Rachel Maddow showed part of this clip last night from a 2007 Democratic presidential candidate debate. Candidates Biden and Richardson respond to a YouTube question on gun control from a Ted Nugent wannabe who fondly strokes his assault weapon, referring to it as his “baby” and asking how the candidates will help him protect his “baby.” Watch:
Richardson attempts a boilerplate response that won’t unduly alarm gun-fondlers. Biden questions the mental health of anyone who would refer to an assault weapon as his “baby.” I’m glad Biden is heading up the gun control taskforce.
[X-posted at Rumproast]
NickM
Ironically, the anti-gun-control absolutists make me want to get a gun.
Lori
Love Joe Biden. He may stumble and say silly stuff but he’s honest (as a politician can be anyway) and sincere.
Lee
This morning 2 more letters to the editor in the Dallas Morning News suggesting we arm teachers.
I had mine in yesterday suggesting that people support that solution are lunatics.
I’m seriously thinking of immigrating somewhere else.
J.D. Rhoades
The wingnuts act like Biden is some kind of buffoon because he calls their insanity and bullshit exactly what it is.
Well, he says “malarkey,” not “bullshit”, but you get what I mean.
amk
Go Biden.
Dan
Biden is a national fucking treasure.
The Other Bob
@NickM:
I feel your pain.
Plus, I think I want Biden for President.
'Niques
Seconded.
the Conster
Who knew there were so many tiny dicked losers. Keep proving us right, gun nuts.
Litlebritdifrnt
Well if it is any consolation said idiot calling his gun his “baby” is probably dead now. I was just reading this
http://www.nationalmemo.com/the-person-youre-most-likely-to-kill-with-your-gun-is-you/
Elizabelle
@Lee:
Virginia governor Bob McDonnell (R-Pat Robertson’s law school) is down with “discussing” teachers and school personnel packing heat in our classrooms. He cautions against the rest of us reacting out of “emotion.”
Had to love the Richmond Times Dispatch readers comments.
People have not forgotten McDonnell’s enthusiasm for subjecting women to unsought transvaginal probes.
Most popular comment, by Norvell Wylie Jones:
Even crazier state attorney general Ken Cuccinelli is running for the Republican nomination for governor next year. As his schedule permits, in between fighting with UVa over climate change studies, and defending Virginia against Obamacare.
I’m thinking all the talk about arming teachers might help us elect a Democrat in 2013.
Elizabelle
@‘Niques:
I’m down with Biden/Hillary Clinton in 2016.
Nora
The best thing about Biden’s response is that he doesn’t even have to think about it. His opening line is wonderful and he just runs with it, and I really love him for that.
Valdivia
Joe is a national treasure. I love Joe!
enesar
@Elizabelle:
I just moved from Ohio to Richmond, thinking I was returning somewhat to the safety of the East Coast. I am now wondering what rabbit hole I fell through – the politicians here make the lunatics back in Cincinnati seem like august statement ….
Trakker
I love watching Maddow because she really digs up some great stuff (like the clips she played last night showing why Robert Bork was so toxic – I had forgotten).
Biden’s answer was great, but I was impressed by the audience’s reaction. It was obvious that the audience enthusiastically shared Biden’s disgust and yet Democratic politicians continued to ignore gun control.
JPL
Betty, This might be a good article for you to share with the community… In Orlando a gardener who planted vegies in the front yard, battles neighbors. nytimes
Uncle Cosmo
@Litlebritdifrnt: Someone I was very close to in my undergraduate days ended her life that way, after her kids were grown. The only time that gun was ever used. Multiple degrees, a series of highly responsible positions, borderline genius–no screening for mental illness would have flagged her–yet I am morally certain that, no matter what she might have said to the dealer or anyone else, the only use she ever contemplated for that weapon was the one & only use she finally made of it. :(
gogol's wife
@Nora:
Yes, he’s magnificent. I’m intrigued by the way Obama is looking at him. I can’t decide if it’s horror or awe.
JCT
@enesar: That ‘s small potatoes next to my recent move – NYC to Tucson. It is truly amazing to realize that I am surrounded by people carrying firearms in the fucking supermarket.
Oh, and that my beagle is smarter than my governor.
JCT
@enesar: That ‘s small potatoes next to my recent move – NYC to Tucson. It is truly amazing to realize that I am surrounded by people carrying firearms in the fucking supermarket.
Oh, and that my beagle is smarter than my governor.
Oh and I love Joe Biden, too. A true mensch.
Citizen_X
@gogol’s wife:
Well, he did end up choosing Joe as his VP, so I’m guessing more on the awe side.
Adam C
All it takes is two provisions:
1. That no-one with mental health issues may own an assault rifle.
2. That anyone who applies to own an assault rifle has, ipso facto, mental health issues.
Ivan Ivanovich Renko
@NickM: Been that way for me for a very long time. The gun fetishists are also the confederates who want to control everyone who isn’t white and they are also the mysoginistic bastards who believe they have the right to control the lives of women… and whether we’re willing to admit it or not, they arm themselves largely to enforce that control.
I have firearms because those bastards do; and history shows who they like to point theirs at.
The Other Bob
According to the National Center for Education Statistics:
There are 98,817 public schools in the U.S.
There are 3.7 M teachers.
Statistically speaking, which is more likely to endanger your kid:
The 1 in 100,000 (or more) annual chance that someone will shoot up the school
or
Adding 3.7 million firearms to our schools?
