Clint Didier Panders to the Gun Nuts

Clint Didier addresses some of the 1,500 gun owners and enthusiasts attending the Guns Across America rally at the Washington State Capitol in Olympia Saturday, Jan. 19, 2013. Didier told the crowd they should bury food, resources, ham radios and everything you will need to survive independently in an uncertain future. “This president is not my president,” he said. The organization held events at capitol buildings in many states to show support for the 2nd Amendment and opposition to new gun control measures. Photo by Daniel Berman/www.bermanphotos.com

Annie Get Your Gun

Ethel Merman, Annie Get Your Gun, 1946

In the Broadway musical, Annie Get Your Gun, Ethel Merman belts out

The gals with 'umbrellars'

Are always out with fellers

In the rain or the blazing sun

But a man never trifles 

With gals who carry rifles

Oh you can't get a man with a gun.

With a gun, with a gun,

No, you can't get a man with a gun.

Sarah Palin might well disagree. She's all for guns and she has her man, Todd, and she's the darling of the National Rifle Association, where she was a featured speaker at their annual "Stand and Fight" convention in Houston. Palin tried to hit all the gun nut hot buttons; President Obama, a hot button needing no elaboration, gun control, the liberal media, New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg, and those of us who "exploit" tragedies like Newtown to press our liberal agenda. Palin's brief talk was a highlight for many of the conventioneers, who pushed forward to get a good look at Palin's tee shirt, which had antlers and the words, 'Women Hunt' written across her ample breasts in bright pink.

Despite Sarah's appeal to the female shooter, the percentage of women gun owners in the population as a whole, an estimated 10%, is only about a third of that of men. Among people who admit to owning guns, 74% are men and 26% are women. The NRA is trying to change that statistic, as seminars and product displays at their 2013 convention demonstrated. The message being broadcast by the NRA is simple. If women want equality with men, buy a gun, and CRASH goes the 'glass ceiling.' Not really, but doesn't a woman feel safer carrying a gun in her handbag? You're damned right they do, at least according to the blogs cropping up promoting gun ownership among women.

It used to be that men owned guns to hunt. Then the NRA began getting out the message that they needed guns to fight the "jack booted thugs" of the ATF, and the FBI, and Obama's government tyranny, bent on denying them their Second Amendment rights. And men bought the message and they bought semi-automatic assault rifles (much higher profit margin) and 30-clip magazines.

The government tyranny pitch was a harder sell for women, so the NRA pushed the idea that women needed guns for protection from home intruders, murderers, rapists, and census takers. And they made designer handguns and holsters and concealed carry handbags, and knowing how women love to accessorize, NRA fashion consultants came up with concealed carry denim jackets, and 'tactical slacks,' and 'Women Shoot Too' tees, and holster bras, and sleepwear featuring gun motifs; all specially designed for the new Annie Oakley.

Display at the NRA 2013 Convention

The gun industry isn't contributing millions to the NRA to conduct safety classes. They expect the NRA to generate gun sales by whatever means necessary. The NRA has responded by appealing to a man's sense of independence, self-reliance, and patriotism -- all characteristics the male dominated NRA leadership believe their gun-toting male demographic exhibit, in addition to the paranoia that they encourage.

Not so with women. Women are still viewed by the NRA as 'the fairer sex,' basically little scaredy-cats, who, unless they have a CCW (concealed carry weapon) male companion, must substitute a sleek, compact Glock 26 to feel safe maneuvering their shopping cart in the Walmart parking lot (accessorize with a flashbang bra holster for concealed carry, ladies, and ask for a weapon with a pink grip to show you care about women's health).

The NRA's campaign to recruit more women to their ranks is eerily reminiscent of the tobacco industry's push to swell the ranks of the addicted by glamorizing smoking. The industry's sophisticated advertising transformed the image of the woman smoker as decadent slut to emancipated sex symbol, and convinced women that the way to slim down those waistlines was to take up smoking their 'torches of freedom.' And as the waistlines of women smokers slimmed and their ranks swelled, the tobacco industry could proudly proclaim, 'You've come a long way, baby.'

The NRA's campaign to recruit women gun owners has so far been less sophisticated than the tobacco industry's campaign, but given time, the gun industry will succeed in building its female demographic. They'll have a hard time, however, matching the tobacco industry's success in getting women killed -- there's been a 600% increase in smoking-related lung cancer deaths among women -- but give the NRA credit for trying.

