Wayne LaPierre - Kids Need Security Blanket of Guns and Guards

It’s time to throw an immediate blanket of security around our children.
Wayne LaPierre of the NRA at the Senate Hearing on Gun Control

Senate hearing: LaPierre INSANELY calls School Shield Program an "immediate blanket of security" for our children #momsdemandaction

— 1MMoms4GunControl (@1MM4GC) January 30, 2013

Dear @nra, A friend is having a baby shower next month. What should I give her-- onesies, baby toys or an assault rifle? Thanks bunches.

— Ani Sangye (@SangyeH) January 30, 2013

Baltimore PD Chief calls NRA CEO LaPierre's comments "creepy," says "can't relate to that kind of thinking."

— Matthew Keys (@TheMatthewKeys) January 30, 2013

One only wishes [NRA Executive VIce President and CEO] Wayne LaPierre and his NRA board of directors could be drafted to some of these [school shooting] scenes, where they would be required to put on booties and rubber gloves and help clean up the blood, the brains, and the chunks of intestine still containing the poor wads of half-digested food that were some innocent bystander’s last meal.
~ From author Stephen King's ebook on Gun Violence

My problem with background checks is you’re never going to get criminals to go through universal background checks. All the law-abiding people . . . you'll create an enormous federal bureaucracy, unfunded, hitting all the little people in the country who will have to go through it, pay the fees, pay the taxes. We don’t even prosecute anybody right now that goes through the system we have. So we're going to make all those law-abiding people go through the system, and then we aren't going to prosecute any of the bad guys if they do catch one. None of it makes any sense in the real world.
~ Wayne LaPierre of the NRA

Mr. LaPierre, that's the point! Criminals won't go to purchase the guns, because there will be a background check! We'll stop them from the original purchase. You missed that point completely! And I think it's basic. (applause in the room)
~ Senator Dick Durbin, D-Illinois


Thank you for inviting me here today. This is an important conversation.
For our children. For our communities. For Democrats and Republicans.
Speaking is difficult but I need to say something important.
Violence is a big problem. Too many children are dying. Too many children.
We must do something. It will be hard but the time is now.
You must act. Be bold. Be courageous. Americans are counting on you.
Thank you.
~ Former Representative from Arizona, Gabby Giffords, opening testimony in the Senate Hearing on Gun Control

Actually...while we're having this hearing, and we certainly don't know the details, but in Phoenix, Arizona, there is another what seems to be possibly a shooting with multiple victims. And it doesn't seem like anybody's been killed, but the initial reports are 3 people injured . . . with multiple shots fired.
~ Gabby Giffords husband, Mark Kelly, at Senate Hearing on Gun Control

#NRAbackgroundcheck Are you a member of the NRA? Yes, then you pass.

— Top Conservative Cat (@TeaPartyCat) January 30, 2013

New NRA mantra? If we have laws, only law-abiding people will obey them! #guncontrol

— David Corn (@DavidCornDC) January 30, 2013

NRA logic applied to immigration reform: Why should we have borders? Criminals are going to cross them anyway.

— LOLGOP (@LOLGOP) January 30, 2013

Arizona Family Values: Santa with Guns

(Note: I usually don't editorialize on this blog, but OMG)

Are we surprised that some people in Arizona want to pose with automatic weapons? No. Is it a little sickening that these are Christmas pictures with Santa and small children? Yes. Especially in the state where Gabby Giffords was brutally shot in the head. I guess they've forgotten the movie massacre in Colorado as well. Ho ho ho.
Funny - the Tea Party likes to talk about religion and family values, and I don't remember any automatic weapons in the Biblical Christmas story. In that story, there were parents (Mary and Joseph) trying to protect a small baby (Jesus) from being killed by someone with no regard for life (King Herod). Remember that? NO guns. God told Joseph to flee with his family to Egypt rather than "standing his ground" against the government. They didn't lock and load, they just moved away to a safer place.
And Brian Kilmeade suggesting that they arm the Easter Bunny as well? This stuff really puts him in the Saturday Night Live Hall of Fame, but it isn't funny.
~ Snark Amendment





Story via CBS News

PHOENIX - An Arizona gun club is offering a chance for children and their families to pose for photos with Santa while holding pistols and military-style rifles.

