Why Revisiting The Black Panther Revolution Resonates Today

"The only way to stop a bad guy with a gun is a good guy with a gun." - Wayne LaPierre

The Black Panthers were ahead of their time. They armed themselves against the bad guys. (The police and the FBI.) They also scared the shit out of many white people.

The problem with the thinking of people like Wayne LaPierre is one of definition. Who are the good guys, and who are the bad guys? Who gets to decide? The Black Panthers made that decision when LaPierre was about seventeen years old.

I don't claim to understand the Black Panthers, but their claim of self-defense as a reason to arm themselves seems like a strong one.

Personally, I support non-violent civil disobedience.

I wonder if Wayne LaPierre was inspired by the Panthers? Somehow I doubt it.

The National Rifle Association Hates Women And Children And Wants Them Dead

States taking action to keep guns out of abusers' hands:

More than a dozen states have strengthened laws over the past two years to keep firearms out of the hands of domestic abusers, a rare area of consensus in the nation’s highly polarized debate over guns.

Lawmakers and governors of both parties have supported bills stripping gun rights from those who have been convicted of domestic violence-related crimes or are subject to protective orders. The measures have been backed by victims’ advocates, law enforcement groups and gun control supporters who see easy access to firearms as a major contributor to domestic violence killings.

The National Rifle Association has taken a cautious approach toward such bills, opposing the farthest-reaching measures but staying neutral or negotiating compromises on others. For example, the NRA has fought provisions that would require people to surrender their guns before they have a chance to contest allegations made in a request for an emergency protective order.

“There is no evidence that simply taking away people’s guns without a fair hearing makes the victims any safer,” NRA spokeswoman Catherine Mortensen said.

The push in the states is driven by stories of women and children killed or wounded by known abusers, and by statistics showing that hostile relationships often turn deadly when guns are present.

An average of 760 Americans were killed with guns annually by spouses, ex-spouses or dating partners between 2006 and 2014, according to an Associated Press analysis of FBI and Florida data. Florida’s statistics are not included in the FBI’s report, which covers all other states and District of Columbia, but were analyzed separately by AP.

The total is an undercount because not all law enforcement agencies report such information, and it doesn’t include children and other bystanders who were killed. More than 80 percent of those killed were women.

The NRA is on the side of violent abusers of both women and children.

The NRA has a strange bigoted ideology, people with guns have more of a right to life than people who don't have guns.

Wayne LaPierre Is A Terrorist

A father and son are killed in a shootout with another father and son in a gun store in Mississippi. Everybody feel safe yet?:

Courtesy of the Sun Herald:  

A father and son were killed in a shootout with another man and his son at a gun store Saturday in Pearl River County's Henleyfield community. 

Pearl River County deputies responding to the shooting on Mississippi 43 about 3:15 p.m. found the store owner and his son dead in the store, Chief Deputy Shane Tucker said. 

The owner's wife was working at the store when two customers, a man and his son, entered to pick up a firearm that had been repaired. 

"There was some contention about a $25 fee," Tucker said.

Wayne LaPierre and the NRA fill me with terror.

Terrorism:

In its broadest sense, terrorism is any act designed to cause terror. In a narrower sense, terrorism can be understood to feature a political objective. The word terrorism is politically loaded and emotionally charged.

The NRA Is A Terrorist Organization

It is my belief that it is more likely that I will be shot and killed by a 2nd Amendment Gun Nut than by an Islamic terrorist. The thought of a nearby white American male with a concealed weapon fills me with more feelings of terror, than the thought of a nearby Muslim trying to live his/her life as an American.

Good Times with Guns:

Man who inadvertently /accidentally shot the women sitting in front of him at a screening of the new Benghazi movie says he brought a gun to the theater because he was afraid there might be a mass shooting at the theater.

I disagree with Josh Marshall. This shooting was not inadvertent and it was not an accident.

Texan accidentally exercises his 2nd Amendment right on himself during church. Dammit Jesus!:

Courtesy of the Longview News-Journal: 

Sulphur Springs police say a man accidentally shot himself in the foot Wednesday evening at a church. 

Police said at about 6:30 p.m. Wednesday, officers responded to a shooting at the Davis Street Baptist Church in Sulphur Springs. Officers discovered a person, who was not identified, had accidentally discharged his pistol and shot himself in the foot. 

The victim sustained a minor wound, and no one else was hurt.Police said the shooting happened in the church's family life center.

