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Wednesday, January 23, 2013

Lilly Tomlin was right:

Lilly once noted, “No matter how cynical I get, I can’t keep up.  And the NRA wants more and more people to be armed, everywhere, at all times?  Too many Americans have been watching too many Rambo movies and self identifying with Rambo, when, in truth, they’re actually Mr. Magoo. An armed Mr. Magoo, which is a very, very bad combination. And the odd thing is the people busy shooting themselves in the feet don't seem to understand what the basic problem is.  Excerpt from Reader Supported News (RSN)


5 People Shot at 3 Different Gun Shows on Gun Appreciation Day

By Adam Peck, ThinkProgress
22 January 13
f the gun advocates behind this year's inaugural Gun Appreciation Day had hoped to use the day's festivities to build support for their anti-regulation platform, they are going to have to wait another year.
Emergency personnel had to be called to the scene of the Dixie Gun and Knife Show in Raleigh, North Carolina after a gun accidentally discharged and shot three people at the show's safety check-in booth just after 1 pm. Both victims were transported to an area hospital, and the Raleigh Fire Department announced that the show would be closed for the rest of the day.
Gun Appreciation Day is the combined effort of dozens of far-right organizations who have been vocal opponents of gun control advocates' efforts to reduce the number of dangerous weapons on our streets and prevent them from ending up in the hands of people with criminal backgrounds or a history of mental illness. In response to a renewed push for sensible reforms of gun laws after the tragedy in Newtown, Connecticut, groups like the National Rifle Association and the founders of Gun Appreciation Day have instead advocated for an increase in the number of guns in public places like elementary schools, arguing - falsely - that more guns will mean more protection for individuals.
But today's unfortunate accident, which took place at a safety check in surrounded by hundreds of people who presumably have at least some training on how to properly handle a dangerous weapon, undermines that case. Earlier this week, an armed security officer at a Michigan charter school accidentally left his gun in a restroom that is regularly used by students as young as five years old.
A representative from Political Media, the group responsible for organizing Gun Appreciation Day, was not immediately available for comment.
Two similar incidents occurred at entirely separate gun shows in the Midwest, one in the Cleveland suburb of Medina, Ohio and the other at the state fairgrounds in Indianapolis, Indiana. In Ohio, the local ABC affiliate reports that one individual was brought to a hospital by EMS, and in Indiana Channel 8 WISH says that an individual shot himself in the hand while trying to reload his gun in the show parking lot. That brings the tally to 4 victims of gun violence so far at three different gun shows during the country’s first Gun Appreciation Day.

On Another Note

President Obama's inaugural speech was rightly lauded on so many points, but one that I think got slight shrift was his reference to we, the people, being Citizens.  Citizens. That designation has gone under the radar for so long.  We've touted our "freedoms," our individuality, our rights, and bewailed our "moochers" and "takers," (while mooching and taking, I might add) but we have rarely discussed our duties as citizens, a contract we make with each other to be both beneficiaries of the riches of The Commons AND our responsibility and duty to see to the continued health of The Commons.  Citizens are adults who see to it their government acts responsibly in their names, citizens vote, citizens work to see that justice is done, that the community is ruled by law, not the mob, citizens strive to open up the bounties of The Commons to more people, not restrict it's bounty to only a few, citizens are involved in their country's civil life, in their community's life because citizens understand that their government is them, their country is theirs and they need to continue making it a more perfect union.


11 comments:

Alon Perlman said...

Funny thing happened on the way to the gun show... well, at the Santa Clara County gun show somewhere in the nineties. A Gun had discharged just before I got there. Suppose that once you get thousands of guns and tens of thousands of bullits, some of those are bound to find each other. The newer rules for the 90's in California may had been in effect. Meaning you could not walk out with your purchase unless it was over a hundred years old. (Not that you couldn't still dance with the dame thou, on account she still has all her teeth) You can get the best beef Jerky at those shows. As for the 35 capacity magazine extending well below the handle, well, we will just have to get to that a little later.

Anonymous said...

Nobody cares Alon.

Sewertoons AKA Lynette Tornatzky said...

Wrong Anon 10:01.

Why don't you just put it, "I don't care?" as that is the truth.

Alon Perlman said...

So, anyway the 35 bullet magazine was for a gun a friend left with me and since I had not heard from him for a couple of years I picked it up as an accessory. Some time thereafter he showed up and within a few months had it stolen from the trunk of his car. Lock, stock, Barrel, extra magazines a cleaning kit and of course - bullets, which I warned him he should keep in a separate locked container. I also picked up an Indian blanket and an empty bottle of Arsenic potion with an Ely Lilly label and a 200 year old Jewish Prayer book printed in Germany and covered in horn and leather. But my main point is that you can find the best Beef Jerky at gun shows, and also this from the John Stewart Show http://www.thedailyshow.com/watch/wed-january-16-2013/there-goes-the-boom---atf
So as long as the “Patriot Act” has provisions that decimate the FDA’s ability to manage rogue gun sellers, you don’t have a prayer book’s chance of finding it’s putative rightful owner in a gun show and until that situation is rectified, there really isn't much else to talk about.

Sewertoons AKA Lynette Tornatzky said...

