The Congressional sit-in continues

By Jack Brummet, National Affairs Ed.

[image by Minnesota artist, Only Junk]

It's exciting to see another outbreak of sanity in The Capitol in this congressional sit-in. Hats off to John Lewis, Katherine Clark (yeah, Lewis and Clark), and the caucus. Dems sitting in at 4 AM. What's next? Occupy The Capitol, a new March on Washington? One small step back to sanity?  The camel's back is hanging on by a couple of fractured vertebrae.

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Mass shootings: what are we waiting for?

By Mona Goldwater, Social Mores Ed.

Sure, we can wait for the Man Upstairs to swing into action, but he's been slow on the uptake.

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Drawing: Faces #1292 — Bystanders

By Jack Brummet

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Is Bernie Sanders soft on guns? Probably.

By Jack Brummet, 2nd Amendment Ed.

For quite a while, I've wondered why Sanders' supporters—a generally pretty left-leaning group of people—have such a blind spot for his stance on guns.  And a couple of other issues, like immigration.  It seems at odds with what I perceive of as his supporters' core values.  I guess not, eh?

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Gun control, the 2nd amendment, and the midnight knock at the door

By Mona Goldwater, Social Mores Ed.

These are all modest proposals, none of which involve banning guns or repealing the second amendment.

• Require a ballistics test be filed for all guns, public and private.

• Muskets and  Blunderbusses.  When the founding fathers wrote the constitution and amendments, they only knew of single loading arms like the musket and blunderbuss.  We know that Justices Scalia, Thomas, and others are fairly strict constitutionalists, who believe in interpreting the constitution according to the framer's intentions.  When the congress passed the second amendment, they could not even conceive of automatic weapons or multi-cartridge, quick change, ammunition clips.  Therefore we believe the amendment should be interpreted as applying to single shot, weapons, or to compromise, limit magazines to six or seven rounds, with no removable/quick load clips.

• The Barney Fife solution. Everyone gets one bullet, which must be carried apart from their weapon.

• Ammo Tax: $500 a bullet.  I think Chris Rock came up with a solution like this one.  Or maybe require that the casings of ammunition be made from gold. 

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Carl Fredrik Reuterswärd's "The Knotted Gun"

by Mona Goldwater, 2nd Amendment Editor

In 1980 Swedish artist Carl Fredrik Reuterswärd created a sculpture usually called “Non violence” or “The knotted gun”:

When the artist learned that his friend, John Lennon, had been murdered, he became so upset and angry over this senseless death and the many other outbursts of unnecessary violence that he went to his studio and started working on the “non-violence” project. “My first sketches in three dimensions were rather rough and simple, but the important thing was that the idea of the knotted barrel was with me from the very start,” he said.

Reuterswärd created many variations of the piece, the most famous being the one installed in 1985 in Malmo/Sweden. It is a bronze version of a .45-calibre revolver, in which the barrel is tied into a knot. The gun is cocked, but the knot bottles up any execution. 

Replicas of the sculpture have been installed in many countries since then, including one in Manhattan, on the grounds of the United Nations.

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Mr. President: repeal the second amendment

click to enlarge

By Pablo Fanque

All This Is That National Affairs Editor

After seeing the assassinations of four local police officers in a coffee shop, preceded by another cop-killing on Capitol Hill, on top of all the other recent shootings, snipings, assassinations, and cold-blooded murders, you really have to wonder how we haven't reached the absolute saturation point.

It's a recurring nightmare, or an awful slasher movie with a dozen sequels. The National Rifle Association is like a twisted Energizer Bunny. Every time we see an office shot up, or episodes like the recent murders of four northwest cops, or just the mundane, run-of-the-mill "father kills family, self" headline, the NRA releases a new statement about how the tragedy might have been avoided had one of our good citizens been nearby, and packing.

Despite Columbine, Fort Hood, the recent assassinations of five Seattle police officers [ed's note: the number went up to six (and almost seven) recently], and dozens of other tragic cases of carnage in America, the NRA continues to herald its resurgence. The NRA's membership rolls have swelled as people fear President Obama will send in jackbooted thugs to confiscate your guns.

Mr. President, you have not been afraid to tackle the other fractious and thorny issues. We urge that you propose the repeal of the second amendment. Sure, you'll lose some votes from the gun nuts and NRA, but, then, none of them ever voted for you in the first place.

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Oh Sister! Photograph: Nuns with guns

click the sisters to enlarge

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Concealed firearms okayed in national parks!

According to the Associated Press today, people will now be able to carry concealed firearms in national parks and wildlife refuges. "An Interior Department rule issued Friday allows an individual to carry a loaded weapon in a park or wildlife refuge..."

Now, when those guys drinking Old Crow and Seven-Up in the next campsite play Insane Clown Posse at maximum volume, you probably won't be quite so sanguine about moseying over and asked them to turn it down.

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Minifig's Lego artwork of the Dick Cheney Hunting "accident"

click to enlarge - Thanks to Minifig for permission to use this.

This is an old piece, but it still works. Minifig from the U.K. created a lego dramatization of Dick Cheney's hunting accident (around the time of the "incident").

