Can We Talk About Guns?

The Daily Show July 23, 2012

I'm just sayin' that if these terrible... not un-gun related stories create like sinus pressure in your head, and you would like to get yourself some Sudafed to ease that sinus pain, that's really hard to do to get Sudafed. To get that good Sudafed, you need ID, and there's a background check, and you gotta sign shit. 'Cause Sudafed, I think we can all agree, is some dangerous shit. But, so while we also talk about societal factors and moral factors, you know, we should also talk about how more and more powerful destructive weaponry....

7/22/2012:
JON SCOTT: Too early to be talking about more gun control laws?
MARK STEYN: Absolutely!


Look, ten years after 9/11, I can't still fly with a full container of fucking shampoo! So you're telling me it's too soon to even have a conversation about it?? 
You're telling me that to discuss the epidemic of gun violence in this country, for that, there is a waiting period. Yeah, I guess you'd hate to go into a conversation about gun all hotheaded, and say something impulsively you'll never be able to take back. Look, this is the time to talk about all of it. Everything should be on the table. Anything that could possibly help mitigate these terrible events. I'm not even saying gun control would do it. I'm just saying it's gotta be part of the conversation.

Is there anything we can talk about that shows this country's problem-solving mechanism is not irrevocably damaged?

Fox News Voice-Over: Should Batman costumes be banned from movie theaters?

I stand corrected. Problem solved.

Excerpt from a Long Tweet by actor Jason Alexander of Seinfeld (more at link)

I have been reading on and off as advocates for these weapons make their excuses all day long. Guns don't kill - people do. Well if that's correct, I go with @BrooklynAvi, let them kill with tomatoes. Let them bring baseball bats, knives, even machetes --- a mob can deal with that.

There is no excuse for the propagation of these weapons. They are not guaranteed or protected by our constitution. If they were, then we could all run out and purchase a tank, a grenade launcher, a bazooka, a SCUD missile and a nuclear warhead. We could stockpile napalm and chemical weapons and bomb-making materials in our cellars under our guise of being a militia.

These weapons are military weapons. They belong in accountable hands, controlled hands and trained hands. They should not be in the hands of private citizens to be used against police, neighborhood intruders or people who don't agree with you. These are the weapons that maniacs acquire to wreak murder and mayhem on innocents. They are not the same as handguns to help homeowners protect themselves from intruders. They are not the same as hunting rifles or sporting rifles. These weapons are designed for harm and death on big scales.

SO WHY DO YOU CONTINUE TO SUPPORT THEM? WHY DO YOU NOT, AT LEAST, AGREE TO SIT WITH REASONABLE PEOPLE FROM BOTH SIDES AND ASK HARD QUESTIONS AND LOOK AT HARD STATISTICS AND POSSIBLY MAKE SOME COMPROMISES FOR THE GREATER GOOD? SO THAT MOTHERS AND FATHERS AND CHILDREN ARE NOT SLAUGHTERED QUITE SO EASILY BY THESE MONSTERS? HOW CAN IT HURT TO STOP DEFENDING THESE THINGS AND AT LEAST CONSIDER HOW WE CAN ALL WORK TO TRY TO PREVENT ANOTHER DAY LIKE YESTERDAY?

We will not prevent every tragedy. We cannot stop every maniac. But we certainly have done ourselves no good by allowing these particular weapons to be acquired freely by just about anyone.

I'll say it plainly - if someone wants these weapons, they intend to use them. And if they are willing to force others to "pry it from my cold, dead hand", then they are probably planning on using them on people.

So, sorry those of you who tell me I'm an actor, or a has-been or an idiot or a commie or a liberal and that I should shut up. You can not watch my stuff, you can unfollow and you can call me all the names you like. I may even share some of them with my global audience so everyone can get a little taste of who you are.

But this is not the time for reasonable people, on both sides of this issue, to be silent. We owe it to the people whose lives were ended and ruined yesterday to insist on a real discussion and hopefully on some real action.

Batman costumes now banned in US. Guns, ammunition still not. Because (all together now) Guns don't kill people. Batman costumes kill people
— Jerry Thackray (@everetttrue) July 22, 2012

It's time for the presidential candidates to step up & tell us what they'll do about guns in America: bit.ly/OMhDtN #Aurora
— Mike Bloomberg (@MikeBloomberg) July 20, 2012

There are more guns in U.S. than people. Speak now or forever hold a piece. Sign Gun Control petition BradyCampaign.org Pls RT #Aurora
— Kenneth Cole (@KennethCole) July 23, 2012

The Aurora #theatershooting is just one of dozens of mass murders across the US in the last 30 years—see our map: bit.ly/LDEkVm #guns
— Mother Jones (@MotherJones) July 24, 2012