One image shows Santa in a wingback chair with a snowflake background, a Christmas tree behind him and flanked by an $80,000 machine gun and a tripod-mounted rifle. Next to Santa is a man standing behind a boy, who is holding an unloaded AR-15 with an attached grenade launcher.

In another photo, Santa cradles a toddler dressed in camouflage, while a man and woman stand close by with rifles with foldable stocks. In yet another image, five beaming young ladies pose with AR-15, an AK-47 variant and other rifles as they surround old Saint Nick.

. . . "Our customers have been looking for a fun and safe way to express their holiday spirit and passion for firearms," said Kennedy, noting people have used the photos for Christmas cards and Facebook posts.

The guns used in the photos aren't loaded and have had their firing pins removed, and their chambers are regularly cleared to ensure safety, Kennedy said.

Ron Kennedy, Manager of Scottsdale Gun Club: It started three years ago . . . We decided to put together a structured Santa-Machine Gun Event.

Brian Kilmeade: What do you say to the people who think we're sending the wrong message, Santa and guns? 'Get my Christmas list filled out or else.'

Kennedy: I think whenever you talk about firearms it's always a divisive issue with some folks. It's a very black and white industry. Either you like them and support them or you don't. What we're trying to do is add a little holiday spirit into people's Second Amendment rights to be able to carry and purchase firearms.

Gretchen Carlson: It's anyone's right to do whatever they want, especially in terms of the Second Amendment. I know there is a member of Congress in Arizona, a Democratic member who is sensitive to the Gabby Giffords shooting incident and thinks maybe this is not the right image to portray. How would you respond back to that gentleman?

Kennedy: Well, I think people have an individual choice to make. If they don't want to participate in this they don't have to. It's not - it's basically something we provide as a service to our customers and members. We do go all through the safety precautions. Remove the firing pins. No fingers on the triggers. We do a completely free firearms safety class for families. So we definitely want to educate people about shooting sports and proper shooting techniques.

Brian Kilmeade: Do you think there is a chance that this could spread to Easter and have the Easter Bunny and families with guns?

Kennedy, Gun Store Manager: (No plans to do other holidays) Santa’s been supportive… He likes seeing the families enjoy the shooting sports together.

Kilmeade: Why not arm Santa?

Kennedy: Santa does not carry a firearm.

Gretchen Carlson: I think that’s a good idea, actually.

~ Fox and Friends via Raw Story

To involve machine guns and Santa in a celebration in the birth of Jesus Christ is the worst kind of heresy I can imagine. I would suggest that the people who created this read some of the New Testament.
~ Arizona House Democrat Steve Farley

What Christmas has been missing, I think, is guns. Right? The Gospel of Luke is cute, I guess, but it's kind of, you know, "not enough guns."
~ Gawker

Arizonans better watch out. They better not cry and they better not pout:
Santa Claus is coming to town –- and he’s got guns.
. . . Jingle bells ... shotgun shells?
Santa poses in front of an $80,000 Garwood minigun. In last week's photo shoot, families, including children, could choose from an arsenal -- pistols, semi-automatic AR-15s, and grenade launchers.
~ LA Times

Nothing says "Merry Christmas" like Santa Claus and an AK-47 — at least to members of one Arizona gun group.
~ NY Daily News

It has all the hallmarks of a traditional Christmas: an ornate tree piles of presents and a pair of lovingly clasped machine guns.
~ Telegraph UK

Nothing says “mythology of the peaceful savior Jesus” like an Arizona gun club hosting a Guns ‘n Santa family foto event.
~ Wonkette

Makes the ol' Red Rider BB Gun seem quaint in comparison, doesn't it?
~ comment by Mort_Sinclair on Wonkette

Not to be outdone, Texas wingnuts will hold a "pose with Santa strapped into an electric chair" event.
~ comment by GuanoFaucet on Wonkette

Now we're talking Competitive Shopping!
~ comment by DaRooster on Wonkette

Oh the weather outside is frightful,
But that gun is so delightful,
And since we're all redneck choads,
Lock and Load! Lock and Load! Lock and Load!
~ ~ comment by Fukui-sanYesOta on Wonkette