Blind People Open Carrying in Iowa

This is not from The Onion. USA Today reports that Iowa will allow people who are legally blind to acquire gun public carrying permits. Jane Hudson, executive director of Disability Rights Iowa, made this rather laughable comment.

"The fact that you can't drive a car doesn't mean you can't go to a shooting range and see a target," Hudson said.

Iowa is going to give permits to people that are legally blind. The fact that these people can't see a target is a good reason not to let them carry a firearm in public. It is sad and unfortunate that these people are blind. Their unfortunate disability doesn't make allowing blind people open carrying a good idea.

You can thank the NRA for blind people carrying a gun in public. Dom Raso posted video advocating open carry for blind people. The NRA took down the video after it was mocked on the internet. The Young Turks has part of the video.

Deleted Tweet of the Day

The NRA deleted this tweet because of the accidental shooting death at the Last Stop range in White Hills, Arizona.

Instructor Charles Vacca was instructing a 9 year-old girl. Yacca was killed when the gun recoiled and fired. ABC News reports.

Sam Scarmardo, who operates the outdoor range in the desert, said Wednesday that the parents had signed waivers saying they understood the rules and were standing nearby, video-recording their daughter, when the accident happened.

Investigators released 27 seconds of the footage showing the girl from behind as she fires at a black-silhouette target. The footage, which does not show the instructor actually being shot, helped feed the furor on social media and beyond.

"I have regret we let this child shoot, and I have regret that Charlie was killed in the incident," Scarmardo said. He said he doesn't know what went wrong, pointing out that Vacca was an Army veteran of Iraq and Afghanistan.

The gun was obviously too powerful for a 9 year-old girl to fire. The NRA wants more children on the shooting range. The NRA does not seem to understand or care about the deadly power of firearms.

NRA For Kids

Via Bag News Notes: the photo is from the Houston NRA Exhibition’s “Youth Day." The NRA is making an aggressive push for children. The NRA is funded by the gun industry. Business Insider has a break down on the numbers.

Since 2005, the gun industry and its corporate allies have given between $20 million and $52.6 million to it through the NRA Ring of Freedom sponsor program. Donors include firearm companies like Midway USA, Springfield Armory Inc, Pierce Bullet Seal Target Systems, and Beretta USA Corporation. Other supporters from the gun industry include Cabala's, Sturm Rugar & Co, and Smith & Wesson.

People wonder why the NRA would risk the bad publicity of their Youth Days. The reason is their are doing their corporate donors' bidding and softening up the market for a new generation of perspective gun owners. Camel went for children with Joe Camel. Cigarette manufactures used to sell fake candy cigarettes. Get kids to think something is cool and you have the chance to get them hooked for life. If you know that then you understand the purpose of this Cricket rifle ad.

NRA Attempting to Reach Minorities

This video looks like something produced by Pajamas Media. The NRA is now trying to reach the black community with its winning anti-Obama pro-gun message. Nothing will win the black community over like bashing President Obama and advocating more guns in urban areas.

The man in the NRA video is Colion Noir. According to TPM, Noir describes himself as a "urban gun enthusiant." Where exactly does a person hunt deer in an uban environment?

Marco Rubio/NRA Petition

CREDO is running a petition urging Sen. Marco Rubio to condemn to Wayne LaPierre's ""ugly racism." I doubt Rubio will ever say a cross word towards LaPierre. In 2010, Rubio backed harsh anti-immigration policies. Rubio's State of the Union response is testiment that the Senator isn't known for his courage.

LaPierre went on a bizarre conspiracy theory rant against Hispanics.

Mr. LaPierre

Latin America drug gangs have invaded every city of significant size in the United States. Phoenix is already one of the kidnapping capitals in the world, and though the states on the U.S./Mexico border may be the first places in the nation to suffer from cartel violence, by no means are they the last.

I recently talked to someone moving back to Phoenix. He told me it is nicer than Tampa. He never once mentioned kidnapping. LaPierre never cites statistics to prove his kidnapping or drug cartel invasion theories.

Exactly why would drug cartels stage a military invasion of the United States? Cartels kill people in Mexico that intervere with their drug trade. If the cartels would be staging mass killings and kidnappings, it would be against U.S. law enforcement. Furthermore, LaPierre is citing a kidnapping myth started by Pheonix Police Sgt and pathological liar Phil Roberts.

The Phoenix New Times found Roberts lied to propel his career. Roberts told the media and lecture audiences that there were 359 kidnappings in 2007. What should have set alarms is that Roberts said every one of those kidnappings involved drug cartels. The chances of that are nearly impossible. However, Phoenix was now being labeled as America's kidnapping capital. The actual number of kidnappings was between 20 to 30 a year.

