Gun nuts lose argument over assault weapons ban, threaten civil war - VIDEO
Posted on Friday, January 11, 2013 at 08:00 AM
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| James Yeager |
Take James Yeager, the CEO of a Tennessee-based gun company. Yeager took to the internet yesterday to announce he will start killing people if President Obama tries to limit arms ownership:
'I'm not f---ing putting up with this. I am not letting my country be ruled by a dictator. I'm not letting anybody take my guns. If it goes one inch further, I'm gonna start killing people.'
Looking unhinged and threatening gun violence clearly isn't the best way to advocate against restrictions on lethal assault weapons, so I'm thankful to Yeager for making his opponent’s case.
With new restrictions on the horizon, it's been interesting to watch the increasingly paranoid response from the NRA and its fellow travelers. Yesterday the once staid but not now increasingly outlier Drudge Report compared the president to Hitler and Stalin, positioning him alongside fellow tyrants who had sought to disarm their opponents.
Read more: VP Joe Biden suddenly looks like the smartest politician in America
Problem is, this is not true - Hitler did not ban guns - and Neither did Mussolini, Castro, Stalin or Pol Pot, for that matter. But Drudge and his fellow wingnuts want us to realize that they’ll explode if they have to live in a nation where guns are not as easily accessible as Twinkies.
And because of that we have to listen to the paranoid rantings of people like Alex Jones, as he compares Vice President Joe Biden to Reich Minister Joseph Goebbels. Then we nod as if that meant something. It means nothing, except this: the more belligerent the rhetoric the more certain you can be that they've lost the argument.
I have two words to say to Yeager and Jones and the NRA - Sandy Hook. Sandy Hook changed everything.
634 people have been killed in America since Sandy Hook. You're as insane as you look if you don't understand it's time for comprehensive change.
Yesterday Biden had his speech on gun reform interrupted by the news of another fatal shooting in an American school. That's the hard reality behind all the windy right wing rhetoric. So neither Obama or Biden needs to worry that the public aren't behind them - we are, and more than ever before.
It's common sense to support background checks on every gun sale. It's common sense to curtail the growing public risk posed by high-capacity assault rifles (an idea once backed by Ronald Reagan) that have been used, by the way, in massacre after massacre here since the ban was lifted.
Massacre prevention should really be our first priority.
From Ohio to Texas you can still walk into WalMart and buy a stroller or some school clothes, or you can buy an AR-15, an assault rifle specially manufactured to kill a lot of people in an instant. It's time we stopped making it easy for mass murderers to carry out their massacres. Sensible reform is what's needed. We should look to the president to get it done.
Read more: The NRA will not allow Joe Biden to blame law-abiding gun owners for actions of madmen
See more: Irish in US Politics , Right-wing Irish
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seanomelb | Jan 14, 2013, 12:28 AM EST
Interesting piece of logic Eiriamach Fair and balanced as Bully O'Reilly would say.
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eiriamach | Jan 13, 2013, 04:58 PM EST
That's right, seano. Very briefly, I had the idea that all could be simplified if there were a one-question test for qualifying to buy a high-tech weapon: "Why do you want this weapon?" If the gun buyer says, "I need it to hunt deer," he fails on poor sportsmanship. If he says, "I need it to resist the government officers who are coming to take my guns away," he fails for having paranoid delusions. But what if he says, "I want this weapon because the US Supreme Court says that under the 2nd amendment, I have a right to it"?? Then I realized that, as you say, there is no quick and easy route to ending the gun madness.
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seanomelb | Jan 12, 2013, 06:01 PM EST
eiriamach one has to take baby steps with the gun totin lot.Moving to fast will unhinge them and they may act out their fantasies and shoot us all.LIstening to Alex Jone and Yeager convinces me that the sooner psyche tests are instituted the sooner Jones and Yeager will have their gun lisences cancelled as they are off the planet.
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RedBranch | Jan 12, 2013, 03:07 PM EST
'634 people have been killed in America since Sandy Hook'. How many have been saved because people were armed and able to defend themselves? Just asking.
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eiriamach | Jan 12, 2013, 02:37 PM EST
It's interesting that people who seemed normal are coming unhinged. The other IC article on gun madness ("The NRA will not allow Joe Biden to blame law abiding gun owners....") takes the same approach as some posters here: "The Associated Press quoted the NRA as saying they 'will not allow law-abiding gun owners to be blamed for the acts of criminals and madmen.'” But most of the mass killers had no criminal records and never displayed symptoms of mental illness before they went on their shooting rampages. One was a even mental health professional: the army psychiatrist at Fort Hood, 2009. They turn into killers after they have access to assault weapons or automatics and lots of ammunition. The American gun culture is the basic problem. Gun control laws will not end that problem directly, but they are a necessary first step to changing the culture by legally designating guns dangerous to public safety and in need of strict controls, registration and tracing.
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hollabackgurl | Jan 12, 2013, 01:00 PM EST
The CT shooters mother took him to gun ranges, introducing him to the lifestyle. She kept high powered assault rifles in the home with her mentally ill son. She couldn't see the potential harm in that. He claimed she loved those Sandy Hook kids more than she love him, so he punished her, them and the American social fabric. Having access to the guns was all he needed. Lots of kids hate their mothers, but easy access to assault weapons can make the outcome more alarming.
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McNamara31 | Jan 12, 2013, 12:13 PM EST
Domer80 The fallacy in your reasoning about guns and the mentally ill is that usually the first crime committed or action taken that would "define a person as mentally ill" is usually their first with gun in hand and the dead on the ground.Too late for the victims!
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Smyrnian | Jan 12, 2013, 09:02 AM EST
Canadian - Educate yourself please. It is illegal to own an automatic weapon in the US.
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Canadian | Jan 12, 2013, 08:37 AM EST
A real simple solution: Ban ALL external magazines. You can still keep the full autos and semi autos but now they are single shot. Basically, the citzenry's rights to keep and bear arms has not been infringed. OK bring on the flames.
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seanomelb | Jan 12, 2013, 01:01 AM EST
I have military traing you gun crazies living with a siege mentality are a danger to civil society.
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olovely | Jan 12, 2013, 12:19 AM EST
TimothyC, there's so much ignorance of Irish history and society in your comments that it beggars belief. The Irish just spent the last forty years disarming the gunmen, you halfwit.
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Smyrnian | Jan 11, 2013, 09:26 PM EST
Holla - do you know what an assault rifle is?
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TimothyC | Jan 11, 2013, 08:58 PM EST
I love the self righteous rants here about guns in America.....like we should take advice from a nation that has never known freedom....how's that song go...."Only our rivers run free.."..
A country where the patriots had to fight against well equipped army troops with hunting shotguns and pitchforks. If any people should understand the importance of an armed citizenry, it is the Irish...
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hollabackgurl | Jan 11, 2013, 08:03 PM EST
'Gun nuts' precisely describe the people mentioned in this article. And no one minds sane people owning guns, we do however take issue over why they need assault weapons - and we do think mandatory background checks and mental health evaluation should be part of the process.
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