Wayne LaPierre

Guns, babies and other gun absurdities

commongunsense, , , , , , ,

father and baby

This post has been updated since first posted.

A comment from a Facebook friend when this article was shared around yesterday about a Tennessee woman whose gun discharged while in a diaper bag she carried to a store:

“Diaper bag necessities for the modern mother:

Diapers, check
Desitin, check
Wipes, check
Pacifier, check
Handgun, che…wait…WHAT?

Oh, yeah, freedom demands that every diaper bag have one. And dead infants are only counted as collateral damage by the anarchists.”

More from the article for your edification:

A mother, who was shopping with her two children, ended up firing a gun inside a busy Southaven store on Sunday.

It happened at the Bargain Hunt on Stateline Road.

Investigators say Stephanie Scrivener’s gun was inside a diaper bag when it fired.

She now faces charges for discharging a weapon within city limits.

Sigh. No words.

In other news about guns and babies, this one year old baby was shot by his 3 year old brother. I don’t make this stuff up. From the article:

Charges likely will be brought against the person who took a gun to the house where a 3-year-old boy shot his 1-year-old brother in the head and killed him, the Cleveland police chief said.

Chief Calvin Williams said investigators are trying to determine where the gun in Sunday afternoon’s shooting came from and how it was left within reach of a child.

Full details about the shooting on the city’s east side weren’t released, but Williams said at least one adult was home when it happened.

“A 3-year-old cannot be held accountable for a tragedy like this,” said Williams. He said someone had to have supplied the weapon or “knew the weapons were there and didn’t do anything to safeguard them, so people will be held accountable for this tragedy.”

Sigh. Where is common sense? Serious questions just have to be asked about our American gun culture. Are we asking them? Is anyone answering them other than to give us the usual shameful nonsense coming from the corporate gun lobby about how safe we now all are because of more people owning and carrying guns? They are wrong. Who is pointing that out? How many more will it take?

Instead of having a serious discussion about “accidental” gun discharges by “law abiding” gun owners and about the easy access to guns by babies and toddlers, we are hearing talk of needing guns to fight against our own government. The corporate gun lobby is pushing young parents into believing a gun in the house will protect them from evil things like hurricanes, zombies, ISIS, and whatever else is lurking outside their doors. Remember the words of Wayne LaPierre doing just that?:

It must be terrifying to be Wayne LaPierre, the man who has led the NRA for the past two decades. For years he has shared his nightmares and fears of daily living with us — a worldview of paralyzing paranoia, where terrorists, bad weather and Latin American gangsters lurk behind every corner, ready to prey on unarmed citizens.

“Latin American drug gangs have invaded every city of significant size in the United States. Phoenix is already one of the kidnapping capitals of the world,” he explains in his latest expression of anguish, an Op-Ed published in the Daily Caller yesterday. “And though the states on the U.S./Mexico border may be the first places in the nation to suffer from cartel violence, by no means are they the last.”

“Hurricanes. Tornadoes. Riots. Terrorists. Gangs. Lone criminals,” he continues. “These are perils we are sure to face — not just maybe. It’s not paranoia to buy a gun. It’s survival.” (…)

When the NRA head appeared on Fox News Sunday earlier this month, he told host Chris Wallace, “My gosh, in the shadow of where we are sitting now, gangs are out there in Washington, D.C. You can buy drugs. You can buy guns. They are trafficking in 13-year-old girls. And our government is letting them!”

Sigh. Survival. Tell that to the parents of the now dead one year old who did not survive the senseless and avoidable gunshot injury inflicted by his 3 year old brother with a gun in his hands.

I am updating this post to include a totally absurd and disturbing story about one of the workshops held at the recent NRA convention  which was clearly outside the bounds of common sense and reality.  More from the article:

There is no factual basis to allegations that parts of the U.S. have turned into no-go zones that Muslim extremists had supposedly conquered — a myth that wasspread by Fox News reports earlier this year.