Reaction to #Aurora shooting? Demand for #guns up by 41% ...bit.ly/OkvKZl (via @chrismoranuk)
— Katharina Borchert (@lyssaslounge) July 24, 2012

Did you know that people on the terrorist watch list can still buy guns? - .@cenkuygur huff.to/OhD6g9
— Huffington Post Blog (@HuffPostBlog) July 24, 2012

Rush Limbaugh: ‘Blaming Guns for Murder Is Like Blaming Forks for Obesity bit.ly/NQDRfH #tcot
— Patrick Dollard (@PatDollard) July 23, 2012

"guns don't kill people, people kill people" is the dumbest phrase of all time.
— Josh Nims (@J_Nims) July 24, 2012

Americans are 50% more likely to die from a gun in their own hand than at the hand of a criminal assailant bit.ly/PKFRWP
— davidfrum (@davidfrum) July 23, 2012

Guy In Maine Takes Gun In Dark Knight Rises..Police found him with Aurora newspaper clippings and an arsenal of guns 961kiss.com/pages/freaksho…
— Big Bob (@FSBigBob) July 24, 2012

All weapons and ammunition were possessed legally. 4 guns and 6,000 rounds. The right to bear arms. Massacre made easy. #Aurora
— Sue Llewellyn (@suellewellyn) July 21, 2012

Rapper Ice-T Defends Gun Rights:'Last Form Of Defense Against Tyranny'... drudge.tw/P5rfDX
— DRUDGE REPORT (@DRUDGE_REPORT) July 23, 2012

Drudge is linking to a story abt Ice-T defending gun rights. I'm old enough to remember when the album "Cop Killer" came out
— Sam Youngman (@samyoungman) July 24, 2012

Ice-T more sensible than Bob Schieffer. via Drudge: Rapper Ice-T Defends Gun Rights: 'Last Form Of Defense Against Tyranny'...
— Ann Coulter (@AnnCoulter) July 23, 2012

@AnnCoulter Ann, thanks for bridging the gap tween Conservatives and Gangstas. Handguns unite not divide. Insane Clown Posse endorses Romney
— Soccermom Susie (@soccermom_susie) July 23, 2012

#theatershooting Holmes bought 3K rounds for his assault rifle+high-speed "drum magazine." Yes to 2nd amt, gun rights, but this is insane.
— Howard Fineman (@howardfineman) July 23, 2012

New blog posting, Brown: Gun laws are states' rights - tinyurl.com/bsk3gh2
— Political Schmooze (@PSchmooze) July 24, 2012

The NRA and the Indefensible Colorado Massacre

While the nation wrestled with the aftermath of a shooting in Colorado that left 12 people dead, a Twitter account for the National Rifle Association had this to say:
"Good morning, shooters. Happy Friday! Weekend plans?"
That tweet was posted at 9:20 a.m. ET on Friday by an account for "American Rifleman," the official NRA journal. The group, which advocates for gun owners, appeared to have been pulled down from the Internet as of about 12:30 p.m. ET Friday.
. . . "A single individual, unaware of events in Colorado, tweeted a comment that is being completely taken out of context," NRA spokesman Andrew Arulanandam said in a comment issued to CNN.
~ CNN News

One of the guns used by the shooter was an AK47 that was banned in 1994. The NRA saw to it that the ban expired in 2004.
The NRA is the best friend the killer's instinct ever had.
. . . Toys are regulated with greater care and safety concerns than guns.
. . . So why do we always acts so surprised? Violence is our alter-ego. Violence is our alter ego, wired into our Stone Age brains, so intrinsic its toxic eruptions no longer shock, except momentarily when we hear of a mass shooting like this latest in Colorado. But this, too, will pass and the nation of the short attention span quickly finds the next thing to divert us from the hard realities of America in 2012.
. . . The NRA is the enabler of death. Paranoid. Delusional. And as venomous as a scorpion. . . . The National Rifle Association has turned the 2nd Amendment of the Constitution into a cruel Hoax. A cruel and deadly hoax.
~ Bill Moyers via Raw Story




Every day in America, 34 innocent people are murdered with a gun; that’s like having a Virginia Tech massacre every day, only worse. It adds up to 12,000 people a year. Imagine losing the entire Freshman and Sophomores classes at Virginia Tech. It’s unthinkable. But it’s happening, year after year. And Washington just shrugs.
The great tragedy is that all those murders don’t have to happen. We can stop them. Not by banning guns; the Second Amendment must be respected. All it requires is for Congress to do what the NRA says it wants: enforce the laws on the books.
New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg on Daily Beast

I am sure the NRA is holding an emergency meeting to try and figure out just exactly what to do about assault rifles.

— Steve Martin (@SteveMartinToGo) July 21, 2012

Dear Right Wing NRA Pals: Obama's not coming for your guns, but thanks for letting us know y'all are the real victims here.