Some earlier posts on All This Is That about Dick Cheney's misfire:

Follow-up: Victim of VP's attemped assassination suffers coronary

Cover-up: Cheney shooting "was no accident"

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Are the Supremes about to rule on the constitutionality of gun ownership?

click to enlarge collage (copyright 2006 All This Is That)

The Supremes could decide the constitutionality of gun ownership, and we may know as early as tomorrow whether or not they decide to take the case. To those of us on the anti- side, it seems obvious.

You may remember during his confirmation hearing, that Chief Justice John Roberts said the Miller decision (dating back to the 1939) "side-stepped the issue" and left "very open" the issue whether the second amendment protects an individual right, or a more collective right.

Both anti gun and pro-gun forces (or, peace freaks and gun nuts) have urged The Supremes to take on this case (questioning the constitutionality of the the District of Columbia's strict gun-control law). If the justices agree to hear the case, the Roberts court will find itself square in the sights of a culture war that makes the abortion issue look like a sandbox altercation (because the pro-gun forces are well-armed, and a little bit kooky).

click to enlarge Chief Justice Roberts

Does the Second Amendment to the Constitution protects an individual's right to "keep and bear arms?" If the answer is yes, as a federal appeals court held last March, the Supremes must decide how this impacts a statute that bars possession of handguns and requires all guns in the home to be disassembled or protected by trigger locks.

It has been almost 70 years since the court even danced around the gun control issue. In 1939, the United States v. Miller, held that a sawed-off shotgun was not one of the "arms" to which the Second Amendment referred in its "A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed."

The District of Columbia is not a normal city (its gun law was passed in that heady first year of home-rule) and the law has pissed off "right to bear arms" types since it was passed in 1973. Even the allegedly apolitical Supremes must be wary of taking on this issue in an election year. November 4, 2008 looms large.

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Woman blows away panhandler who asked her for a quarter - more ammo for repealing the 2nd amendment

Geraldine Beasley has been charged with murder after blowing away a homeless man who asked her for a quarter. Donald Francis, who police think was homeless, stood outside the Marathon station at Eighth and Linn streets in Cincinnati Monday night, panhandling.

Chief Tom Streicher said "he asked her for a quarter," and that annoyed Geraldine Beasley so much, she shot and killed Francis.

Beasley, 62, of Walnut Hills, complained to someone else at the scene about the panhandling, Streicher said. Then, according to Chief Streicher, when Francis asked Beasley for money, she pulled out a gun and fired. "That's apparently all there was to it," the chief said.

click to enlarge

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Seung-Hui Cho took time to make a video DVD and Express Mail it in between killings

Among the materials released this afternoon were the contents of a DVD with 27 QuickTime video files, totaling about 10 minutes, showing Cho talking directly to the camera. mentions "hedonism" and Christianity, and talks at length about his hatred of the rich.

I just heard about a minute of the Cho audio on KIRO 710 AM. This guy is even more twisted than you might think. Some links:

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/18169776

http://www.breitbart.com/article.php?id=D8OJ9LS00&show_article=1

Va. Tech Killer Ruled Mentally Ill by Court; Let Go After Hospital Visit

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33 less Americans: The Virginia Tech massacre

This has been as depressing as any day could be. I don't even feel depressed actually; I'm in the throes of an overwhelming sense of sadness over this reminder of the dark underbelly we sometimes forget about. People say that episodes—no, tragedies—like this is the cost of freedom.

[click any image to enlarge]














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32 killed by shooter on Virginia Tech campus (+ editorial comment)

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Jim Webb's aide arrested for packing the Senator's heater

According to the Associated Press, an aide to Sen. Jim Webb was arrested yesterday when he entered the Russel Senate Office Building with a loaded pistol belonging to the senator.

The aide—Phillip Thompson, an old friend and employee of Webb—was caught by an X-ray as he attempted to enter the Senate building. "A congressional official briefed on the incident said Webb gave the gun to Thompson when the assistant drove him to an airport earlier in the day. Thompson, upon entering the Senate building, forgot he was carrying the weapon. "

Editorial comment: We agree that Thompson probably forgot he was packing heat. Only the developmentally challenged would believe they could slip through the X-ray machines. Take my word for it: I can't even sneak my stainless steel hip through the scanners.

Are you as shocked as I am to know that Senator Webb, an anti-war candidate, routinely walks around with a fully-loaded pistol? And two more loaded clips? He's not only loaded for bear, he's ready for a herd of bears (technically, a sleuth of bears).

I understand why a high profile Senator might be skittish about security. I even understand why he expects trouble. But a fully loaded gun, and two more clips? This guy is not just looking to defend himself; he's looking for a firefight. He's expecting serious trouble, and needing to reload two times? I don't know, but if it ever comes to that at my job, I think I'll find another line of work.

What about the Washington gun control laws? Washington, D.C., law says it is illegal for anyone to own a handgun unless he or she is a police officer or has owned a gun registered prior to 1976. And even those allowed to possess a gun must keep it unloaded. I guess Webb may have been a gun owner for thirty years, but I don't really believe that. Why is he allowed to flout the law in The District?
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