Tarani’s comments were part of an hour-long seminar in which he discussed what he claims are the threats Americans face on a daily basis. The frequency and intensity of “mass murders, beheadings and suicide bombings” are increasing, he said. After detailing the events of a number of mass shootings and terrorist plots by an “endless supply” of militant groups around the world, Tarani told the audience they should be prepared to respond to all kinds of threats.

Tarani also warned that the country’s “porous borders” are letting extremists and terrorists into the United States. “It’s possible that at least 20 percent of what comes over that border — that’s a big number, guys — is Hamas, the Muslim Brotherhood, the Ethiopian al shabaab, known gang members and supports of the cartel,” he said, warning people to arm themselves to respond to threats before law enforcement can.

The myth of no-go zones was also spread earlier this year by Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal (R), who said in an interview that there are Muslim areas in Europe that are dominated by extremist Muslims where the police refuse to enter. Fox News previously made several mentions of no-go zones, prompting British Prime Minister David Cameron to publicly refute the claim and even call one pundit “a complete idiot.” Fox later issued several apologies and admitted that no-go zones do not actually exist.

It’s hard to know what to say. Raise your hand if you have heard of beheadings in the U.S. or ISIS members coming over the borders. The hypocrisy of this is that the gun lobby resists any attempt to keep guns away from known terrorists. But this kind of fear mongering is inexcusable and very dangerous. For the gun lobby, it drives people to the gun stores and that is exactly what they want. Crazy, insane, shameless, idiotic, stupid and dangerous. More myths and deceptions.

Instead of addressing a national public health and safety epidemic, the pundits and politicians and would be politicians are pandering and sounding crazier and crazier. How do you explain the speech at the recent NRA convention by someone who should know better- a Republican neurosurgeon trying his darndest to curry favor with the gun rights crowd? Here is what Dr. Ben Carson said ( and I don’t make this stuff up):

“I spent many a night operating on people with gunshot wounds to their heads,” Carson said. “It is not nearly as horrible as having a population that is defenseless against a group of tyrants who have arms.”

No words.

And, of course, now declared Republican Presidential candidate Marco Rubio continued the pandering and deception when he spoke at the NRA convention:

Like many of the other GOP heavyweights who spoke Friday, Rubio also accused the president of picking and choosing which amendments to support. He noted the Obama administration’s attempt to ban armor-piercing bullets and the administration’s attempt to increase background checks on gun sales in the wake of the tragedy at Sandy Hook Elementary School.

“The sins of the evil do not justify the restrictions of law-abiding citizens. In fact, the sins of the evil make those rights more critical,” Rubio said, adding that he’s no fan of gun-free zones.

Really? The shooting of 20 first graders doesn’t justify doing something to strengthen our gun laws and have a national discussion about gun violence? Inexplicable and shameful. These are our babies and our children. We need to protect them from evil for sure. The evil is that the corporate gun lobby is preventing us from stopping people who shouldn’t have guns from getting them anyway. The gun lobby would rather arm the people who teach our precious children than prevent the shootings of them in the first place through common sense measures like background checks, safe storage of guns, strengthening trafficking and straw purchase laws. Those are the “sins of evil” and yes, they do justify restricting those who are not law abiding. But Rubio is echoing the nonsense of the gun lobby when he says these laws would restrict law abiding citizens. He is wrong. But he’s running for President and he must curry favor with the uber powerful and well funded national fear mongering organization.

Why aren’t we crying about our lack of action when it comes to saving our babies and our children from the devastation of senseless and out of control gun violence?

We need to be afraid of our out of control and crazy American gun culture.

UPDATE:

Someone sent a link to this story about a toddler pulling a loaded gun out of a diaper bag at a Vermont day care center. Of course it was left there by a responsible gun permit holder. Oh wait- in Vermont you don’t need a permit to carry a loaded gun around. Maybe they should re-think that one. Good grief. This is why there should be no loaded guns in purses and diaper bags.