Oh, by the way, ladies, more than twice as many women are shot dead by their spouse or intimate other, than by a stranger. So be sure you're armed around your gun-toting man, and do practice your quick draw from that flashbang bra.

RIP Caroline Sparks

A single bullet to the chest killed Caroline Sparks, a 2-year-old Kentucky girl shot by her 5-year-old brother, Kristian. Kristian used his “My First Rifle,” made by Crickett, a component of Keystone Arms. KSA specializes in guns made for children as young as 4-years-old. On their web site they say, "Our single shot .22 rifles sold under the Crickett and Chipmunk brands continue to be the industry leader in safety...we look forward to having you as a customer for life!"

Not you Caroline.

RIP

My Response to a Newspaper Editorial

Our local paper, The Tri-City Herald, recently published this editorial on the Safe Communities, Safe Schools Act of 2013 (S.649). I responded as follows:

I have several issues with your editorial.

First, the bill, Safe Communities, Safe Schools Act of 2013 (S.649), was not “defeated” in the Senate. It never got to a vote because of a threatened Republican filibuster that the bill’s proponents didn’t have enough votes to overcome.

Second, even if the NRA’s claim that it has 4.5 million members is true (and that’s debatable, as the Washington Post has pointed out), that’s under 1.5% of the US population, and if the 2010 elections were any gauge, the NRA’s real get-out-the-vote effectiveness may be overstated. The NRA spent $10.3 million in its unsuccessful effort to defeat President Obama. According to the Sunlight Foundation, in the 16 contested senate races that the NRA poured money into, the organization lost 13 of them. There’s no question however, that Republicans see the NRA as an essential part of their shrinking base, and are clearly willing to do anything to retain it.

Third, it’s true that the NRA is effective in “rallying the troops” to rail against lawmakers who dare to speak positively about any and all gun control measures, but all the hate-filled vitriol spewed by the fringe elements of the NRA mean little without the money the NRA and gun industry pour into congressional coffers. If the American people ever see the light and reform campaign financing, the NRA and its constituents will find themselves on the wrong end of the gun barrel.

Finally, parroting the NRA claim that expanded background checks wouldn’t have stopped the Newtown mass shooting, furthers the misconception that this oft repeated assertion by the NRA is true. In fact, it’s the logical fallacy of negative proof. The statement that expanding background checks won’t reduce gun violence in America, because there’s no proof the statement in false, takes the form X is true because there’s no proof X is false. And angels exist because there’s no proof they don’t.

Furthermore, every time there’s a mass shooting, in Aurora, CO, or Tucson, AZ, or Seattle, WA, etc., the NRA makes the same faulty assertion, and on that basis opposes any strengthening of gun control. That’s not just illogical, it’s stupid and cruel.

Bill Moyers on Gun Violence, Newtown, and Sandy Hook

Bill Moyers on Gun Violence, Newtown, and Sandy Hook

Mr. Klippert's Proposed Bill

State Representative Brad Klippert, Republican for Eastern Washington’s 8th District, has jumped on the ARM THE TEACHERS bandwagon promoted by the NRA. He plans to introduce a bill to allow teachers to carry weapons at school. What a keen idea. Teachers could then be evaluated on things like marksmanship, instead of subjective criteria, like student growth. Fast draw competitions could be useful (and fun) in weeding out teachers who show an unwillingness to shoot at life-like student popup targets.

Of course teachers would have to undergo NRA-sponsored gun training. We hope such training will include how to wrest the teacher’s gun from a student, who might see his teacher hesitate to plug him and take the opportunity to grab the gun away.

Here again, teachers have to be well informed about stand your ground laws, and know that if they feel threatened by a student, they have every right to shoot the student exhibiting the negative or problematic behavior. Drop the student exhibiting negative behavior patterns in his tracks, and you prevent that behavior from developing into something serious.

There are other advantages to gun training for teachers, besides feeling more confident in the classroom. Teachers could, for example, utilize their gun training to moonlight as armed guards at movie theaters -- mass shooting aren’t limited to schools after all. In this way, teachers could supplement their school salary (god knows it needs supplementing), and they could see movies free. Granted, they might see the same movie 2 or 3 or 14 times, but repetition equals retention, right?

