires bullets with twice the kinetic energy of those from an AR-15. That means double the horrifying force that mangled the victims of the mass shooting in Uvalde, Texas, and left one youngster essentially decapitated.

“It’ll shoot through almost all of the bulletproof vests that are worn by law enforcement in the county right now,” said Ryan Busse, a former firearms company executive who is now a senior policy analyst with the Giffords Law Center and author of Gunfight: My Battle Against the Industry that Radicalized America.

The MCX-SPEAR is the civilian version of the U.S. Army’s NGSW-R (Next Generation Squad Weapon-Rifle), which was created with the express purpose of tearing through enemy body armor.

“This is a weapon that could defeat any body armor, any planned body armor that we know of in the future,” then-Army Chief of Staff Gen. Mark Milley told the Army Times in 2019. “This is a weapon that can go out at ranges that are unknown today.”

Milley had in mind the body armor worn by Russian and Chinese troops. The Army just shrugged when asked this week whether the same could apply to that worn by cops.

“Please, refer your question to Sig Sauer and civilian law enforcement agencies,” a spokesperson for the Army Modernization Team told The Daily Beast.

[jackd]

What's next, hand grenades?

[pnwguy]

Jul 21, 2022 20:33:50 GMT jackd said:

What's next, hand grenades?

Hand grenades were not available "arms" when the 2nd amendment was ratified.  However, cannon were.  If an AR-15 can be considered equivalent to a musket, then a howitzer can be considered equivalent to a cannon.

"I need it to protect my family from a tyrannical government..."

[jackd]

Mike Royko memorably used to desire a recoilless rifle to mount on his Ford Bronco to clear the road during Chicago snowstorms. We thought he was joking.

[LFC]

Jul 21, 2022 21:04:05 GMT pnwguy said:

Jul 21, 2022 20:33:50 GMT jackd said:

What's next, hand grenades?

Hand grenades were not available "arms" when the 2nd amendment was ratified. 

As a meme going around says neither were bullets, at least not in the sense of fully enclosed ammunition rounds. I really don't see how the SCOTUS absolutism blocks any citizen from owning anything a soldier might have access to when deployed, including fully automatic weapons and grenades.

[LFC]

California's new gun control law is modeled after tied directly on Texass's anti-abortion law. Republicans enabled by partisan hack SCOTUS have unleashed a whole new area of vigilante law. Rather ironic for a wing that was constantly whining about frivolous lawsuits.

Time To See If It Goes Both Ways

California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) signed a bill modeled after Texas’ anti-abortion law which allows private citizens to sue as a means to enforce a ban–except California’s new law is about assault weapons.

• Under California’s law, private citizens can sue for a minimum of $10,000 per weapon against:
    • Anyone who manufactures, transports or distributes assault weapons
    • Licensed dealers who sell firearms to buyers under 21

• The text of the California bill as written in February was tied directly to Texas’ abortion ban. The gun law would become “inoperative” if the Texas abortion law got struck down by the Supreme Court, according to the text.

[AnBr]

[andydp]

Jul 29, 2022 11:10:16 GMT AnBr said:

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Whenever I see something like that or "repeal" some weapons law, I think

"Come on over !! Free guns  !!"

[pnwguy]

Jul 29, 2022 11:10:16 GMT AnBr said:

View Attachment

Schadenfreude Meter pegged to the max.

[LFC]

As the NRA withers another existing pro-industry group is stepping up and they may be even worse. It's all about the green while ignoring the pools of red.

With the National Rifle Association still in its years-long decline, gun manufacturers are on the hunt for alternative standard-bearers. But according to data shared with The Daily Beast, these gun companies may have found their new favorite political weapon: themselves.

The National Shooting Sports Foundation, the gun industry’s trade association, isn’t as well known as the NRA, but it spends more money annually to influence policy, while pushing the country further to the right.

As the NRA has faltered, the NSSF has been on the rise. And while the organization markets itself as something of a kinder, gentler NRA—on a mission to “promote, protect and preserve hunting and the shooting sports”—critics say that’s just a fantasy.

Shannon Watts, founder of gun control organization Moms Demand Action, told The Daily Beast that the NSSF is a “front group” for the firearms industry and “trafficks in the same extremist, guns-everywhere agenda” as the NRA.

“They’re focused on the profitability of the gun industry above all other concerns—including the safety of the American public,” Watts said.

Ryan Busse, who recently left firearms manufacturer Kimber America to become an industry whistleblower, told The Daily Beast that an ascendant NSSF, under the influence of a radicalized consumer base, will position itself “further right than the NRA ever thought.”