It’s no accident that the NRA ignores “accidental” shootings

commongunsense, , , , , , , , , ,

accidentAs a recent article in the Washington Post noted, the NRA has a real problem with their messaging when it comes to the epidemic of child shootings:

As the National Rifle Association’s annual conference hits Nashville this weekend with 70,000 expected attendees, the organization has good reason to be upbeat. For another year, it has succeeded in stalling legislative attempts at moderate gun controls, rolling back existing state regulations and winning media battles. But there’s a looming question that should be seriously concerning the NRA and its supporters: how to reconcile the organization’s agenda with new evidence on the prevalence of gun accidents involving children.

Over the past year, new studies and media reports have documented America’s extraordinary number of child-involved shootings. These occur when a child happens upon a gun, or is left alone with one, and ends up shooting themselves or another person. Such disasters result in hundreds of child fatalities and have made American children nine times more likely to die in gun accidents than children anywhere else in the developed world. These deaths pose a massive challenge for the NRA. They demonstrate fairly conclusively that guns cannot be both safe and ubiquitous; the inevitable consequence of widespread gun ownership is a never-ending series of tragedies involving children. But, desperate to insist there’s nothing wrong, the NRA has proved itself totally incapable of responding to the problem.

It’s not just that the NRA is incapable or in denial. It’s purposeful that the corporate gun lobby ignores the easy access to guns by children. They don’t seem to care and claim that just telling kids not to touch a gun will do the trick. Well, it doesn’t. That has been shown over and over in videos and studies. From this linked article:

Despite harrowing tragedies like Caroline’s death, the National Rifle Association iscommitted to expanding firearm ownership among children. The NRA’s recent convention in Indianapolis included a “Youth Day” to promote firearms for children, an event from which the media was banned. For years, gun manufacturers and the NRA have marketed firearms to children ages 5 to 12, insisting that programs such as the Eddie Eagle Safety Program ensure the safety of children. If they truly believe this, they are mistaken.

The overwhelming empirical evidence indicates that the presence of a gun makes children less safe; that programs such as Eddie Eagle are insufficient; and that measures the NRA and extreme gun advocates vehemently oppose, such as gun safes and smart guns, could dramatically reduce the death toll. Study after study unequivocally demonstrates that the prevalence of firearms directly increases the risk of youth homicide, suicide, and unintentional death. This effect is consistent across the United States and throughout the world. As a country, we should be judged by how well we protect our children. By any measure, we are failing horribly.

And when a 2 or 3 year old finds a gun, the idea that they could understand not to touch a gun is ludicrous. It’s no accident that the NRA ignores this. For when profits come before common sense and saving lives, the result is a nation of children shooting themselves, or another child who is often a sibling. Occasionally a bullet discharged accidentally by a gun held by a child hits a parent as well here and here. (These are just 2 of other examples)

Sure, the NRA has some good programs to train kids to use a gun for hunting but they claim that their Eddie Eagle program will do the trick to keep kids from accessing guns in the home. There is no proof of this. Young kids and guns just don’t go together. And, as the above article suggests, putting the burden of gun safety on the children themselves rather than the adults in charge is a bad idea.

Remember the young girl who was brought by her parents to a gun range to try out a machine gun? It ended with the death of the instructor. What an awful burden for that 9 year old to carry through the rest of her life. What were the adults thinking? When we have a corporate gun lobby that is more interested in making sure the next generation will be encouraged to buy guns than in the safety of that generation, that is what we get. This is just not happening in other civilized, democratized countries.

As a nation, do we have to be hit in the head before we decide to do something about our national epidemic of gun violence? What will it take before the gun lobby joins with the rest of us in truly trying to prevent at least some of the avoidable and preventable shootings of and by children? Guns are dangerous weapons designed to kill people. They are not toys or just an average consumer product. One of the things we recognize in this country is that safety and health measures need to be in place to protect our children from harm. If this means that more people come to understand the risks of having guns in their homes, we may actually manage to save some lives.

But the NRA and others in the corporate gun lobby ignore those risks because their messaging is all about the fear and paranoia of not having a gun in the home or strapped to your waist at all times. Young families with children are led to believe that without a gun in the home, they won’t be safe from whatever the heck people are afraid of. Burglaries? Most occur when home owners are not at home. Gangs?Zombies? The government? A crazy relative? Actual home invasions are frightening for sure and there are people who have stopped them with a gun. These incidents are more rare than children with access to loaded guns shooting themselves or others.

