NRA Gunfighters At The Wacko Corral

Where is Sheriff Matt Dillon when you need him? The National Rifle Association is trying to scare the hell out of people by yelling and screaming that President Barack Obama and those damn leftist kooks in the Democratic Party are trying to take the guns out of the hands and holsters of brave citizens. Wayne LaPierre, executive vice-president and chief gunslinger of the NRA, recently told the Conservative Political Action Conference: “Our founding fathers understood that the guys with the guns make the rules.” Here are some of the guys who were encouraged by the NRA to make rules:

1. James von Brunn walked into the Holocaust Museum in Washington, D.C. recently and shot a guard to death with a rifle. This note was found in his car he left double-parked outside the museum: “You want my weapons – this is how you’ll get them.” The guard was black, often described by members of the Christian Identity Church as mud people (White people made from dust, black people made from mud). The 89-year-old von Brunn is described as racist and anti-Semite by relatives and acquaintances. So here’s another wacko who was all charged up by the NRA’s charge that Obama was going to take his guns away. Please check the NRA’s anti-Obama website called gunbanobama.com.

2. Richard Poplawski of Pittsburgh murdered three policemen who came to his house with an AK-47 because of a domestic quarrel between him and his mother. A friend said he was upset that Obama was planning to ban guns and thought the feds would take his arsenal away. He is another wacko who swallows the anti-Semite line that “Zionists” are controlling the media, run the financial markets, and are running the world.

3. Ex-jailbird Lowell Mixon of Oakland, on parole for assault with a deadly weapon, used two weapons, one an assault rifle, to murder four police officers. This murderous rampage started with a traffic stop. He killed two officers at the site of the stop and two more when a SWAT team cornered him at an apartment.

4. Jiverly Wong of Johnson City, N.Y. walked into an immigration service center in Binghamton, fired 98 shots in two minutes, killed 13, critically wounded four others, and then turned a gun on himself. Before he appeared at the center he sent a note: “And you have a nice day.” Near him in death was a satchel containing two pistols and hundreds of rounds.

5. Seung-Hui Cho, a 23 year-old student at Virginia Tech, fired hundreds of bullets and killed 32 people before killing himself on April 16, 2007. He had been referred to a counselor in 2005 by a professor who noted his depression, lack of social interactions, and his constant anxiety when forced to talk to people. The counselor determined that Cho was seriously troubled and made appointments for him. After one meeting Cho didn’t show up for additional sessions. He was still able to “legally” buy the weapons he used to destroy 32 lives.

Between 1976 and 2005, 594,276 Americans have lost their lives to some of the 283 million guns available to 305 million people. We murder 17,000 of our fellow citizens each year, 12,000 with guns. But we kill over 30,000 with guns alone. Accidental shootings kill 800, 300 are killed by police, and 17,000 commit suicide. We wound about 70,000 each year, including 48,000 who are criminally attacked. Over 4,000 actually survive a suicide attempt while 15,000 survive accidental shootings. Another 1,000 are wounded by police. We spend over $2 billion a year treating gunshot wounds. And what does it cost to bury 30,000?

Last month 57 people were murdered in eight mass shootings. The killers used the grounds of a nursing home, a child’s bedroom, a church, a college, and a daycare center. The oldest killed in the nursing home was 98. In the church incident the minister tried to protect himself with the Bible he was carrying. It was shredded by bullets. In Samson, Alabama, ten were slaughtered by a gun nut, including a young mother and her baby.

Why is our murder rate three times that of Great Britain and Canada and five times that of Germany? Why are towns celebrating guns by throwing picnics for the conceal and carry crowd? The town of Onalaska, Wisconsin held a picnic for those packing “heat.” About half of the 200 who showed up openly carried firearms in Marvin Garden’s Park. The organizer, Hubert Hoffman, said that those who openly carry guns are not a threat. What if New York City threw a conceal and carry picnic in Central Park? Why do we have the Columbines and the Texas Towers?

Intimidation By Gun Seems To Work For The NRA

I believe the NRA is trying to intimidate the country and might as well wear the white sheets, the hoods, and carry the flaming torches of the Ku Klux Klan that trampled the rights of the blacks of Rosewood, Florida back in the 1920s. Why are the threats against the life of the president up 400 percent since Barack Obama took office? Why does the president’s wife Michelle and their two daughters receive dozens of death threats?

A man at a Maryland town hall held a sign: “Death to Obama! Death to Michelle and her two stupid kids!” Why do people wear arms to health care town halls conducted by the president and congressmen? I would think carrying an AR-15 rifle at a presidential health care town hall is being very stupid in a no-stupid zone.

Why do protesters carry placards with the words “Don’t Tread On Me”? Isn’t it a threat to use a line first used by Thomas Jefferson who said that sometimes it was necessary to shed blood for freedom? Why is the country running short of ammunition for “hunting?” How many Glocks and .38 Specials are used for hunting? Why are there 6,700 gun dealers along the Texas-Mexico border? Why do we sell .50 caliber sniper rifles in gun stores that can blast a hole in an engine block?