This is a copy'n'paste from Gawker's Robert Kessler

Here’s a List of People Injured or Killed by Guns on ‘Gun Appreciation Day’

Yesterday was deemed a day to appreciate your guns in America, and boy did we. Five people were shot at gun shows in North Carolina, Ohio and Indiana. These were not, however, the only instances of gun violence yesterday.

As happens everyday, numerous people were either injured or killed by guns on “Gun Appreciation Day,” be it on purpose or accidentally. Spanning Alaska to Florida, here are those people:

A 14-year-old suburban Atlanta boy shot and killed his 15-year-old brother while playing with their mother’s handgun.
A 26 year old was shot and killed while driving in San Francisco.
A man was found dead from a gunshot wound in his home in Kansas City, Kansas.
A woman in an El Paso County, Texas shooting range was hit in the knee by a bullet that ricocheted off a trash can.
Two women were shot to death in a Dallas-area home.
Two women were injured after someone opened fire at a crowded soccer field in Las Vegas.
A 15-year-old girl was shot while sleeping in her bed when her Anchorage home was shot at.
A 7-year-old boy in Tallahassee shot a 5 year old with a gun he found in a 22-year-old relative’s room.
A Huntsville woman shot her boyfriend after the two had an argument.
A 23-year-old man died after being accidentally shot in a Greshman, Oregon home.
A Cleveland father has been charged in connection with the death of his 6-year-old daughter from a self-inflicted gunshot wound.
One man was shot in Elyria, Ohio, just west of Cleveland, early Saturday morning.
A man was found shot dead in a parking lot in Greenville County, South Carolina.
Two people were shot and killed outside an inn in Hampton, Virginia.
At least 10 people were shot in Chicago, at least two were fatal.
A Colorado Springs man was driven to the hospital with a gunshot wound.
A Jackson, Mississippi police officer was shot while responding to a disturbance call.
One man was shot at a Martin Luther King Jr. parade in Jackson.
Two men and one woman were shot at a home in Oakland.
An 11-year-old boy was shot in an Oklahoma City apartment complex.
Police in Richmond, Virginia are looking for three men who shot another man in his thirties.
Police believe gang violence is to blame for the shooting death of one man in Santa Ana, California.
An early morning shooting in Tuscaloosa injured two teenagers.

Anonymous said...

Are you threatening to shoot Gibson, Lynette?

Anonymous said...

Looks like he did it to himself with no help from anybody. Tomorrow will be a day of shame for him. Gail has called for the board of supervisors meeting to be a full house.

Sewertoons AKA Lynette Tornatzky said...

Ah, the "mighty" Gail resurfaces to con people into doing her bidding once again. Of course the PZLDF case went down in flames costing its appellants tons of money as they will pay all of the the Water Board's legal costs for lo these many years - since 2007 or so. Let's see, five years of legal costs at oh, maybe $350/hr. that adds up to quite a chunk of change, or maybe we should say pounds of greenbacks.

Yes, by all means, follow Gail..... do her bidding.

Anonymous said...

And you do the bidding of the "mighty" Gibson -- so who are you to comment on anybody's cost to the community? Save The Dream and Taxpayers Watch cost the community millions in the fight for an affordable sewer and by bankrupting the community as part of their scorched earth strategy. Gibson has cost Osos millions. The "mighty" Gibson has the nerve to bring back Cherie to work for him just to see what he can get away with after all the lies and abuse. This runaway supervisor is who you defend as you vilify Gail? Sorry. You can't paint one a villain and not the other and appear credible. Apparently it's okay with you that people are laughing at you.

Sewertoons AKA Lynette Tornatzky said...

The bidding of Gibson? I didn't even vote for him! How about a bidding for verbal decency! Don't vote for him if he runs again. Spewing hate and foul language on comment sections in trash talk on-line "news" sites is disgusting. Like you never made any mistakes, like you have no one in your family who broke any rules. But then it is always the guilty who protest the most on another's behavior.

Watching the Supes today and seeing who commented against Gibson, it was easy to see what the anti-Gibson fuss was all about. The sewer-disgruntled want to punish him and the right-wingbats want to get rid of him and his so-called "save-the-planet-United Nations-Agenda 21" viewpoints! They all had the very same talking points!

Taxpayers' Watch? Save the Dream? No, it was the anti-sewer rabble rousers and multiple property owners acting like poor folk that got the community stirred up to do a recall. There is no affordable sewer, that went bye-bye 30 years ago (although some people still cling to their step-steg-vacuum fantasy).

Gail was the PZLDF ringleader and the puppet-master behind the recall board but you don't see her living in the Zone or picking up the tab for the lost lawsuit, do you?

The bankrupting of the community was done by a board that couldn't seem to read the words the Water Board wrote on the paper. Re-start the project or you lose the money.

There is more but it won't change your frozen little mind, so no point to continue.

Anonymous said...

You are confused and uninformed as usual. Trash talk? Online news sites? What are you yapping about????

The fact that you didn't vote for Gibson means nothing. You sat at his right hand for years and have defended him up to this point as if he was your rich uncle.

You keep talking about the sewer when that has nothing to do with Gibson's collapse. I am surprised your comments are so poorly researched. You really make no sense, which is why you are such a laughingstock along with your rich uncle.

What does PZLDF have to do with yours, Save The Dream/Taxpayers Watch and Gibson's failures? Yet another distraction.

Your arguments are specious, empty, and obviously out of step with the vast majority of the community. That's really not something to brag about.