You may remember that I commented in my last post that not one of my readers made a comment about all of the accidental discharges of guns by law abiding gun owners or the access to a gun provided by a parent or family member, presumably a law abiding gun owner. That’s because those in the gun rights crowd want their loaded guns at the ready at all times and if locked up securely where kids and burglars can’t get them, they may not be available at that instant when someone comes to take away your guns or tries to break into your home. Which is the greater risk?

And further problems for the NRA, though they don’t see it that way, is that the term corporate gun lobby is employed by those of us in the gun violence prevention community for a very good reason. Check out the huge check for $600,000 donated by Smith and Wesson to the NRA for employee benefits. Follow the money.

Other things to watch for this week-end:

“Well, if I were in charge,” she continued, as the audience erupted in applause at the prospect, “they would know that waterboarding is how we baptize terrorists.”

She criticized the administration for pursuing a national security strategy that, in her estimation, pokes “our allies in the eye, calling them adversaries, instead of putting the fear of God in our enemies.”

Palin also rallied the pro-gun audience to continue protecting their right to bear arms, saying their efforts are “needed now more than ever because every day, we are seeing more and more efforts to strip away our Second Amendment rights.”

Good grief.

Every year the NRA convention highlights the total lack of common sense when it comes to gun policy and our American gun culture. I’m sure this year will not disappoint.

More or less hypocrisy?

commongunsense, , , , , ,

Want More on Highway Signpost.More often than not, I find links to articles to support what I am writing. Occasionally, however, information is not accurate and needs to be updated or corrected.  I am writing this to correct what I wrote in my last post. Though it has been difficult to assess with accuracy, it does look like concealed carry permit holders will be allowed to carry guns inside of the Nashville Music Center at the upcoming NRA convention. What I learned from my own sources is that guns are not allowed in the music performance center but are allowed in the convention center attached to it. But one can see why there is confusion because this sentence from the security section about the convention says: ” All guns on the convention floor will be nonoperational, with the firing pins removed.” Seems like that could mean ALL guns on the floor. But, from one of my readers who presumes to know:

Carry is permitted at NRA HQ in Fairfax by everyone, this is also allowed at NRA Annual Meeting unless it’s prohibited by the venue. The last place that carry was prohibited by the venue was in Charlotte, and that law has since been changed to allow carry at that venue in the event of a future return there.

The article you found only applies to firearms being displayed at Annual Meeting as part of an exhibit, not firearms being legally carried. It is just a common sense safety measure to render exhibit firearms inoperable.

So yes, apparently loaded guns will be allowed inside of the Nashville Convention Center if this reader is correct. That should be fun. Hopefully there will be no “accidental” discharges by any of those “good guys” with guns. There was a recent case of this at a gun range in Florida where armed police officers were training. One of the guns accidentally discharged, killing another officer. It happens. Thus one can see why allowing a bunch of armed people in one place could be a very bad idea. But, whatever. It looks like there is no concern for that at NRA conventions. Except all of those guns on display that will be handled by armed folks need to be unloaded. Why? To prevent “accidental discharges”. Hypocrisy.

(Updated since first posted) Not so fast. I have learned that guns are not allowed in Bridgestone Arena at the Nashville Convention Center. So I guess armed visitors will have to disarm if they want to attend any workshops or events at this venue.

The problem with the idea that ALL permit holders will be safe with their guns and nothing bad will happen is that it’s not true. I write about such incidents on this blog all the time. In my last post I wrote about a man whose gun discharged “accidentally” at an Easter mass church service. It turns out that there’s a lot more to that story. Check it out in this latest report:

Officials at Mount Aloysius College confirmed the same man expelled for having a gun on campus, is the same one who police say saw his gun go off during an Easter mass over the weekend.

On Tuesday, WTAJ obtained a letter to students sent out by the school, letting them know that Matt Crawford, the man expelled from school last week, is now at the center of another gun related incident.

