Because Freedom

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I was late learning about the shooting today. Right now all I want is for Wayne LaPierre to go to Newtown, Connecticut, and explain that 20 little children had to be sacrificed so that unglued whackjobs can have unfettered access to guns. Because freedom.

17 thoughts on “Because Freedom”

  2. First time commenter here.

    While I have no idea who Wayne LaPierre, America’s gun fetish is definitely out of control. Although perhaps an argument can be made maybe for the right to own a hunting rifle or shotgun (not that I have either), the “freedom” to have an AK-47 with a clip capable of holding 20 rounds alludes me. No doubt very convenient for schoolyard massacres or mowing down a herd of deer, but I can’t think of any situation I’ve ever been in where I cherished that kind of “freedom.”

    If it hasn’t happened already, I expect some of the wingnuts to start arguing that this massacre wouldn’t have happened if those school kids had been packing heat.

    I did see a link this morning from Rawstory where radio talk show host Brian Fischer blamed the shooting on the lack of public school prayer:

    We’ve kicked God out of our public school system, and I think God would say to us, ‘Hey I’ll be glad to protect your children, but you’ve gotta invite me back into your world first. I’m not gonna go where I’m not wanted. I am a gentleman.

    Mike Huckabee is also to have chimed in that, indeed, it’s the ban on school prayer that causes these massacres.

    So there you have it – the best way to keep your kids safe is to pack a Glock pistol and a Bible inside their lunch boxes. I’m sure that this will prove to be just as successful as abstinence-only sex education.

  3. I think it’s Presidential Commission time again. It’s like we’re experiencing 9/11 in slow motion, with guns and mental illness instead of airliners and jihad.

    In any case, we can’t let this keep happening. We just can’t.

  6. I had a similar fantasy about LaPierre just after the Aurora shootings, and this time I want him to be placed in a room with all the parents and whimper about how Obama is taking away his freedom. As well as looking the parents in the eye one by one and saying that however regrettable their loss may be, this is the price we all must pay for freedom.

    But will Team Obama move a muscle on gun control? I think it will be the same old routine this time as last. You can almost calculate what will be said at the candlelight prayer vigils, and how many special psychologists will be called in for counseling, and how the main difference this time (which you can also calculate if you have the right data model) will be a slightly increased number of teddy bears (due to the tender ages of the victims) at the makeshift memorial around the fence of the school, which will remain closed for an amount of time yet to be determined, then all will go back to normal.

    HAVE WE HAD ENOUGH?? If so, let us show it! I see no evidence yet that collectively we have had enough. No one wants to “politicize” the massacre until it has become old news, at which time there will be no sense of urgency.

    May I be proven wrong by coming events. May we finish by upholding our original Second Amendment rights to keep and bear single-shot flintlock muskets when we muster on the town square.

  9. Perehaps if Mr.Lapierre and Ted Nugent had a tour of the undisturbed crime scene they could have a different perspective.
    Something life has taught me is that you can’t know terror or complete revulsion until you have been deep in a situation.
    It’s part of the reason we still tolerate war and hate and allow crazies to carry weapons.
    I rail against Israel frequently, but they DO have a sane gun policy, perhaps our “leaders” should examine it and adopt a similar one.

  11. “Can we start talking about gun control now?”
    NRA: “No. It’s too soon.’

    The funerals are held for the children and adults, and are now over.

    “Now can we start talking about gun control?”
    NRA: ‘No. It’s old news.’

    America’s 2nd Amendment, guaranteeing FREEDOM!!!

    And apparently, the freedom for others to own a gun, sane or crazy, outweigh’s my, and other’s, freedom no not be killed or wounded in a Kindergarten, Elementary School, JHS, HS, College, movie theater, mall, at my job, driving a car, or any other normal human daily activity.

    Methinks we’re spelling it wrong – it should be spelled, “FreeDUMB!”

  13. Perhaps if they are called “terrorists” instead of “lone gunmen” things would be different? They ARE terrorists.

  14. Coming soon, to America – a new school morning ritual.

    “Did you make my sandwich, Ma”
    ‘Yes dear.’
    “Did you load my gun?”
    ‘Yes dear. It’s in your holster on your kitchen chair, ready for you to strap on.’
    “Thanks, Ma!”
    ‘Son, before you go, remember The Three S’s.’
    “I know them!”
    ‘Ok, then recite them to me.’
    “Oh Mom…”
    ‘Don’t ‘Oh Mom,’ me, young man. Recite The Three S’s for me!’
    ‘Ok, here goes:
    Study hard,
    Stay safe, and
    Shoot straight. Now can I go?”
    ‘Yesss dear.’

  15. Morning reading of Leisure Guy blog referred me to American Prospect’s article by Paul Woldman, TEN ARGUMENTS GUN ADVOCATES MAKE AND WHY THEY’RE WRONG.

    http://prospect.org/article/ten-arguments-gun-advocates-make-and-why-theyre-wrong

    I printed a copy to share.

    Leisure Guy is a great blog, as the writer says, “for people whose interests more or less match mine” with varied topics and intelligently selected links. Or maybe my interests just line up with his enough to make me think, “There’s another smart guy!”

  16. As someone who teaches in a high school and have three kids who all went to the same grade school, this terrorism has really impacted me. If you’ve ever known a grade school teacher or been in a grade school, you know it’s what education should look like. The teachers in that school were heroes before the gunman showed up. And that’s what makes this tragedy just that much more horrific.

    That said, the NRA has been pushing their radical agenda so that now their goal of unlimited access to weapons of any kind is within their grasp. As Denny Green said, “We knew who they were”. No surprise here. But the counter balance to this has been silent for years. Where was Obama’s anti-gun policy? Crickets. They saw this as a losing campaign issue. They thought it would lose them elections. Where was the political courage? Yeah, I know, political courage from a politician, even Obama, is a rare thing.

    I blame the NRA and the politicians who have been their lackeys for years. And I don’t blame Obama and the many spineless politicians. But this is the result of an extremist agenda going unchecked.

  17. In the face NRA membership numbers politicians having their jobs as the hjighest priority, even over the lives of innocent children, will never do the right thing. As long as the national outpouring of sentiment results only in mouse clicks and sentiment for sentiment’s sake without any effective action that brings about a more potent political force than the NRA we’re just pissing into the wind. This horror resonates but I wonder whether manufactured sentiment without action might not be a self-serving attempt to suplply emotion in the personal sense in lives devoid of it,,,as would a book or movie…a form of auto-emotionalism or emotional masturbation. Apparently that suffices for many. Life goes on. But is it enough to merely have held a decent thought?

    We might not able to become lobbyists but a membership in one oof the leading organizations opposing gun violence such as Handgun Control, should it come to dwarf the NRA in numbers would be a sensible practical start. I’ve contributed for 15 years. NRA support is a litmus test in my voting. I can’t recall an election in whichthat caused me much dissonance on account of other issues/positions.

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