— John Fugelsang (@JohnFugelsang) July 21, 2012

I'm ex-#NRA. I quit after decades when they went from defending my rights to defending any gun, anywhere, anytime, anybody. #NotAfraidofNRA

— ruthannharnisch (@ruthannharnisch) July 21, 2012

"I hope that no one forgets how terrific guns are, and how they enrich our lives." – NRA executive vice president onion.com/Qbzy4i

— The Onion (@TheOnion) July 21, 2012

We've allowed the NRA to control the debate over guns. That has to end. Responsible gun owners need to end it.

— The Rude Pundit (@rudepundit) July 21, 2012

I think that this tragedy in Colorado will go down in History as the straw that broke the peoples spirits enough to throw the GOP & NRA out

— BayonneBernie (@bayonnebernie) July 21, 2012

Will #NRA have the decency to, at least, try to explain their position on massacres? I understand their position on guns, but not on tragedy

— Elizabeth West (@Limeylizzie) July 21, 2012

If you support the @NRA @NRANews you support domestic, lone-wolf terrorism and are a traitor. There are more of us than you #theatershooting

— Anti-NRA Militias (@AntiNRAMilitias) July 21, 2012

If the NRA wants the weaponry used by the CO shooter to stay legal, shouldn't they pay for the armed guards we'll need everywhere?

— Patrick Duncan (@patrickcduncan) July 21, 2012

I'm sure the NRA will argue if everyone in that theatre was armed, this would never have happened. Oy!

— Nelson Branco (@nelliebranco) July 21, 2012

Attack of the Birther Zombies

So, if you were from another planet, say, Nut-tron, and you were circling the earth in your saucer looking for a place to land, where would you touch down?
OK, besides New Hampshire.
Arizona, right?
I mean, you'd want to hook up with beings that were on your same wavelength. And judging from the continuing popularity of the "birther" movement in Arizona, you would be welcomed there with open arms … um, provided, of course, you didn't come in through Mexico.
~ from an article in The Hartford Courant by Jim Shea titled: "Arizona Birthers From Outer Space."

I really can't understand the controversy when you are doing a fraud investigation and looking into the possible forgery of government documents...
We feel that document is a forgery. We’re trying to figure out who did it. That’s good police work....
It's one deputy, so what? We have security issues, too, that I can't got into.... He's not going to make any arrests...I didn't say we're going to keep using him. We're not going to use him constantly. He's not assigned to it. For this trip I feel it's important to have a deputy there. He's just a liaison to give advice if needed. He's not doing anything. The posse's been doing the research....
We did visit the Department of Health yesterday and as predicted we were stonewalled...
~ Sheriff Joe Arpaio of Maricopa County, Arizona, explaining why he dispatched Mike Zullo, a member of his Cold Case Squad, as well as a taxpayer-funded policeman to Hawaii to confront the Hall of Records about Obama's birth certificate, quoted Here and Here and Here.




I think we have long since passed the point at which I’d find this story believable in a fictional setting, so, sure, why not have two crack detectives flashing their worthless Maricopa County badges at the Hawaii Department of Health. (I just can’t decide if they should be hard-bitten noir characters or Clouseau-esque bumblers.) But yes a completely crazy person who is in charge of law enforcement for the most populous county in Arizona is probably going to attempt to arrest Barack Obama at some point.
~ Alex Pareene on Salon.com in an article called "Arpaio Goons Sent to Hawaii for Important Birther Investigation."

If I embarrassed the state, I apologize, but that certainly wasn't my intent. I don't think there's anything embarrassing about doing everything I can to help Arizonan's have confidence that the ballot is correct and the people that are on it are entitled to be there. . . . What is so sacred or untouchable about this question that you can't even ask the question?
~ Birther Ken Bennett, Secretary of the State of Arizona, telling radio listeners that he has decided Obama could be on the November ballot after all, but explaining why he was harassing the state of Hawaii over the President's birth certificate.

I don’t know whether Barack Obama was born in the United States of America. I don’t know that. But I do know this, that in his heart, he’s not an American. He’s just not an American.
~ Mike Coffman (R-Colorado) last week

I misspoke and I apologize...I stand by my statement that I mispoke and I apologize. I mispoke and I apologize. I stand by my statement that I mispoke and I apologize. I stand by my statement that I mispoke and I apologize...
~ Mike Coffman last week, when asked by a Denver reporter if he had any other excuse for his birther opinion besides saying that he mispoke.

If I had to do it over again I think I would have said, ‘Let’s move from this birther question, the president was born in the United States, period. . . Let’s just move on and let’s focus on the issues that are going to win this election. And secondly, let’s not ascribe this to those who oppose us that they’re any less Americans than we are.’
~ Ken Coffman (R-Colorado) this week