Back in 2010, Crawford was arrested after pulling a gun on a relative during an argument. He faced simple assault charges then.

Shouldn’t the 2010 incident disqualify this guy from keeping his permit? If not, it should because his pattern of gun handling and carrying seems pretty dangerous to me. This one was an accident or intentional shooting waiting to happen. But the gun lobby has pushed legislators into the false premise that permit holders will be safe with their guns and there won’t be incidents like this.  As more people carry guns in more public places because of the loosening of gun laws all over the country, we can expect to see more incidents like the this one. This is the hypocrisy of the gun lobby. The thing is, lives are at stake. Public safety is at stake.

And speaking of more hypocrisy, not one gun rights advocate reading my blog commented on all of the examples I gave of “good guys” with guns shooting people intentionally or unintentionally. Why not? Because those incidents don’t fit with the ideas purported by them about more guns making everyone safer. In fact, the lies are still coming and continue to come. Check out this Iowa legislator who made a false claim about a bill but got caught in his hyperbole. From the article:

While critics have argued the measure opens a loophole that would allow some buyers to avoid background checks, Windschitl, R-Missouri Valley, told The Des Moines Register it would actually lead to more background checks for firearm purchases.

We rate this statement FALSE.

In a follow-up interview, Windschitl clarified that his statement was an “assumption” and wasn’t rooted in any evidence. In fact, the data necessary to determine how the law would affect the number of background checks performed and firearms purchased aren’t collected and don’t exist.

Windschitl’s prediction is also based on questionable logic. It assumes that firearms consumers will not take advantage of the option to forgo a permit, and that private sellers will go out of their way to perform background checks on prospective buyers.

Sigh…..

And in Tennessee, again, a bill has been proposed to ban squirt guns but allow real guns in school zones :

The Tennessee House of Representatives passed a bill Monday night that makes it illegal to take a squirt gun — but not a real gun — within 150 feet of a school.

The new ban was included in a larger bill that would nix any local laws prohibiting people with gun permits from taking guns to parks.

You can’t make this stuff up. What are people thinking? Real guns are clearly more dangerous than toy guns. Yes, I know that kids have been shot by officers when they have been carrying air soft guns or other toy type guns. But that’s not the point here. If you are going to ban any kind of gun in a school zone, it needs to be all guns. But the corporate gun lobby, of course, is against banning guns anywhere. Hypocrisy as far as the eye can see.

So during the upcoming NRA convention in Nashville, armed attendees will be treated to the usual ridiculous nonsense spewed by Wayne LaPierre, whose over the top rhetoric is meant to inspire fear and paranoia. His speeches are amazing for the content, hardly any of which is true. So a new video produced by Everytown for Gun Safety makes those speeches all the more ridiculous. When children say the words, they come out seeming like the nonsense they are. “Li’l Wayne LaPierres” can say it in a way that adults just can’t. Kids know baloney when they see and hear it and they also sometimes have more common sense than the adults.

And last, as to concealed guns allowed at NRA headquarters, information is not easy to obtain. A friend called NRA headquarters and someone there confirmed that something had changed regarding their policy about no guns inside so apparently now permit holders can carry inside of the building. It’s likely only in the public areas and not in the offices of the CEO and other leaders of the organization. I’m sure they would want to be safe from guys like the Altoona permit holder I wrote about above.

No guns allowed at NRA convention and other gun hypocrisy

commongunsense, , , , , , , , 1 Comment

insincere politician and NRA folks

I have updated and edited this post since I first posted it.

Easter is now past and Passover is being celebrated this week. I attended a wonderful church service at a church attended by my son and his family before we had Easter brunch. It was an uplifting, celebratory service in a church filled to the brim as they often are at this Christian holiday. The pastors told several relevant stories of the season based on the Biblical accounts of the resurrection. I looked around at the families and was feeling thankful for this chance to celebrate my own faith with others who believe in similar values to mine.