LaPierre would deny that the Phoenix kidnapping numbers were made up. THere is just one problem Sgt. Roberts admitted he inflated the number after reporters started asking questions.

In 2009, Roberts announced that the Phoenix PD task force handling kidnap and home invasion was nothing more than a "golden ticket" for detectives to build their resumes. He started downplaying the figures he'd been touting. In his voluminous memos, Roberts claimed that Phoenix kidnapping statistics were bogus and intentionally inflated by police officials to defraud the federal government of grant money.

LaPierre is citing a scam artist police detective to defend his imaginary war. This is the man Marco Rubio and other Republicans fear.

Governor Christie On NRA Ad

Gov. Chris Christie lashes out against the NRA for using President Barack Obama's children in a political ad. Christie points out that his own children have a security detail. Christie says his or President Obama's children don't have a choice about having a security detail.

The NRA is really losing their shit with their crazy talk.

Photo of the Day

You know NRA Chief Executive Officer Wayne LaPierre is losing political ground when the conservative New York Post slams him. New York Post Rupert Murdoch supports gun control laws.

George H.W. Bush Resignation Letter to NRA

This is fascinating.

In 1995, George H.W. Bush resigned his membership from the NRA. NRA (then) vice-president Wayne LaPWayne justified attacks against federal agents. This was after Ruby Ridge, Waco and the Oklahoma City bombing. It is good to remind property just how heartless LaPierre truly is.

I was outraged when, even in the wake of the Oklahoma City tragedy, Mr. Wayne LaPierre, executive vice president of N.R.A., defended his attack on federal agents as "jack-booted thugs." To attack Secret Service agents or A.T.F. people or any government law enforcement people as "wearing Nazi bucket helmets and black storm trooper uniforms" wanting to "attack law abiding citizens" is a vicious slander on good people.

Al Whicher, who served on my [ United States Secret Service ] detail when I was Vice President and President, was killed in Oklahoma City. He was no Nazi. He was a kind man, a loving parent, a man dedicated to serving his country -- and serve it well he did.

In 1993, I attended the wake for A.T.F. agent Steve Willis, another dedicated officer who did his duty. I can assure you that this honorable man, killed by weird cultists, was no Nazi.

Think about this for a moment. The current head of the NRA called federal law enforcement officers Maxis and defended their killers. Wayne LaPierre is a morally depraved man.

NRA Takes Down Facebook Page

AdWeek reports that the NRA has taken down their Facebook page.

The National Rifle Association shut down a key Twitter account last summer in the aftermath of the Aurora, Colo. theater shootings. On Saturday, one day after the unthinkable shootings at a Newtown, Conn. elementary school, the NRA took a more drastic measure by deactivating its Facebook page after celebrating getting 1.7 million fans on the social site earlier this week.

The NRA doesn't want to talk about the Newtown shooting right now because they are extremely disliked by large segments of Americans angry about gun violence. Now is the time to talk about gun violence. Not when Newtown is no longer in the news and the NRA can safely go back to bullying Republican politicians to do their bidding.

The Gunshine State

Alternet has a must-read piece on Florida's worst laws. The law that deeply disturbs me is gun owner are now allowed to carry weapons into state buildings.

Another provision of the law is truly frightening. It makes it easier for anyone to bring a concealed weapon into the state government complex in Tallahassee. No longer can police ask people to check their weapons before entering the state capitol itself. Adding insult to injury, many lawmakers spent taxpayer money to install emergency alert buttons on their phones, just in case someone starts shooting. But as one Democratic senator notes, panic buttons won’t be much good if someone charges into a government office with guns blazing. The Florida Department of Law Enforcement says violent crime has fallen statewide, but gun-related deaths increased 35 percent from 1999 to 2009. And here’s something that really worries gun opponents: In a state with 19 million residents, there are 6 million gun owners, almost a million of whom can now carry concealed weapons.

Republicans caving into the whims of the NRA is the reason we now have the Stand Your Ground law. Tampa Mayor Bob Buckhorn plans on setting up a "clean zone" at the Republican National Convention. Items such as water pistols, glass bottles and rope longer than six inches will be banned from the clean zone. The one item that won't be banned is guns. That is because the Florida legislature took away the power for towns and cities to create their own gun ordinances.

"If we'd tried to regulate guns, it wouldn't have worked," said City Attorney Jim Shimberg. "Any local ordinance that regulates guns is void"

This creates a safety nightmare for the Secret Service and law enforcement. This is what happens when the legislature places the interest of the paranoid over public safety.

Side note: I bet we aren't going to hear any Republicans talk about violent revolution or watering the tree of liberty in Tampa.