For some reason the fact that this happened in the "family life center" makes it seem especially ironic.

Once again the best thing that can be said about this is that at least he didn't shoot somebody else.

If I had the power I would change the 2nd Amendment and abolish the NRA. Right now!

Remind me again why God allows these things to happen?

Remind me again why anyone allows these things to happen?

Oh yes I remember. FREEDUMB.

Quote Of Note - Tim Burgess

“The NRA and its allies always oppose these common sense steps to shine light on the gun violence epidemic. They have blocked funding for basic gun safety research at the federal level for decades. But in Seattle it is different. Judge Robinson saw through the NRA’s distorted efforts to put gun industry profits ahead of public safety.” - Tim Burgess

Aiding And Abetting Terrorists

It is my belief that the NRA, along with Clarence Thomas and Antonin Scalia, are aiding and abetting terrorists.

Justices Reject Challenge to Local Assault Weapons Ban:

Acting in the aftermath of the San Bernardino mass shooting, the Supreme Court on Monday rejected an appeal from gun owners who challenged a Chicago suburb's ban on assault weapons.

Two conservative justices said they would have heard the case and struck down the ban.

Justice Clarence Thomas, joined by Justice Antonin Scalia, said the Chicago appeals court ruling "flouts two of our Second Amendment precedents." Without mentioning any mass shootings in California and elsewhere that involved semi-automatic guns, Thomas said the weapons ban "is highly suspect because it broadly prohibits common semi-automatic firearms used for lawful purposes" by roughly five million Americans.

"The overwhelming majority of citizens who own and use such rifles do so for lawful purposes, including self-defense and target shooting," Thomas wrote.

Five million Americans use semi-automatic firearms for target shooting?

Clarence Thomas was appointed by George H.W. Bush and Antonin Scalia was appointed by Ronald Reagan.

Suspected terrorist who cannot fly in the United States can legally purchase semi-automatic weapons in the United States because of an insane Republican Congress, the NRA, and good old Clarence and Antonin.

Here is a short list of what others are saying about gun violence in the United States:

Obama lays out solution for mass shootings while right-wing gun craziness continues

The Vast Injustice of Linking Gun Purchases to the No Fly List

Is More Required?

What Would Jesus Carry?

What the hell is wrong with these people?

Tis the season to be packing heat. Nevada Assemblywoman posts Christmas card online festooned with firepower:

Courtesy of TPM: 

For Nevada Assemblywoman Michele Fiore's (R) 2015 family Christmas card, which she posted on Facebook on Monday, her family was each outfitted with a gun. If it wasn't immediately obvious, Fiore is a staunch defender of Second Amendment rights. 

"It's up to Americans to protect America. We're just your ordinary American family. -With love & liberty, Michele," her message read. 

In the top left corner the card lists the guns photographed: a Beretta 92FS, Glock 30 .45ACP, Serbu Super-Shorty 12-gauge shotgun, Extar EXP-556, Walther P22 (LR), Glock 19 9mm and Glock 30 .45ACP. 

Fiore's daughters, Sheena and Savanah as well as her grandchildren Jake, Jayden, Mara and Morrigan, and her mother Lill are pictured. Jake, who a bio on Fiore's website says is at least 5 years old, is pictured holding the Walther P22.

But wait, there's more.

Arm yourselves against ‘Islamic terrorists’, Liberty U. president tells students:

(Reuters) Jerry Falwell Jr., president of Christian-based Liberty University in Lynchburg, Virginia, is encouraging students to carry concealed weapons on campus for protection, a local newspaper reported.

Falwell made his remarks at the school’s weekly convocation on Friday night, according to The News & Advance in Lynchburg. The comments came two days after a shooting in San Bernardino, California left 14 people dead and in the wake of other shooting sprees in the United States, including some on college campuses.

“It just blows my mind when I see that the president of the United States that the answer to circumstances like that is more gun control,” Falwell said, according to the newspaper. “ I’ve always thought if more good people had concealed carry permits, then we could end those Muslims before they walked in.”

How Many More Times? - 028

8 year old girl dies after gun falls to the floor while her mother braids her hair

By the way, this was officially ruled as an accident.

