The Week in Bullying

Our fellow citizens at Texas Open Carry went to Austin to lobby their legislators. They want a bill passed that will allow open carry of handguns without a permit, because I guess standing in line at Dunkin Donuts with a 10-pound assault rifle must be making their little arms tired, and permits are so oppressive. So they went to Austin and lobbied. Someone might have explained to them that “lobbying” doesn’t normally involve threats and personal insults.

One elected representative who told the citizens that he did not intend to vote for the bill was accused of tyranny and informed he would be replaced.  The elected representative, Poncho Nevárez, had to call security to get the lobbying citizens out of his office. I’m not sure this crew grasps the subtleties of, well, what elected representatives are.

Wonkette also has a transcript.  The lobbyists also expressed their enthusiasm for deadly weapons by setting up a 3D printing thingie for making guns on the Statehouse steps.

But today’s armed rally, where members of Come and Take It Texas (CATITX) are manufacturing firearms on the statehouse steps using “The Ghost Gunner,” might trump even the most bizarre.

CATITX bought the very first Ghost Gunner, a $1,500 CNC machine—or computer controlled tool manufacturer—which can build the metal body of an AR-15 rifle with no serial number (meaning no background check and no method of tracking should a crime be committed with the firearm). To it, a builder can add necessary components like a barrel and trigger for a fully functional weapon. At the moment, the machine is legal, and the extra parts are not regulated in the U.S., as long as a maker doesn’t plan on selling his creation.

Apparently Rep. Nevárez wasn’t the only legislator who was alarmed by the gun, um, enthusiasts, and on Wednesday the Texas House approved rules that would allow legislators to install panic buttons in their offices and eject hostile visitors from their offices.  See also Digby.

At the other end of the scale, a new poll out from Quinnipiac found that the NYPD has not been winning hearts and minds of late. Josh Marshall writes,

New York City voters disapprove of police officers turning their backs on the Mayor at police funerals by 69% to 27%. 77% think police union President Pay Lynch’s “blood on his hands” remarks were “too extreme” and no racial or gender subset of the population considers the comments “appropriate.”

Though there are big differences across the city’s racial groups 47% of New Yorkers say de Blasio’s actions since he began his run for Mayor show he supports the city’s police. 37% say the opposite.

Finally 52% of New Yorkers (versus 38%) says police discipline has broken down.

Even better, earlier this week there were reports a meeting of the Patrolmen’s Benevolent Association nearly turned into a riot when members yelled down PBA President Patrick Lynch, telling him they didn’t need an apology from Mayor de Blasio.

“This is what my members want!” a cop yelled near the end of the raucous meeting. “They want more cars, better vests, more manpower!”

And then the cop — one of about 350 in attendance — took a verbal jab at Lynch, who has called on de Blasio to offer a mea culpa for his continued lack of support for police.

“They don’t want an apology,” he said.

Maybe the PBA members would do New York a favor and elect a new President.

9 thoughts on “The Week in Bullying

  1. Open carry for the group in the attached video would be a very bad idea.
    I was introduced to a friend’s neighbor last weekend at a party. The guy had a certain look and attitude about him. Making polite small talk, I asked him if he knew about a local lake. He said he wasn’t much into fishing, he is a gun “enthusiast”. When we left the party, my wife remarked that the guy was “kind of creepy”. She didn’t hear anything he said, jus observed his swagger and his appearance. I told her he seemed like an accident waiting to happen, angry, low intellect, and armed to the teeth.

  2. “I told her he seemed like an accident waiting to happen, angry, low intellect, and armed to the teeth.”

    I think that’s the best description I’ve heard of for our Ammosexuals.
    I suspect that there aren’t many MENSA members in those groups.
    Lot’s of DENSA members, though – Dumbass Eedjit Nuts Seeking Attention.

    As for NYC’s police:
    ‘“This is what my members want!” a cop yelled near the end of the raucous meeting. “They want more cars, better vests, more manpower!”’

    Well, Officer, you can blame Lynch when the Mayor denies you more manpower. Because during the couple of weeks you’ve been staging your work-stoppage/slowdown, the citizens don’t miss the bullshit nuisance tickets too many of you hand out willy-nilly, like you had a quota or something.

    Also, less sitting in cars, and more walking-the-beat, like in the old days.
    Sure, keep some cops in cars for quick responses. The rest of you can walk to the donut shops.

  3. Those jerks who bought the Ghost Gunner would have been better off if they’d spent their $1500. on magic beans.

  4. I live in Missouri at the moment. Even legislators can carry concealed weapons on the job. Maybe that’s why there are no metal detectors in the legislature. This state is gun crazier than Texas, even. Does that tell you one of the reasons this state is really f’d up?

    • buddhasteps — I grew up in Missouri (St. Francois County). Everyone within 20 miles of Jefferson City always seemed nuts to me, but the state as a whole didn’t used to be as nuts as it is now. It’s like everyone took crazy pills.

  5. “Densa”. Good one, gulag !
    A pickup truck with the words “an armed society is a polite society” on the rear window passed me on l-4 yesterday. Oh, the irony. The sentence alone is antagonistic.
    Yesterday in central Florida, we had shootings at a football game near ocala, an armed robbery at a Polk county pawn shop, multiple gunshots fired in one of Orlando’s more crime ridden neighborhoods; then topping it all off, a man shoots his wife, a male friend, and himself at a busy mall in brevard county. The male friend and “himself” died. “Himself” usually shoots himself after shooting several other people.
    This place is a free fire zone. Thanks, jeb Bush, for the stand your ground law. Some people interpolate that different than others.

  6. “The elected representative, Poncho Nevárez, had to call security to get the lobbying citizens out of his office”

    This is what the right and the NRA have created, so I don’t feel sorry for any of these legislators, they have created a monster. These people really are crazy; I own plenty of guns and have a carry permit (though I do not carry in public) and to me the thought of giving any dimwit open carry rights without a thorough licensing process is insane. I understand that all this loosening of gun laws is intended to boost profits for the gun manufactures but it seems at some point the wingers and the NRA have to step in and say stop don’t they?

  7. Thanks for the report of the Daily News story, which is stunning. Two weeks ago it wasn’t imagined that Lynch could have an opposition in the June election, so the fact that there will be another candidate is huge and thrilling news too.

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