The NRA Conspiracy Files

At the Florida Conservative Political Action Conference, National Rifle Association executive vice-president Wayne LaPierre spoke about President Barack Obama fiendish conspirary to take guns away from citizens. LaPierre tells the crowd that Obama's diabolical plan is to let gun control laws lapse. Quick! Go hide your guns.

[I]n public, [President Obama will] remind us that he's put off calls from his party to renew the old Clinton [assault weapons] gun ban, he hasn't pushed for new gun control laws, and he'll even say he looked the other way when Congress passed a couple of minor pro-gun bills by huge majorities. The president will offer the Second Amendment lip service and hit the campaign trail saying he's actually been good for the Second Amendment.

But it's a big fat stinking lie, just like all the other lies that have come out of this corrupt administration. It's all part -- it's part of a massive Obama conspiracy to deceive voters and hide his true intentions to destroy the Second Amendment in our country.

Before the President was even sworn into office, they met and they hatched a conspirary of public deception to try to guarantee his re-election in 2012.

Here is a question for Mr. LaPierre. Does he have any proof of this meeting amongst Obama administration officials taking place? LaPierre speaks as if he has inside information. I challenge him to provide the time, place and the participants that took part in this meeting to destroy the Second Amendment. I know LaPierre will never answer my questions because conspiracy theorists never have to produce pesky things called facts.

Most conspirary theorists usual don't use the word conspiracy. LaPierre is so paranoid that he cannot be bothered with hiding his delusional worldview.

Never mind that Obama signed a bill allowing concealed weapons in national parks.

Never mind that the President supported the Supreme Court's decision to overturn the District of Columbia's gun ban.

Never mind the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence gave Obama an F grade. Obama's actions show how bogus LaPierre's statements are.

On a political note: Obama has taken pro-gun positions to appease the NRA. In return the NRA is saying the President wants to take guns away from people. This is another reason why Democrats should drop triangulation as a political strategy.

HB 155 to be Challenged In U.S. District Court

The ACLU has and children groups have filed an amicus brief against the docs v glocks legislation signed by Gov. Rick Scott. Doctors would not be allowed to ask patients if they have guns in their homes. The Republican reasoning for HB 155 was rather unsound.

Owning guns is a fundamental right," said Rep. Charles Van Zant, R-Palatka. "It's not to be infringed upon by your doctor."

I have never heard of a doctors forcibly taking a gun away from a patient's home. Van Zant believes it is against the Second amendment for a doctor to even ask if a patient has a gun. This is a violation of the doctor's First amendment rights. If Republican in the Florida legislature actually understood the Constitution and wanted to protect the privacy of gun owners they could write legislation saying patients were not legally bound to tell doctors if they owned a gun.

A doctor could face disciplinary action if he or she asks a patient if a gun is within a reach of a child. The question may make a patient uncomfortable. What the question doesn't do is take away guns from a Floridian. The legislation is restricting speech and does nothing to protect gun rights. Furthermore, doctors do not keep records of which patients own guns. The Florida legislature is making laws against gun record keeping that does not exist. Once again the Florida legislature passes a horrible bill.

Marion Hammer's Birthday Present

Some people get a cake for their birthday. Florida NRA lobbyist Marion Hammer gets two pro-gun bills passed.

During debate, several lawmakers paid homage to longtime Affiliated Sportsmen of Florida lobbyist Marion Hammer, seated in the House gallery and celebrating a birthday Tuesday. She described the timing as “coincidence.”

Moments later, the House voted 85-33 to OK another measure (CS/HB 45) prohibiting cities and counties from attempting to enact local gun laws tougher than state standards. State law already pre-empts such local measures, but several governments have attempted to impose restrictions, which typically lead to lawsuits.

Of course the passage of the bills was coincidence. It is not like Republican legislators are afraid of Hammer or pander to her. Except when they are afraid of her and pander to her.

There was a perfectly logical reason to pass HB 155.

“Owning guns is a fundamental right,” said Rep. Charles Van Zant, R-Palatka. “It’s not to be infringed upon by your doctor.”

Doctors are a threat to gun ownership? This is the latest nutty thing Van Zant has said. HB 155 was an unnecessary piece of legislation. Doctors only ask gun-owners about firearms if they are near children or mentally unstaple people in a household. The NRA had a paranoid fear that doctors were keeping secret records of gun-owners. Despite not having any proof to back this claim.

The other legislation makes sense in terms of having local gun laws match state laws. What I find interesting about it is it goes against Republicans "less government" philosophy. Conservative ideology usually takes a backseat to lobbyists. And the biggest lobbyist in Tallahassee is The Hammer.

Why Democrats Should Give Up On Triangulation

Democrats who pander to the Right and be overly clever by using triangulation always get get their comeuppance. Harry Reid spent years pandering to the NRA. The NRA has decided not to endorse Reid.

