National Rifle Association | All Tied Up and Nowhere to Go

Think ALEC

9.13.2013 Leave a comment

Judd Legum of ThinkProgress reported that:

Police Chief Steve Bracknell, who is responsible for the Florida town where George Zimmerman resides, agreed in a series of emails that Zimmerman is a “ticking time bomb” and another “Sandy Hook” waiting to happen.

Bracknell expressed his views in response to two emails from Santiago Rodriguez, who reached Bracknell through a contact form on the police department’s website. Bracknell confirmed the emails’ authenticity to ThinkProgress and subsequently tried to distance himself from the remarks.

ALEC refers, of course, the American Legislative Exchange Council, a well-funded policy shop dedicated to promoting a reactionary politics (about which, see this) and the source (.pdf) of the “stand your ground” legislation which protected George Zimmerman after he killed Trayvon Martin.

Paranoia the destroyer

Zimmerman’s Local Police Chief Agrees He’s Another ‘Sandy Hook’ (theroot.com)
George Zimmerman ‘a Sandy Hook waiting to happen’, Florida police chief suggests (theguardian.com)
Florida police chief: George Zimmerman is ‘a Sandy Hook waiting to happen’ (rawstory.com)
Warning about Zimmerman (prairieweather.typepad.com)
Police Chief Of George Zimmerman’s Town Agrees He’s A ‘Ticking Time Bomb’ (radio.foxnews.com)
Police Chief: “Zimmerman’s Another ‘Sandy Hook’ Waiting to Happen” (readersupportednews.org)
Zimmerman is Another ‘Sandy Hook’ Waiting To Happen (alternet.org)

Filed under News Tagged with ALEC, American Legislative Exchange Council, Florida, George Zimmerman, Murder, National Rifle Association, Reactionary politics, sandy hook, Trayvon Martin

Quote of the day

12.25.2012 Leave a comment

Robert Parry wrote:

If one follows the “logic” of the National Rifle Association’s Wayne LaPierre, the United States should become an armed camp with armored-up police carrying high-powered weapons stationed at virtually every location where children might congregate and where a crazy person might show up with a semi-automatic assault rifle.

After all, why stop at protecting schools? A mentally unstable individual could just as easily walk into a shopping mall at Christmas and murder kids waiting to talk to Santa Claus or enter a theater showing a Disney film and open fire on the tiny movie-goers or stroll onto a field where children are playing soccer and empty a 100-round magazine.

f we are to really protect the children as LaPierre suggests, we should have armor-encased SWAT officers at literally every event where there are kids. It clearly wouldn’t do to just have some donut-eating cops with simple sidearms. All they would do is provide initial target practice for a gunman with his Bushmaster AR-15.

No, we would need “good guys with guns” at least equal in firepower to the “bad guys with guns.” That is, if we were to apply LaPierre’s reasoning as expressed at the NRA’s news conference on Friday, belatedly responding to the massacre of 20 schoolchildren and six teachers in Newtown, Connecticut, a week earlier.

So, rather than enact commonsense gun-control laws that could begin ratcheting down America’s crazy arms race, LaPierre recommends escalating the arms race by turning pretty much the entire country into security zones, the sort that U.S. airports have become, except at airports the passengers are not allowed to carry guns.

It might be surprising but one can locate a bit of symmetry among the various kinds of reactionary thought. Some — the neoliberals — want people to confront a police state so that prices may be free. Some — gun rights fundamentalists — want people to confront a police state so that guns may circulate freely. A pox on both kinds.

NRA CEO Refutes Bob Costas, Says Kasandra Perkins Needed A Gun To Defend Against Jovan Belcher (huffingtonpost.com)
NRA says more guns could have saved Jovan Belcher’s girlfriend (tv.msnbc.com)
NRA president suggests Jovan Belcher’s girlfriend should’ve been armed (rawstory.com)
Esquire:Gun Owners Need A New Leader (esquire.com)
NRA: Despite Living In House Full Of Guns, More Guns Could Have Saved Kasandra Perkins (wonkette.com)
NRA CEO: Belcher’s Girlfriend Could Be Alive If She Was Gun Owner (washington.cbslocal.com)
The NRA is likely to be disappointed (maddowblog.msnbc.com)
NRA Suggests a Police State (consortiumnews.com)
Armed Guards in Schools? The NRA Wants a Police State (alternet.org)
National Rifle Association: More Guns Could Have Saved Javon Belcher’s Girlfriend (thinkprogress.org)

Filed under Quote of the Day Tagged with Gun Rights Fundamentalists, National Rifle Association, Neoliberalism, Police State, Politics, Reactionary politics, Robert Parry, Second Amendment, Wayne LaPierre

Dumb luck prevents another lone gunman massacre

12.25.2012 2 Comments

The gunman, William Spengler, 62, did kill and wound a few innocents. But more victims may be discovered in the wreckage he left behind. So Spengler may yet make the Lone Gunman Massacre list for 2012.

The event began when Spengler set his home on fire, a stage on which he then attacked the first responders. The fire eventually moved from Spengler’s home to neighboring houses.

Spengler

…left behind a chilling typewritten note recovered by investigators, Gerald L. Pickering, the police chief in Webster, told reporters on Tuesday. Chief Pickering, who described the writing as rambling, read just a portion of the note: “I still have to get ready to see how much of the neighborhood I can burn down and do what I like doing best — killing people.”

Spengler had served time for manslaughter. His first victim: His grandmother, whom he killed with a hammer. His weapons this time: A Bushmaster assault rifle, a Smith and Wesson .38-caliber revolver and a Mossberg 12-gauge pump shotgun. As a felon, Spengler could not own a gun.