I would have been horrified to think that one of those folks sitting there with their families was carrying a gun at the church. There are just some places where guns should not be. Church is one. Places where families and children gather are another. And that, actually, makes for most places where the gun lobby has managed to convince too many bought and paid for legislators that guns are “needed.” Facts don’t support this “logic.” But the gun rights advocates tell stories that don’t make sense and are actually unbelievable to instill fear and paranoia into legislators and the potential gun buying public. We need true stories and actual research in order to make informed decisions about important public safety measures such as preventing gun violence.

Before the gun lobby squelched research about the causes and effects of gun violence, here is what was found:

We were collecting information to answer the question of who, what, where, when, and how did shootings occur?

We were finding that most homicides occur between people who know each other, people who are acquaintances or might be doing business together or might be living together. They’re not stranger-on-stranger shootings. They’re not mostly home intrusions.

We also found that there were a lot of firearm suicides, and in fact most firearm deaths are suicides. There were a lot of young people who were impulsive who were using guns to commit suicide.

No wonder the gun lobby doesn’t like this research. It blows a hole in their messaging and story telling.

Let’s look at just a few of the many incidents in the past week or so. It’s impossible for me to get them all into one blog post. Remember- about 80 Americans a day die from gunshot injuries in gun suicides, homicides and “accidental” shootings. I don’t make this stuff up. OK- a partial list:

4 are dead in a Tulsa, OK domestic shooting- a murder/suicide. Good guy with a gun or bad guy with a gun?

A Georgia woman fired shots at her son in an argument. Accidental? Hmmm. Good women with a gun or bad woman with a gun?

“Someone” fired a gun off in an Indiana apartment sending a bullet through the floor into the apartment below. The bullet just missed the resident in the apartment below. Lucky for the person who fired the shot off. Lucky for the man sitting on his couch minding his own business. Good guy with a gun or bad guy with a gun?

A Wisconsin man with a Utah concealed carry permit fired shots at a police officer in Nashville, Tennessee the other day. Good guy with a gun or bad guy with a gun?

Also in Wisconsin, a gun permit holder has twice left her loaded gun in the washroom of her church and not been charged for reckless behavior. I love this quote from the article:

Grieve also represented Hitchler’s husband, Gerald Hitchler. He left his loaded handgun in the men’s room of the Egg Harbor Fun Park in August. Sheriff’s officials and prosecutors reviewed the incident, but did not charge Gerald Hitchler.

Nik Clark, president of Wisconsin Carry, Inc., a gun rights advocacy group,  said his group was puzzled why the DA’s office “didn’t re-examine their pursuit of charges after the first charge was dismissed.”

He also said the case “demonstrates the fundamental level of discrimination that exists in society today with respect to firearms.”  He said power tools, lighters and poisons all cause more child deaths that unattended guns, yet no one would be charged for leaving those items in a restroom.

Good grief. What is the matter with these people? Are these good folks with guns or bad folks with guns?

Here, now, is an actual bad guy with a gun who allowed access to a gun he shouldn’t have to a 2 year old who shot and badly injured himself in a North Carolina home. This one is a case for “where did he get his gun?” This is a totally avoidable and preventable shooting. And another family is affected by the devastation of gunshot injuries and this incident can be added to the many others involving child access to loaded guns provided by adults.

This is getting long but I’m adding another shooting that just came to my attention. A supposed New York”good guy” with a gun shot his wife, her son and himself because he felt disrespected. That’s a good reason to kill 3 people, right? This doesn’t happen with knives, ropes, or some other methods of death. It’s all too easy with a gun.

And oops- one more. In Georgia a “good guy” with a gun thought he heard a coyote and fired his gun ( he said “accidentally”) but the bullet grazed a 5 year old boy. Is this a “good guy” or a “bad guy”? I’m just asking.

A Pennsylvania man was “test firing” a gun in the basement of his home where kids were gathered. A bullet “accidentally” discharged, hitting a 9 year old in the head leaving him in serious condition. Good guy with a gun or bad guy with a gun?