How Many More Times? - 027

NYPD Officer Randolph Holder dies after being shot in the head by gunman in East Harlem

Fight Or Flight

Police: Man wields brick; pastor wields gun:

A Detroit church service turned tragic Sunday when a man with a brick went after the pastor, but likely didn’t anticipate what would follow: the pastor pulled out a semiautomatic pistol and fatally shot the man, police said.

Jesus loves you. Peace be with you.

Quote Of Note - Hillary Clinton

"We have to look at the fact that we lose 90 people a day from gun violence. This has gone on too long, and it’s time the entire country stood up against the NRA." -  Hillary Clinton

Dumbass Quote Of Note - Grover Norquist

"When they start to say that people with guns are the problem, that they don’t trust people with guns, and that people with guns are somehow connected to mass murders, that’s what turns voters off." - Grover Norquist

The Wankiest Generation

Our Dystopian Future Has Arrived

How Many More Times? - 026

Shooting at Texas Southern University Kills One

Stop giving the NRA money!

How Many More Times? - 025

Officials: 1 dead, 3 wounded in university shooting in Ariz.

Fake Quote Of Note - God

"Look, I’m too busy to stop all the gun violence in America, try some new laws." - God

An Example Of A Responsible Gun Owner

Expert: Woman shouldn't have fired gun at shoplifter:

Police confirmed on Wednesday that a concealed pistol license (CPL) holder was not being threatened by a fleeing shoplifter when she decided to fire multiple shots at him in a Home Depot parking lot.

“It’s my worst nightmare as a CPL instructor,” said Doreen Hankins, owner of Detroit Arms, which holds CPL classes. “You have to know the entire situation before you pull that handgun out. And I don’t see that a shoplifter at Home Depot fills any of those criteria.”

The shooting happened in the store’s parking lot at around 2 p.m. Tuesday, when Home Depot’s store security was chasing a shoplifter who jumped into a waiting dark SUV driven by another suspect, said Lt. Jill McDonnell, an Auburn Hills police spokeswoman.

But when the SUV began to pull away, the CPL holder, a 48-year-old woman from Clarkston, suddenly began firing shots at the fleeing vehicle. The vehicle escaped, though one of the bullets may have flattened a back tire, McDonnell said. Police are still seeking to identify the suspects.

To use a concealed weapon in Michigan, a CPL holder needs to think that there is an imminent danger of death, great bodily harm or sexual assault, or think there is a similar danger to someone else, said Rick Ector, a firearms trainer who runs Legally Armed Detroit. He added that a gun is “truly a tool of last resort.”

“In that situation personally, there’s no way I would be shooting my gun,” said another instructor, Dawn Martin, with the Kalamazoo-based Viper Security Enforcement Inc.

CPL holders who misuse their guns could face a wide range of charges — among them felony firearm, reckless use of a firearm and felonious assault.

The only problem that I see is that their weren't other armed people opening fire. Someone should have shot at this woman, and then someone should have shot at that person, and then someone should have shot at that person, and then someone should have shot at that person, ad infinitum. Isn't that what Wayne LaPierre preaches?

I look forward to my next trip to Home Depot.

Stop giving the NRA money!

How Many More Times? - 024

11 year old shoots and kills brother with a "weapon he picked up off a picnic table."

Mass Shootings

The gun debate isn’t about mental health, religion or race – it’s about too damn many guns:

As a people we are bound and determined to talk about these shootings as long as we agree that the problem of easy access to guns won’t be part of the conversation. And there is a contingent of folks ready to extinguish the last spark of humanity left in their souls in order to run interference for the NRA — who, it just so happens, officially run interference for the gun makers who think Americans need more powerful weapons of war in their households.

Stop giving the NRA money!

How Many More Times? - Special Edition

Mass Shootings Grab Headlines, but Others Go Under Radar:

The numbers jump off the page: Nine dead on an Oregon college campus, 12 in a theater in Aurora, Colorado. Thirteen soldiers and civilians at Fort Hood, Texas; 32 people at Virginia Tech; 13 at a community center in Binghamton, New York. Twenty-six dead — 20 of them young children — at an elementary school in Newtown, Connecticut.

Mass killings like the one Thursday at the Umpqua Community College in Roseburg, Oregon, scraped nerves raw, commanded headlines and prompted an anguished President Barack Obama to take to the airwaves — again — to condemn gun violence.

Here's another number: 8,124. That's the total of homicides by gun in 2014, according to the FBI's Crime in the United States report. That works out to an average of 156 a week, more than 22 people shot to death every day across the country.