Unless you’ve been living in a cave for the past 53 weeks, you know that today marks the one-year anniversary since one of the most horrific mass shootings in our nation’s gun-crazed history. When twenty six- and seven-year-olds are shot to death by a lunatic with a gun, you would think a nation would jump up and down and demand that steps be taken to ensure this never happens again. Maybe some other nation, but not his one. Oh, it’s not as though nothing has changed. More than 200,000 people have joined anti-gun violence groups, but 194 children under the age of 12 have been killed by gun violence. There were 109 laws passed by state legislatures regarding guns, but 70 of those laws expanded gun rights while only 39 restricted them. (I would have preferred that it was 0-109, respectively.) And on the federal level, only one gun violence law passed, and that was a reauthorization of the Undetectable Firearms Act. (Why do laws like this have to be reauthorized? Do we envision a point where we’ll want undetectable firearms to be legal? Why isn’t this law permanent?) Of course, in all the debates about gun safety, the one thing that had almost universal support failed to become law – mandatory background checks on ALL gun sales. This was inexcusable. Again, why would anybody think it a good idea to let some gun sales go without a background check being performed, to make sure the person buying the gun is legally allowed to own one? I don’t care if you’re passing granddad’s old Winchester down to your 16-year-old son, you need to run that background check. And a background check needs to be a real background check, not a self-check where you just tell the dealer you’ve done nothing that would bar you from owning a gun. I mean, seriously, filling out a questionnaire whose answers will never be verified actually counts as a “background check” in some states? This is why I oppose the Conservative idea of “states’ rights.” It basically takes the “United” out of “The United States of America.” Obviously there are some things that should be determined by local government, but “some things” doesn’t mean “everything.”
We have a serious problem with guns in this country, and if it isn’t addressed soon more innocent children will die. Is your so-called non-militia-related gun ownership “right” really more important than the life of a child? Do we really believe the problems of the world can be solved with a gun? Why do we even listen to people who say the solution to the scourge of gun violence is more guns? Is the solution to the problem of nuclear proliferation more nuclear weapons? Is the solution to the problem of HIV spreading to have more unprotected sex? Is the solution to the problem of rampant stupidity in our country more stupidity?
This is our daily open thread. Feel free to talk about guns, gun violence, small penises or anything else you wish to discuss.
TheZoo 
Wayne, you’ve summed up theDump perfectly.
As long as he refuses to grasp climate change, there is no hope for actually educating himself to the real world.
Trump doesn’t understand the real cold weather is a result of low humidity, which means no snow! He also ignores what’s happening in the southern hemisphere, where they’re setting records for heat. That’s why it’s called ‘global’.
Yesterday there was yet another school shooting here in Colorado. And that happened well after Colorado enacted slightly stiffer gun regulations, including universal background checks and smaller assault magazines, including also the subsequent wingnut-fueled recall of two state legislators plus the resignation of yet one more (to allow appointment of a dem by the gov) before her recall vote was scheduled.
Here’s the thing, see: children don’t matter, innocent people don’t matter, and if they should happen to die via gunfire, no worries, we’ll get over it. Shit happens, you know. But GUNS are DIFFERENT!!! GUNS ARE GIFTS TO US FROM GOD AND FROM THE CONSTITUTION!! And only COMMIES AND NAZIS AND FASCISTS WILL EVER TRY TO KEEP US FROM EXERCISING OUR RIGHT TO BEAR ARMS!!
About six months ago, one of my Watering Hole posts suggested what probably is the only real solution. I still stand by that notion.
The gun nuts will take the Colorado shootings as proof stricter gun regulations don’t work.
As the population increases and resources get scarcer, we will take to thinning the herd more and more frequently.
NOTHING will be done to regulate guns until someone starts to systematically target and eliminate the 1%. I’m only surprised someone hasn’t done that already.
Maybe Congress should pass a law that reads something like, “Should any citizen of these United States whose financial net worth exceeds 1 million dollars die by gunshot, the entire net worth of his or her entire estate shall become the immediate and irrevocable property of the Federal government.”
I think you’re right — that could wind up solving a whole lot of problems in fairly short order!
Why don’t you quit wearing them in the first place?