What kind of “good guys” with guns are these? Or for that matter, any of the incidents I write about in this post today. Did these “good guys” need their guns to defend from “bad guys” with guns? The answer is a resounding NO. Guns are risky business. That is becoming more and more obvious, as if it already was not. But the gun rights extremists who believe in the mantra of “more guns everywhere for everyone” and the fear and paranoia coming from the corporate gun lobby, convince our legislators that passing any law will infringe on their rights. They are telling false stories to keep their power, influence and profit. Do these folks have a right to shoot off their guns wherever they are and get away with shooting someone else or almost shooting someone else by their negligence? Is this the “God given” right we are talking about?

I want to talk about what’s going on in the world of guns and gun extremists. The one that’s making the rounds amongst the gun violence prevention folks on blogs, Facebook pages and Twitter feeds is a quote from a Tennessee legislator when asked what he thought about a bill to allow loaded guns in parks:

Well, in Tennessee there’s currently a push by the state legislature to allow guns in state parks. Prior to an NRA convention in Nashville, state Rep. Glen Casada was questioned about this push in his state and what he would think about a child being struck and killed by a stray bullet while playing in one of these parks. His answer? If that were to happen, those would just be “acts of God.” He also went on to suggest that a child is just as likely to get killed in a bicycle accident as they are by a gun, claiming that if a gun is “used properly” it’s no more dangerous than a bike.

“Acts of God…” Really? I guess if you can’t blame anything else, you can just blame God for those nasty “accidental gun discharges.” I mean, these are the folks who believe God granted them their rights to own guns in the first place. Think about this for a minute or two. And if you do, you will, of course, conclude that is not possible. But I guess thinking through to logical conclusions based on fact is just not part of the discussion for some folks.

Speaking of “acts of God”and gun discharges, a gun permit holder in Altoona, PA “accidentally” discharged his loaded gun while attending a church service. I don’t make this stuff up. The first question about this incident is why the man was pulling his gun out of his pocket while attending a mass in a church? I’m sure God would love to know that people think they need guns while worshiping because……… well, because……… Hmmm. Sorry. Can’t think of one reason why someone needs a gun in church. But what makes common sense is just not part of the discussion for some folks. Good guy with a gun or bad guy with a gun?

There is new information about the man who was involved in this incident. From this article:

The gun owner involved in an accidental shooting at a cathedral in Altoona is the same man who was expelled from Mount Aloysius College last week for bringing a gun inside a classroom. Charges were not filed in the Mount Aloysius incident, and charges have not been filed in the Cathedral of the Blessed Sacrament incident, so 6 News is choosing not to release the man’s name. (…) That man reached out to 6 News and said he has a permit to carry and said the incident at the cathedral was an accident. He also confirmed he was the Mount Aloysius student who was expelled for bringing a gun into a classroom. The man said in this case, his shirt rode up, exposing his concealed weapon, and it was just an honest mistake. Police said he will not face charges for the Mount Aloysius incident, and there is no word yet if he will be facing charges in the church incident.

Excuse me, but, as Rachel Maddow says, “bullpucky”.

Were the people who died, were injured or suffered a narrow miss with a bullet involved in “acts of God”? Because if they were, according to some folks who boldly and falsely make this claim, there is nothing we can do about any of these shootings. And that, dear readers, is exactly what the gun lobby wants you to think. Doing nothing is better than infringing on their “God given” rights. People dying? No problem. It’s the price of a constitutional right. It’s also the price of a gun culture gone wrong.

As you might expect, the bishop of the Pennsylvania church has spoken out against guns in his churches. From the article:

“Many people understandably have questions about what would prompt an individual to carry a gun into the Cathedral,” Bishop Bartchak said in a statement released Monday by the Diocese of Altoona-Johnstown. “I would like to take this opportunity to state my firm belief that guns have no place in our Cathedral or any of the other parishes in our Diocese. Our churches must be an environment in which all feel safe to worhip the Lord and celebrate our Catholic faith.”

Amen to that. This is just common sense.

