Thank heavens they weren’t “ready”

Out in Halfway, Oregon, a group of teachers were meeting for an in-service training. Suddenly, two masked gunmen burst into the room and began firing handguns at the teachers, administrators, and trainers.

Click through to find out how this school narrowly avoided an unintended tragedy.

Has Conan O’Brien gone to work writing talking points for Congress???

You know how all those gun shops are running out of ammo to buy? Well, two Republicans in Congress have figured out why: Obama is buying it all.

No, seriously.

Click through if you don’t believe me.

If you die of a gunshot in the United States, the person most likely to have fired that gun is you. A modest expansion of background checks was defeated in the Senate just a few days ago — though it seems like a childhood memory after the anxiety dream that was this week. Commentators pointed out that nearly all polls […]

Meanwhile Rosa Parks is turning in her grave

You might remember last year about this time Ted Nugent was on the stump, campaigning for billionaire Mitt Romney. At the time, he said “[I]f you want more of those kinds of evil, anti-American people in the Supreme Court then don’t get involved and let Obama take office again. Because I’ll tell you this right now, if Barack Obama becomes the president in November again, I will either be dead or in jail by this time next year.”

Well, it’s a year later and this misogynistic clown is still free to roam the streets and pollute our airways. This year, he’s back on the road with his band in his “Ted Nugent Black Power 2013” tour.

Click through for the audio of Nugent comparing himself to civil rights icon Rosa Parks.

Art is more powerful than violence in the long term

Earlier this month, Van Jones’ group Rebuild America announced a new project that has artists creating amazing art to fight back against gun violence and those that would stand in the way of progress on controlling the proliferation of guns, especially assault-style weapons, in America. The project, called GunShowGallery.com is worth checking out.

Images and links after the jump.

What’s next? Secession?

Since the Newtown Massacre, there have been thousands of additional gun-related deaths in this country. It stimulated a national debate with a heighted push for sensible gun regulation. In response to this debate, Michigan Republicans have introduced legislation that would make it a felony to enforce any federal laws that attempt to regulate gun ownership.

Details after the jump.

Oh, for the love of Goddess…

If you don’t believe the headline of this post, I really don’t blame you. I myself was skeptical until I clicked the link to the Arizona Daily Star article and was forced to confront the unfortunate fact that there are actually people this stupid, this unbelievably moronic roaming the earth.

But there it was, in black and white: “Ex-Tucson mayoral hopeful McClusky plans free shotguns for high-crime areas”.

All the facepalming details after the jump.

Because with only 1,565,390 students in class, what could POSSIBLY go wrong?

It’s hard to say which the most freakish element of this story is. Is it that some Michigan Republicans want to allow concealed weapons to be carried in our children’s classrooms? Or is it that a tea party PAC is offering free gun classes to get teachers trained so that they can?

Follow me after the jump for all of the right wing insanity.

The Second Amendment wasn’t intended to include gun fetishists

One of the most disingenuous claims by the gun fetishists lobby is that assault weapons are protected by the Second Amendment. This, of course, is not true. The Second Amendment was never intended to allow for the unregulated promulgation of weaponry throughout our country and our communities. That is, in fact, the reason the phrase “well regulated militia” is part of it. What is, to me, the most galling are the laughable justifications they use to defend their bizarre obsession with owning and shooting weapons that so closely resemble those used by our military men and women.

But, we are a rational society and the time when a tiny minority of people who get a thrill out of owning and shooting military-style weapons get to make all of the decisions is coming to an end. They may call themselves “hobbyists”. They may say that their desire to pretend to be a soldier is protected by the constitution. But when the rest of us watch our fellow citizens, including small children, mowed down by weapons with high-capacity magazines, we know it’s time for the adults to start putting some limits down.

One of those limits is to replace the Assault Weapons Ban that expired 2004 with a new, strengthened version. Senator Diane Feinstein has introduced such legislation. Please sign the Democracy for America petition, urging members of Congress to pass it.

More after the jump.

Oops

The National Gun Fetishist Association (NRA) wants to put armed security guards in every school in the United States because, as everyone knows, the only effective solution to gun violence is many, many more guns in our schools.

Besides, c’mon. What could possibly go wrong?

Well, in a word, THIS.

Find out what “this” is after the jump.

Good for the goose but not for the gander

On December 22nd, The Journal News in an area just outside of New York City published an interactive map of those people in that area holding handgun permits. By clicking on the dots on the map, you could identify the name and address of the people with these permits. As the newspaper said in its piece, “Map: Where are the gun permits in your neighborhood?”, the data does not include owners of rifles or shotguns which can be purchased without a permit. It also “does not mean the individual at a specific location owns a weapon, just that they are licensed to do so.”

The gun fetishists went nuts.

“It’s an invasion of privacy!” they cried.

“It violates my rights!” they whined.

“It’s puts people in danger!” they warned.

Watching them fall all over themselves to put their 2nd Amendment rights above the 1st Amendment rights of the newspaper to share public information has been very illuminating.

Much more after the jump.