The one fingernail across the blackboard in this scenario is its failure to fully consider the Second Amendment. If teachers are to be armed, it seems only fair that students be armed, as well. As the NRA is fond of reminding us, the Second Amendment reads, “the right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed.” Nowhere does it say that this right is limited to teachers.

In order to correct this oversight in Mr. Klippert’s bill, I propose to amend it to allow students, as well as teachers, to bring firearms to school. Let’s make it fair, folks! My amendment is called, “No student left unarmed!”

New York Firefighters Ambushed on Christmas Eve

From the BBC

Two US volunteer firefighters have been shot dead and two injured while responding to an emergency call in the town of Webster in New York state. Police said the four were fired upon in an "apparent trap" as they arrived on Monday morning.

The blaze broke out just before 06:00 local time (11:00 GMT) and officers had to evacuate nearby residents in an armoured car. A gunman was later found dead at the scene, the police said. The man was 62-year-old William Spengler, Webster Police Chief Gerald Pickering told media. Spengler appeared to have shot himself in the head, Mr Pickering said. He had previously served a 17-year jail sentence after being convicted of beating his 92 year-old grandmother to death with a hammer. Spengler's sister is unaccounted for and police fear she may have died in the fire, which engulfed seven houses.

The two dead firefighters were named by police as Tomasz Kaczowka and Mike Chiapperini. Mr Pickering told reporters: "It does appear it was a trap. "These people get up in the middle of the night to go put out fires; they don't expect to be shot and killed." The two injured firefighters were named as Joseph Hofsetter and Theodore Scardino. They are being treated for gunshot wounds at the Strong Memorial Hospital and are expected to recover. Another passer-by was also injured in the shooting.

Police spokesmen said the area was "an active crime scene" but that no more shooters were believed to be present. Roger Vercruysse, described as a friend of William Spengler, was quoted by the Associated Press as saying that the shooter "couldn't stand" his sister, who lived with him. Mr Vercruysse said that Mr Spengler "loved his mama to death", adding that he "went crazy" after she died in October.

Tomasz Kaczowka, one of two volunteer

firemen shot to death in Webster, New York

Two of the firefighters had arrived in a fire engine and two in their own vehicles, police said. Spengler immediately opened fire using an assault rifle, which he possessed illegally. Other weapons may have been used in the shooting. One wounded man managed to escape but the others were pinned down until the armoured car could be sent in.

Police evacuated residents and firefighters were then able to return to tackle the blaze. Chief Pickering said: "Webster is a tremendous community. We are a safe community, and to have a tragedy befall us like this is just horrendous."

New York Governor Andrew Cuomo said in a statement: "All of our thoughts and prayers go to the families and friends of those who were killed in this senseless act of violence."

New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman said: "The contributions made by the fallen and injured officers in Webster will never be forgotten. As this investigation unfolds, we stand with our partners in law enforcement to ensure that lethal weapons are out of the hands of dangerous people, so that the brave New Yorkers who risk their lives every day to protect us are not exposed to additional danger."

There were also two separate incidents of on-duty police officers being shot dead on Monday.

A policeman was killed in the city of Houston, Texas, after the driver of a car he pulled over opened fire on him.

In the midwestern state of Wisconsin, a policewoman on early morning patrol was found shot dead in the town of Wauwatosa.

The debate on gun violence in the US was rekindled earlier this month by the shootings at a school in Newtown, Connecticut, which left 20 children and six adults dead at Sandy Hook Elementary School. It was one of the worst mass shootings in American history.

Among the guns used by Spengler was a Bushmaster .223 calibre rifle with flash suppression. The same make and calibre rifle used by Adam Lanza in the murder of 20 children and 6 teachers at an elementary school in Newtown, Connecticut

on 14 December 2012.

"There's a heightened awareness to this kind of violence in light of what happened in Connecticut," said Maggie Brooks, leader of the local administration in Monroe County, the area which includes Webster. "We have first responders and we have families who are in pain and crisis today and we need to, as a community, keep them in our thoughts and prayers," Mrs Brooks said, adding that it was a "very, very difficult day".

President Barack Obama has promised to push for action on gun control while the National Rifle Association (NRA) has called for armed security in all American schools.

Ammo Anyone?

Remember the shooting massacre in Aurora, Colorado, that left 12 dead and dozens more injured? The gunman had purchased more than 6,000 rounds of ammunition on the Internet shortly before going on his killing spree. Should we be able to buy ammunition in bulk online? We can, and have it delivered right to our doorstep.