We’ve got it wrong in America. We’ve got it backwards. Gun rights are not inalienable. Gun rights come with responsibilities. People who own guns need to be trained and safely secure them from kids and others who should not have them. They should have to go through a background check for every sale to make sure they are “law abiding” citizens. Just like we require training, licensing and background checks for most every other thing going on in our country, guns and their owners or prospective owners should be no different. Do we want to trust our kids at a daycare to just anyone- a felon maybe or a domestic abuser or sexual predator? You know the answer. Background checks are required. Do you trust your financial advisor or accountant with your money and personal financial information? Do you expect that person to be free of a criminal background? Of course you do. Do you expect that people who drive on the same roads as you do to have a license and have had driver’s training? You know the answer. Do you expect the people who teach your kids to be properly vetted and licensed in their field? Do you expect law enforcement officers to be well trained in handling firearms and for the job they do every day to protect us and enforce the laws? Do you expect your lawyer to be trained and not to be felons or sexual predators?

Sigh.

In other gun hypocrisy, the NRA convention is coming up this month in Nashville:

A multilevel security plan went into works not long after Nashville was chosen as the convention destination. All guns on the convention floor will be nonoperational, with the firing pins removed, and any guns purchased during the NRA convention will have to be picked up at a Federal Firearms License dealer, near where the purchaser lives, and will require a legal identification.

This organization is pushing guns at the rest of us in places where we hang out to shop, learn, eat, work and play ( playgrounds, parks, etc.) but not in their own convention? Come on. I don’t make this stuff up. What are they so afraid of? I thought they loved their guns and loved to carry them around with them everywhere they go. Is it that they aren’t afraid of other people like themselves? Is it that they actually understand that if a whole bunch of gun carriers are walking around in one place, safety will be compromised? It is because someone might get angry at one of the many “illustrious” speakers like Sarah Palin, Jeb Bush, Mike Pence, and others and take a shot? Or what is it? I’d love to know. In addition, they are telling people they will have to pass a background check in order to buy/order guns at the convention and pick them up at a federally licensed firearms dealer near their home. Really? I thought that was terribly inconvenient for these folks.

Hypocrisy as far as the eye can see. There is absolutely no common sense when it comes to the gun lobby’s safety policies for themselves and their total resistance to the same for the rest of us. In fact, there are no loaded guns allowed at gun shows. Occasionally an “accidental” discharge occurs in spite of this safety measure. Like here or this one. Did you know that guns are not allowed for visitors to the NRA headquarters in Fairfax, Virginia? Yes, it’s true. Who don’t they trust? Staff can carry but anyone else, no. So this organization pushes for visitors to schools, malls, hospitals, college campuses, state legislatures. national parks, etc. to carry guns but at their own headquarters? Nope. From the article:

 She told me that the security guards at the front desk were unarmed, but that visitors were not allowed to bring weapons into the building (except to their posh firing range, which has a separate entrance).  Doesn’t that leave the visitors at a bit of an disadvantage, I asked, and we had a bit of a chuckle about that.  I was too chicken to ask her whether that policy was inconsistent with the NRA’s present philosophy that seems to encourage shoot-outs.

So there you have it.  The NRA staff is armed, while visitors are disarmed.

Well, There you have it. People are being shot every day by “law abiding” citizens intentionally or unintentionally and the NRA claims that more guns make us safer. And then they don’t allow guns in their convention or at their own headquarters.

Let’s look at one of the most hypocritic of quotes from Mr. Wayne LaPierre of the NRA made after the Sandy Hook school shooting. Below is a video of this now famous speech:

This Facebook page (Parents Against Gun Violence) is keeping tracks of the shootings every month and the reasons for the shootings. Please read (below)and then raise your hand if you agree with Mr. LaPierre ( above) that “the only way to stop a bad guy with a gun is a good guy with a gun”:

REasons why shot

On the Facebook page you can see links to the actual stories about these incidents. No one made them up. So there you have it. The hypocrisy of the corporate gun lobby and the gun rights extremists is “alive” and well. Meanwhile, too many Americans are not alive thanks to gunshot injuries or are suffering the long term affects from gunshot injuries while the gun lobby opposes any and all measures to reduce the carnage. It’s well past time to do something about this national public health and safety epidemic. Please join me in efforts to keep our communities safe from devastating gun violence.