😉
Oh, Canada.
http://www.foxnews.com/world/2013/12/12/canadian-government-to-fund-project-to-offer-seal-meat-at-grocery-stores/
I want every gun tracked from the date of its manufacture, through each transfer to a new purchaser, to such time as it is destroyed, with the current registered owner responsible for knowing where it is and how it’s used at all times, barring a reported theft. If nothing else we could began to develop data that would provide us with information as to how guns become crime guns and use that data to design safeguards to prevent this. Even if the second amendment gives individuals the right to own guns, I don’t see how it confers the right to own them in secret. For the idiots that think they need the guns to fight off some future, or in the case of the really crazy ones, current, oppressive government, I say fine, when government comes to take your gun then that is your chance to use it for that purpose. Until then, stop obstructing common sense measures to keep dangerous weapons out of the wrong hands, no one should have to die due to your delusions.
Amen. Bowing in your general direction.
Here’s your potential new neighbor:
http://www.nydailynews.com/news/national/zimmerman-leave-florida-good-report-article-1.1547611
I’m thinking I may have finally found a really good use for guns, thanks to Markos:
Saturday nutpick-a-palooza: Michelle’s calls for healthy living just like Hitler, but with big butt
Linkie no workie.
Try this:
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2013/12/14/1262661/-Saturday-nutpick-a-palooza-Michelle-s-calls-for-healthy-living-just-like-Hitler-but-with-big-butt
“…and the commies of Bedford Falls…”
Well, this wasn’t entirely unexpected.
http://www.mediaite.com/tv/and-politifacts-lie-of-the-year-is%E2%80%A6/
This begs the question: Must the lie of the year be told in that year or simply discovered during that year?
Also, is it a lie if the person who said it believed it to be true at the time?
A lie is a statement you intentionally make that you know is not the whole truth. So while what Obama said was undeniably not correct, I don’t think it qualifies as a lie.
It definitely qualifies as Dumbass Statement of the Year, like Bush’s admonition, “Bring ’em on.”
they didn’t forget, they mis-disremembered.
My 12 year old niece has been taking French Horn lessons since mid summer.
(last year she took trumpet, at her teachers urging, to prepare for the FH)
The French Horn is arguably the most difficult instrument – up there with the violin, oboe and piano. It is certainly the most treacherous. A hornist can have everything set right, and the note will not happen – because condensation somewhere in all that tubing acts as a shock absorber and prevents that particular pitch from sounding.
But it is, in my opinion, the coolest instrument… a tremendous range for brass… the ability to blend with a brass choir, a woodwind quintet, and strings. There are a multitude of techniques and sounds available anywhere from really brassy, bells up, to stopped techniques, to the half-mute – a haunting sound quite appropriate for certain melodies.
Your niece has selected a noble instrument.
Apologies if this was previously posted:
Holy shit. Far out. Yikes. Ouch. Wow. Jeebus. 😯
• The pastor spoke with great wisdom.
wisdom means (a) a test (b) Godly thinking (c) tasty milk
I went with ‘C.” I win:
http://www.21food.com/products/wisdom-follow-on-milk-powder-321522.html
So, Jonathan Turley helped get Utah’s anti-polygamy laws struck down.
http://www.sltrib.com/sltrib/news/56894145-78/utah-polygamy-waddoups-ruling.html.csp
Perfecto!
I don’t think the bear cub is “playing”
Traumatized by the experience, later in life this kid had a monkey on his back.
Well, I can only hope it won’t be from old age.
Tee-hee.
We can give them one-way tickets to the DPRK where Kim Jong-un, would gladly demonstrate how a true tyrant ‘rules’. (just ask…oops you can’t…his uncle)
If you’re a fan of Wil Wheaton, you’ll love these photoshops of him (which he encourages.)
http://photoshopwilwheaton.tumblr.com/
Jameis Winston wins the Heisman. I have a feeling that will give Auburn the edge in the BCS.
Go Auburn! Fuck Winston, and why is Mariota not in the top ten while Manziel who lost four games was number 2/3. Sports pundits are now like political pundits, whores to the corporations they suck their paychecks from. Btw I voted for McCarron.
I think the weekend is finally here. I don’t have to go to work tomorrow.
Sad news in art.
http://theadvocate.com/home/7850001-125/blue-dog-artist-george-rodrigue
George Rodrigue, the Cajun Louisiana artist most known for his iconic “Blue Dog” paintings, died Saturday evening at a hosptial in Houston after a long battle with cancer.
He was 69.
He loved the blue!