Mass Shootings in America

Mother Jones reports that this year alone there had already been six mass shootings—and  a record number of casualties, with 110 people injured and killed prior to the Sandy Hook incident.

The shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School is the 12th mass shooting at a school in the United States in the past 30 years, according to Mother Jones; it is the second deadliest shooting behind the Virginia Tech massacre in 2007 that killed 33 and injured 23.

• Cleveland Elementary School shooting in 1989, leaving 6 dead and 29 injured.
• University of Iowa shooting in 1991, leaving 6 dead and 1 injured.
• Lindhurst High School shooting in 1992, leaving 4 dead and 10 injured.
• Westside Middle School shooting in 1992, leaving 5 dead and 10 injured.
• Thurston High School shooting in 1998, leaving 4 dead and 25 injured.
• Columbine High School shooting in 1999, leaving 15 dead and 24 injured.
• Red Lake Senior High School shooting in 2005, leaving 10 dead and 5 injured.
• Amish schoolhouse shooting in 2006, leaving 6 dead and 5 injured.
• Northern Illinois University shooting in 2008, leaving 6 dead and 21 injured.
• Oikos University shooting in 2012, leaving 7 dead and 3 injured.

As a country, we have been through this too many times. Whether it's an elementary school in Newtown, or a shopping mall in Oregon, or a temple in Wisconsin, or a movie theater in Aurora, or a street corner in Chicago—these neighborhoods are our neighborhoods, and these children are our children. And we're going to have to come together and take meaningful action to prevent more tragedies like this, regardless of the politics. (Barack Obama, 12/14/2012)

Murdered by the NRA

Veronica Moser-Sullivan, 2006 - 2012

Christina Green, 2001 - 20111

America and its Guns

The Trayvon Martin shooting has once again raised the issue of gun violence in America. Martin, 17 years old, and unarmed, was shot and killed by a neighborhood watch volunteer, 28 year-old George Zimmerman, who is being portrayed by many as the victim in this tragedy; a man who “stood his ground” in the face of an unprovoked attack. Supporters of Zimmerman may imagine him facing off against the hooded black teen and snarling, “Go ahead, make my day!”

Florida’s “Stand Your Ground” legislation is being cited as the reason police did not arrest Zimmerman. The facts of the case, however, would seem to rule out the applicability of this law, as Zimmerman was following Martin, despite being told by the police, “We don’t need you to do that,” and, as 911 tapes reveal, being told to stay in his car. Why didn’t he? Because he had a gun and the bravado that comes with it.

Washington has a law covering justifiable homicide, which is the rubric under which Florida’s “stand your ground” law falls. This law considers homicide justifiable when there is imminent danger of the slain person committing a felony against the shooter. RCW 9A.16.050, in combination with 9A.52.025 on residential burglary, is sometimes termed the “castle doctrine,” as in, “Your home is your castle.”

Could an incident like the Trayvon Martin killing occur here in Washington? Of course it could. Would our local police and state attorney’s office handle the matter in the same way the Sanford, Florida, police and state’s attorney handled the matter? We can only hope not.

Justifiable homicide is a determination for the courts to make, not the police at the scene of the crime. The police should have treated the killing of Trayvon Martin by George Zimmerman as a homicide, collected evidence accordingly (including taking photos of any injuries to Zimmerman), taken Zimmerman into custody, requested an arrest warrant from the state attorney’s office, and turned the case over to the state prosecutor for disposition.

But this is not simply a case of poor practice on the part of Sanford Police and the state attorney’s office. Had George Zimmerman been black and Trayvon Martin been white, there is no doubt in my mind that Zimmerman would now be under arrest.

This is a case of racial profiling, by Mr. Zimmerman, who saw a black person wearing a hoodie and and assumed he was “up to no good,” and by the police and state’s attorney’s office, who made judgments about the case without thoroughly examining all the evidence.

But in a wider sense the Trayvon Martin shooting is an indictment of an American gun culture steeped in the mythology of the Wild West, infected with a paranoia so severe that gun proponents, principally the NRA, would rather see guns in the hands of terrorists than accede to reasonable restrictions, and tolerated by a US Congress too cowardly to confront the issue and say, “Enough is enough!”