If you carry a gun, is the gun more important and more powerful than reason? Does power always dominate reason? A .45 is more powerful than a .22. A 20 mm. is more powerful than a .50. A 16-inch gun on a battleship can dominate an 8-incher on a cruiser. And sometimes reason only becomes more powerful after all the guns have been used.

But how often do we have to go through that stupid ritual to get to reason? The NRA blocks reason like an inoperable tumor. Our state department employs 30,000 people to improve international relationships and to foster peace. At the same time we spend $600 billion on national “defense,” more than the rest of the world combined. We employ 27,000 Pentagon workers just to recruit for the armed forces. Perhaps if we spent a little more for diplomats in the state department….

It’s hard to find out how many members the NRA has even with a lot of googling. Estimates range from 1.5 to 4 million. How many nutcases are in the NRA is also difficult to judge. There are millions of hunters in this country who use weapons sensibly each year for sport and good meat. Many do not agree with the strident preaching of the NRA hierarchy and the absolute opposition to any aspect of firearm and ammo controls.

I have hunted and the Marine Corps taught me how to fire everything from a .45 Browning to a 105 howitzer. I have a Marine Corps “Expert Rifleman” badge. The NRA doesn’t have to act like the Posse Comitatus or other white supremacy group shouting fascist slogans. No one is going to pry your semi-automatic out of your dead white hands. What disturbs me is the arrogant, militant attitude that is setting teeth on edge across the United States. We have elected a black president. We have elected liberal, moderate, and conservative Democrats as a majority. Get over it. No one is going to take your guns away unless you prove you are mentally incompetent to handle them.

But we also have to remember that the National Institute of Mental Health estimates that 26 percent of Americans over 18 suffer from a diagnosable mental disorder. That means we have over 57 million people who attend health care town halls, colleges, immigration classes, play “snoop and poop” in the woods in militia groups, live on Social Security, and live next door who have some form of mental instability. About 6 percent have a very serious illness. Nearly half of the 57 million have two or more disorders.

Over 21 million have mood disorders and suffer from depression, anxiety attacks, and are often addicted to drugs. We have six million adults with bipolar disorder which indicates broad mood swings. Two and one-half million adults have schizophrenia. Approximately 40 million adults have depressive disorders and anxiety attacks in any given year.

Six million adults are victims of other types of panic disorders. Two million will develop agoraphobia, a condition in which the person becomes afraid in any place or situation where escape is difficult. This is not when a person should have a gun because he is going to use it to “escape.” With the number of wars we have been in recently, we now have almost eight million adults living with Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). About 20 percent of combat vets will experience PTSD while civilians who have been victims of rape, mugging, domestic violence, terrorism, horrible natural disasters, or violent accidents may also suffer from it.

What mass murderer in our time was not a victim of a mental disorder? Whether he belonged to the NRA is inconsequential, but he was a reader of news, the object of propaganda, the subject of political harangue and misinformation, the alleged victim of mistreatment and frustration with his life in a society which rejected him at times. As one shrink said: “Crazy is an American pre-existing condition.”

Somehow or other we have to get over the idea that the power of the gun is the solution.

Perhaps the only way to do this is to create Dodge City all over again. Matt Dillon, Bat Masterson, and Wyatt Earp eventually checked all guns at the city limits.

I have a modest proposal. I believe that Congress, so enamoured with the NRA’s money and clout, should pass a law requiring all elected officials and federal employees to carry and conceal guns at all times. A major requirement would be that in order to retain their positions they must pass firearms safety and performance classes. All congresspersons would be required to carry weapons at any public event, including all sessions of congress.

Congresspersons who fail the firearms tests would be term limited immediately and special elections would be held for replacements. With all congresspersons armed there would be no need for security in the capitol. The federal “carry” law would include airlines, trains, and buses. All registered lobbyists would be required to carry. However, all weapons carried by citizens other than law enforcement would be limited to a magazine of three rounds. For every bullet over three an additional year of prison would be added to the sentence after a court action.

Individual states would have the power to pass similar legislation for their state employees. The states would also have the option of allowing any child age eight through 14 to carry pellet guns so they get accustomed to handling weapons. At age 15 children would have the option to conceal and carry adult weapons. Persons below the poverty level could apply for gun stamps when they apply for food stamps so they could purchase weapons.

Because of the numbers of murders in and around places of worship, all churches by federal law would allow weapons within those sanctuaries. All other places defined as public would have to allow weapons on the premises, including nursing homes, entertainment centers, concerts, clinics and hospitals. All courts from municipal to the Supreme Court of the United States must allow weapons inside the courtrooms. I believe these practices would end intimidation by either side.

Rex Rammell, a Republican candidate for governor of Idaho, discussing ear tags used by wolf hunters, suggested at a rally two weeks ago that Obama ear tags be sold. He then made a specific reference to killing the president of the U.S. He is one of the 57 million reasons I think we should arm everyone.