Tuesday, August 18, 2009

Open Carry Laws Do Not = Poke A Badger With A Stick

Arizona has an "Open Carry" law, where you can walk into any public place, carrying a loaded firearm (including places that serve alcohol), as long as it is obviously a weapon - you can't try and conceal it or disguise it as flower bouquet or something innocuous. I've seen people carrying 45s, 357s, and 9mms at Target Stores, gas stations, and grocery stores. It's part of the "wild west" culture out here I guess, ok, I can understand that.

But when the democratically elected, legal President of the United States comes to your state, and visits it's capital, and the Secret Service imposes a 5 mile "no fly zone", deploys roof top snipers, flies in (2) C-130s worth of armoured limousines and decoy vehicles, what inspires a citizen, or 15 citizens, to walk up to the downtown convention center where the President is speaking to the VFW annual meeting with an AR15 over your shoulder? Heck, the Secret Service chased down, detained, and interrogated a pilot who flew from Mesa to Chandler, NOT near Downtown, but within the no fly zone's edge - and KJZZ the radio this morning said that seven pilots were questioned for violating the no fly zone in and around the nation's 5th busiest airport during the President's visit.

So a zealot carrying an AR15 (with a 20 or 30 round standard magazine), into a public area that is under Secret Service surveillance, is like poking a badger with a stick, or trying to lick a spinning fan blade, or shooting a hornets' nest with a paint ball gun, or walking into Peshawar in drag trying to hand out Bibles. These provokers are not a "patriots" as right wing blogs and commentators try to make them out to be. They're just the kind of inhabitants of this country who have too much time on their hands, who try to pick fights in bars (and who I stand up next to, and then they back down and cower for the last 20 years) and who are immersed in their own agendas so deeply that they do not understand view points that are different from their own. If they are truly "patriots" then, Mohamed Atta was a "patriot" too, he "fought passionately for" what he believed in, as was Benedict Arnold, Joseph Goebbels, Timothy McVeigh, and many others. A "patriot" doesn't have to twist their logic into such extreme gymnastics to justify their actions and their ideology.

3 comments:

  1. Regarding the FULL quote from Jefferson that SO MANY ignorant Wingnuts misunderstand: "They were founded in ignorance, not wickedness. God forbid we should ever be twenty years without such a rebellion [Shay's Rebellion]. The people cannot be all and always well-informed. The part which is wrong will be discontented in proportion to the importance of the facts they misconceive. If they remain quiet under such misconceptions, it is a lethargy, the forerunner of death to the public liberty. We have had thirteen States independent for eleven years. There has been one rebellion. That comes to one rebellion in a century and a half for each State. What country before ever existed a century and a half without a rebellion? And what country can preserve its liberties if its rulers are not warned from time to time that their people preserve the spirit of resistance? Let them take arms. The remedy is to set them right as to facts, pardon, and pacify them. What signify a few lives lost in a century or two? The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants. It is its natural manure." (Nov. 13, 1787. MR 6:372)
    So yes, Jefferson would support bringing weapons to political rallies, but he would probably also support the Secret Service snipers taking out such persons when their actions threaten the President.

    http://etext.virginia.edu/jefferson/biog/lj20.htm

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  2. My son is fascinated with guns. At our recent trips to local Cabelas and Scheels "sporting goods" stores I discovered that with a valid NV license I can purchase any of the following if I so choose: M4 assault rifle, AK47 assault rifle, a S.A.W. (specific model unknown), and/or a .50 caliber sniper rifle. All perfect for home defense!

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TWJp14tkBlU

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0ABGIJwiGBc&NR=1

    No license or waiting period required.

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  3. Yep, in AZ too.
    http://www.cabelas.com/p-0054363.shtml

    "You picked the wrong goddamn rec room to invade!"
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2UhalTb2K0A

    And... Gun safety, is paramount:

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FRgYtp3HfvY&NR=1

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