The vote on Elena Kagan's confirmation to the Court, along with the previous year's confirmation vote on Sonia Sotomayor, are critical for the future of the Second Amendment. After careful consideration, the NRA-PVF announced today that it will not be endorsing Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid for re-election in the 2010 U.S. Senate race in Nevada.

Reid placed an earmark for a Clark County Shooting Park. Reid was at the grand opening with NRA Executive Vice President Wayne LaPierre earlier this year. View video.

The NRA was given an exemption from the Senate bill the Disclosure and Transparency in Elections Act. Political ads sponsored 527 groups would have to disclose paying for the spot. It is hard to imagine a Democatic Congress giving the NRA an exemption without Reid as Majority Leader.

Poser

Marco Rubio is a conservative poser. Rubio appears on paper as a red blooded tea party-loving wingnut. The record reflects a man who will reinvent himself.

Rubio talks a mean Second amendment game. NRA lobbyist Marion Hammer gives Rubio a lower rating than Crist.

"He voted when the gun bill was brought to the vote, but we know that what goes on behind the scenes is an entirely different story," Hammer said. She said the NRA ratings -- a big deal in the Republican primary -- are based not just on how politicians vote, but on the totality of what they do or appear to do.

"We watch everything: false claims, lips service, what a member tells other people,'' said Hammer adding that, with Rubio "it's not pretty... we take our issue very seriously."

Speaker Rubio made no effort to bring in more revenue during the deficit. Rubio fought against the Florida Seminoles aqquiring new gaming rights. Rubio was silent on the state borrowing money to pay for the state deficit.

Rubio is a proponent of offshore drilling. The Daily News was shocked to learn Rubio was not aware the military is against the creation of more offshore rigs. The Air Force and Navy used the waters for military exercise.

Rubio said abortion violates the privacy clause in the Constitution. The Founding Fathers wrote no privacy clause. The word privacy isn't not even mentioned in the Constitution. Do a scan and check for yourself. Rubio has a law degree and seems aware what what is in the Constitution.

Rubio recently said he does not support amnesty for illegal immigrants.

“If you grant amnesty, the message that you’re sending is that if you come in this country and stay here long enough, we will let you stay. And no one will ever come through the legal process if you do that.”

The problem with Rubio's rhetoric is anti-immigration activists accuse Rubio of doing nothing during his tenure as Speaker.

"A lot of us are mad at him because he did block those bills," said David Caulkett, a founder of Floridians for Immigration Enforcement. "Rubio claims to be anti-amnesty but the question is, 'Do we trust him?'"

Rubio talks a mean game in the locker room. His onfield skills are another story.

Quote of the Day

"CHARLTON HESTON: My cold, dead hands. People called that speech “extremist,” but now the views Heston championed are looking pretty mainstream . . . ."

Glenn Reynolds

If Reynolds thinks Heston's view have become mainstream then he has been living on another planet during the past two election cycles. In Heston's defense, the actor was heavily involved in the civil rights movement. Those aren't the views Reynolds speaks of. Reynolds is implying Heston's conservative views have become more mainstream. He fails to cite any evidence to prove his point. Heston believed Al Gore was going to repeal the Second Amendent.

Especially for you Mr. Gore," "Heston told an NRA audience. "From my cold dead hands!"

Does the mainstream American public fear Al Gore antique taking muskets away? The economy, stimulus package, and health care are issues that the public is concerned with. Iraq is off the front page. Gun rights doesn't register. The Obama administration was willing to leave the public option out of the health care bill and back off their promise to end the military's "Don't Ask Don't Tell Policy." What makes Reynolds believe it is mainstream to believe Obama has the stomach to repeal the Second Amendment?

It is sad and shocking to see how detached Reynolds is from reality. RHow bad is Reynolds. In 2001, Reynolds predicted President Bush would support stem cell research. Nevermind that Bush ran as a social conservative. Reynolds blogged that Bush was "turning things around for the Republicans." Two months later the Republicans lost the midterm elections. Reynolds' problems with reality explains his love of bad science fiction novels.

Big GOP Guns

NRA lobbyist (goota love the name) Marion Hammer attempted to pass a law that would allow gun owners to bring their firearms to work. The business community beat the NRA. The Florida legislature is going through their version of GroundHog Day. The Florida House's new bill would once again allow gun owners to bring weapons to work. The Florida Chamber of Commerce is posed to fight the bill.

What's interesting is conservative ideals work better on the stump than in actual practice. Republicans are getting pressure from the gun and business lobbies that they are slaves to. Their wonderful coalition splinters when they attempt to legislate all the stupid ideas they have been promising for years. The bill will fail again, but it be fun watching the Florida GOP try to figure out which ass needs more kissing.