The biggest obstacle to reasonable gun control in America is the National Rifle Association. It is opposed to virtually every form of gun control, including restrictions on owning assault weapons, background checks for gun owners, and registration of firearms (Open Secrets). The NRA claims to have some 4 million members and is, by some counts, the most effective lobby around today. Why? Because its members are generally single issue voters.

“Guns don’t kill people, people kill people.” The National Rifle Association has used this logical fallacy repeatedly in its determined defense of an excessively broad interpretation of the US Constitution’s Second Amendment. Kim Jong-un, “Supreme Leader” of North Korea, might use this same argument in defending the DPRK’s right to possess nuclear weapons, “Nucs don’t kill people, etcetera, etcetera,” but certainly we are smart enough to recognize that it begs the question of whether just any state should be allowed to possess such weapons, or if, as a matter of common sense, there should be controls imposed. By the way, Kim Jong-un is about the same age as George Zimmerman.

The NRA felt vindicated when in 2008, five members of the US Supreme Court, cited the Second Amendment in overturning the Washington D.C. ban on hand guns (D.C. v. Heller). The Court concluded that the Second Amendment establishes an individual right to keep and bear arms for self-defense and hunting. However, the Court recognized that the government can regulate gun rights. The Court said its decision should not be interpreted to question the right of government to: prohibit felons and the mentally ill from owning weapons, prohibit guns in schools or public buildings, ban certain categories of guns not commonly used for self-defense, and to establish certain other conditions on gun ownership.

Despite the Court’s stipulations in the D.C. v. Heller case (and reasserted in McDonald v. Chicago, 2010), the NRA has fought any perceived infringement on an individual’s right to bear arms with the tenacity of a mother bear defending her cubs. The NRA even refused to meet with President Obama when he suggested a dialogue on ways to better enforce and strengthen America’s existing laws in the wake of the January 8, 2011, shooting of 18 people in Tucson, AZ, that killed six people, including a 9 year-old girl, Christina Green, and a federal judge, and left Representative Gabrielle Giffords brain damaged.

Guns do kill people, people with guns kill people, and they do it a hell of a lot more effectively than they would otherwise. And private Americans own more guns than any other nation in the world. The least we could do -- the very least -- would be to make obtaining a gun as difficult as obtaining a driver’s license.

The NRA recently successfully fought a bill that would have limited gun purchases by suspected terrorists. A 2010 GAO report stated that individuals on the terrorist watchlist were involved in firearm or explosives background checks 1,228 times; 1,119 (about 91 percent) of these transactions were allowed to proceed. They've also fought controls that would require gun dealers in the south west to report sales of multiple semiautomatic rifles. such as the AK-47, weapons favored by Mexican drug dealers.

In the NRA's militant battle over the Second Amendment, common sense has all but disappeared. Middle-ground, common-sense ideas over the years have included measures like the 1994-2004 federal assault weapons ban; the closing of the so-called gun show loophole (which allows private sellers, who are not federally licensed, to sell guns without having to conduct a background check — sales that reportedly account for about 40 percent of all gun purchases); and fixing gaps in the National Instant Criminal Background Check System regarding individuals with mental illness, drug abuse and domestic violence records. The NRA has fought them all. Successfully.

Christina Green, 9/11/2001 - 1/8/2011

Guns, guns, everywhere, and not a stop to think

Here in Washington State, if you’re 21, don’t have a felony conviction yet, and no one has bothered to certify that you’re crazy, you can pretty much get a gun, even a concealed pistol license (CPL). Notice I didn’t say you had to be a citizen -- you don’t. Granted, you may have to wait a while longer to get your license to carry as an alien, but what’s another 30 days? And if you’re a known terrorist? Well, there’s still hope. A government study showed that over the last 6 years, 1,119 people on the U.S. Government’s terror watch list were still able to buy firearms or explosives from licensed U.S. dealers.

But what about that extensive background check requiring you to wait an agonizing 5 days for your weapon? Not to worry, since 2007, Congress has allocated only $20 million of the $375 million authorized in the law requiring the background check. The poor schmuck in the basement of the ATF building must be doing 10,000 background checks a day just to stay up with demand, especially after the Tucson shootings.

So the next time you’re enjoying an outing in a wildlife refuge or national park, or even in your local park, and you see someone packing (and I don’t mean backpacking), don’t get all bent out of shape -- it’s perfectly legal -- just get the hell out of the park. God only knows who the nut with the gun is.