Sandy Hook

Sandy Hook

Thursday, January 31, 2013

The Second Amendment Should Come Second

While Congress was having its gun hearings yesterday, this father was speaking before Connecticut legislators who were holding their own hearings about the same matter. It's a crying shame David Wheeler, father of little Ben, wasn't invited to appear before Congress.

Our Congressmen, along with cretins like Wayne LaPierre and that crazy woman Gayle Trotter who testified on behalf of more guns, need to hear Wheeler's articulate, direct, precise and compelling remarks and his sensible suggestions. Most of all they need to hear:
Thomas Jefferson described our inalienable rights as: first - life; second - liberty; third - the pursuit of happiness . . . . I do not think the composition of that foundational phrase was an accident. I do not think the ORDER of those important words was haphazard or casual. The "liberty" of any person to own a military style assault weapon and high capacity magazine and keep them in their home is SECOND to the right of my son to his LIFE. . . . to the right to live of all those children and those teachers, to the right to the lives of your children, of you, to all of us, all our lives. It is SECOND. Let's honor the founding documents and get our priorities straight.
Everyone in the room, including legislators, stood and vigorously applauded after Mr. Wheeler finished his remarks.

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Personally, I'm beginning to think that if the Second Amendment can't be second, maybe it should be repealed. But in the meantime, tax those damn bullets by 1500 percent.

See Rachel Meadow interview with the Wheelers in previous post.

More about Gayle Trotter can be found here and here and in an excellent column by Paul Waldman.

13 comments:

  1. "Freedom"... freedom from fear? freedom to send your kids to school in safety? freedom not to have paranoid delusions that the government has nothing better to do than do something diabolical to you?

    The gun lobby: completely different idea and priority for that sort of… “freedom”:

    Their hobby comes first.
    Always.
    Above and beyond your freedom.
    Anyone's freedom.

    We could call it a fetish instead… or a security blanket… but we’ll call it a hobby. It’s polite. And they insist that the best way for YOU to feel okay about their hobby – which kills three 9/11s worth of Americans every year - is simply to have the same hobby that they do.

    Yeah, get THEIR hobby. They don’t like surfing or knitting. They like guns. So YOU should like guns.
    In fact… you MUST.
    Damned teachers…. Should have guns. Otherwise it’ll be THEIR fault that more kids will get shot.

    And if you don’t like THAT idea of “freedom” …. That is…

    A PARANOID VIEW OF LIFE INFORMED BY A NARCISTIC DELUSION OF GI JOE-LIKE COMPETENCY TO SHOOT AROUND CORNERS IN TOTAL DARKNESS AT PEOPLE YOU DON’T EVEN KNOW ARE THERE WHILE YOU SIMULTANEOUSLY CARRY A BABY IN ONE ARMY AND THE GROCERIES IN ANOTHER...

    Well, then…. Then next time they’ll come armed won’t they? Because that’s how they love to make their point.

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    1. What a wonderful rant, Magpie - and right smack dab on the dot. Paranoid they are. Bullies they are. Loonies they are. And why is it always the right that keeps enemies' lists?

      http://thinkprogress.org/justice/2013/02/01/1529761/nra-publishes-enemies-list-with-506-names/

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    2. It was a bit more of a rant than I realised when I was writing it…

      I get steamed because – while we didn’t have the same crisis on anything like the same scale – we did have a similar problem, and we dealt with it.
      And we used all the instruments that a civilised democracy is meant to use: the law, the police, civic co-operation, pressure on the government, bi-partisan political will, public awareness.
      And nothing is ever perfect but it did mostly work.

      And then I get these gun-toting cowards – and using a firearm is commonly equated with cowardice here – telling me from deep in a well filled to the brim with lies and propaganda that it didn’t really work and we would be so much better off with a 1100% higher gun death rate per capita because “y’know…. That’s freedom”….

      I wasn’t aware of that list of enemies….
      They should consider: regular people don’t have enemies. Criminals, thugs and terrorists have enemies. The rest of us live normally.

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    3. I can't tell you the number of times I've seen comments from gun huggers in the U.S. claiming that since Australia passed that law, gun deaths have actually gone up!!! Where they get this crap I don't know.

      When I think of enemies' lists, I think of McCarthy, Nixon, J. Edgar Hoover, Adolf Hitler . . .

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  2. I like to remind these 2nd Amendment zealots that the 1st Amendment guarantees us freedom of speech but it's still illegal to yell "fire" in a crowded auditorium.

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    1. Actually, the SCOTUS ruling reads that it's illegal to "falsely" yell fire in a crowded theater. When you think about it, that's even more meaningful in this case.

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  3. There's nothing wrong with alcohol. The trouble is that some people can't/won't imbibe responsibly and in moderation. Likewise, there's nothing wrong with the Second Amendment. The trouble is with a bunch of damned fools who insist it says what they want it to say, regardless of what it actually says.

    You can't reason with someone who's passing-out drunk or whose brain has long since been pickled because of his alcoholism. Likewise, you can't get those who don't want to believe what plain English words mean to accept anything they don't want to believe.

    Take Wayne LaPierre. He's never going to believe anything that goes against what has made him a millionaire, no matter how many innocent children get killed. No matter how many innocent women, men and old folks get killed. In a free country like ours, people are free to be as selfish and irresponsible as Wayne LaPierre.

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  4. There's no reasoning at all with the die hard gun nutters on the 2nd Amendment, even including some liberals. They're not only obtuse, they can take bullying to such an extreme they are threatening.

    I've read that LaPierre received a military deferment during Vietnam due to a "nervous disorder." The man is definitely unhinged.

    Speaking of bullies, the Oath Keepers are having rallies at state capitals across the country today. It would be a good time - and a lot safer - for folks to call their reps to push for stronger gun control laws.

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  5. The Second Amendment is an anachronism that needs to be repealed and replaced with common sense language.

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  6. Unfortunately that won't happen. Not in America. Not in my lifetime anyway. Sad that.

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    1. Not with people like the one in the photo I just added. He's hell bent on blowing his brains out I guess.

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    2. I'm not saying I'm optimistic, but America can surprise you sometimes. Did you ever think you would live to see a Black POTUS? Or that Glenn Beck could be too batshit-fucking-stupid for Fox?

      Depends how old you are, but I think a little hope isn't out of the question.

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