MattF
Wowser. Don’t forget that Richardson was generally regarded as the lefty in the group of Democratic candidates.
Mark B.
@The Other Bob: I give it a couple of months until a tired teacher leaves her loaded gun on her desk for a moment distractedly, and it gets picked up by a curious student that accidentally kills someone.
Rasputin's Evil Twin
It’s time to call out the so-called “pro-life” GOP. Is someone’s “right” to a weapon that can only be used to kill and maim humans more important than a six year old’s right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness? Or is it true the only “life” they respect starts with conception and ends with birth?
While we’re at it, turn in your assault weapon and extended magazines, and we’ll give you Viagra to compensate. Also, if you think an assault weapon is your “baby”, we’ll see about mental health screening as well.
Amir Khalid
@Adam C:
I like the literary pedigree of this suggestion.
Bighorn Ordovican Dolomite
I have two thoughts: One–Joe Biden is awesome, and I am glad Obama gave him the chance to be on the national ticket/stage, and Two) @The Other Bob 25, exactly. Thinking about it like an epidemiologist, I shudder to think at the potential for trouble with that many guns in schools. At a US firearm related death rate of 10.2 per 100,000 that’s about 380 more deaths.
Granted that is a very dirty calcualtion as I just applied firearm death rate to the number of teachers. If I had a bit more time I’d look at rates of gun deaths per 100,000 guns or something like that. I am pretty confident that the 380 ballpark figure close enough to start a valid discussion.
amk
@Adam C: Perfect circular argument.
Lee
In Texas we have approximately 250 000 teachers.
We have approx 75 000 LEOs.
And people here already complain about taxes. Just think about the cost involved in arming and training teachers.
LeftCoastTom
@Lee:
Is Texas planning to train them, or just arm them?
Chinn Romney
I’d be curious to see how that guy to Richardson’s right responded. As recently as earlier this year he was spewing similar boilerplate, if that.
Lee
@LeftCoastTom:
Right now it is just all sturm und drang but most I’ve read is both arming and training.
McJulie
@gogol’s wife:
I was writing a little thought balloon for Obama: “That guy! That’s the guy!” Then hearts and flowers.
JCT
Thinking about that video all the way to work. I wonder if there is some way to make that snippet viral — really, just that 15 secs where that gun nut refers to his “sporting rifle” as his baby sums up the entire issue. This is the guy arguing to turn our schools into fortresses and surround our youngsters with firearms all day long.
All of it to make sure that no one can take *his* baby away. These guys barely say two words about the real babies that were lost – because we are awash in easily obtainable semiautomatic guns and 30-round magazines.
I really thought I was coming to grips with this — now I’m angrier than ever.
This is something that Kay keeps pointing out — why do the gun nuts get such a disproportionate say in our daily lives JUST to enable their pathetic fetish???
Thoughtcrime
Kos had Public Policy Polling do a survey regarding gun control. And the American people overwhelmingly oppose the NRA’s position on almost every question.
And check out the numbers from our Southern neighbors on question after question – they may surprise you:
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2012/12/20/1172170/-Daily-Kos-PPP-Poll-NRA-and-GOP-grossly-out-of-step-with-America-including-Republicans
A sample:
[…Would you support or oppose requiring a criminal background check before any purchase of a gun?
Support 92
Oppose 6
92 percent of conservatives and 94 percent of Republicans agree. So do 93 percent of southerners. There is no partisan or geographic split on the question. 90 percent of gun owners agree…
…Would you support or oppose requiring a mental health examination before any purchase of a gun?
Support 63
Oppose 28
Conservatives support this 59-31 (compared to 71-21 among liberals), Republicans support it 57-35, Southerners are more like to support this than Midwesterners or Westerners, gun owners agree 55-36, and hunters agree 52-38…]
But of course, no survey that includes Conservatives would be complete without them revealing their cognitive dissonance:
[…There are places where partisan differences did arise. For example, 36 percent of conservatives said they were more interested in buying a gun after the Sandy Hook massacre, while 23 percent were less interested. Among liberals, it was 10 percent more, 40 percent less, and among moderates it was 16 percent more, 32 percent less.
And asked whether gun violence can be solved with more guns, or more restrictions, 46 percent of conservatives wanted more guns compared to 35 percent who wanted more restrictions. It was 22-56 among liberals, 23-56 among moderates.
That’s quite the contradiction, isn’t it? While conservatives backed all those common-sensical gun restrictions, they still thought more guns were the answer to gun violence. Don’t ask me to decipher that little bit of cognitive dissonance…]
ThresherK
@Trakker: I forgot all about Biden’s bit in that; gives me a good feeling that he was tilting against Bork when much of the rest of the media and pundits were busy writing Saint Ronald’s hagiography, and Bork was not yet nationally known as the embarrassment he turned out to be.
pluege
quite frankly, Biden has been a helluva lot better on a whole slew of things than obama and the obamadmin would be far worse than it is without him – he is beyond an asset to them.
jheartney
@LeftCoastTom: I imagine the idea is that the teachers are supposed to buy the weapons out of their own pockets. (What, you don’t already own a piece? Communist!) Just like the militia back in pioneer days, except with Glocks instead of muskets.
Mnemosyne
@Thoughtcrime:
It makes perfect sense, IMO — Sandy Hook made them feel threatened and they feel that only they can properly protect themselves against threats (because the gubbmint isn’t going to do it), so they want a(nother) gun to protect themselves. They don’t think of themselves as being a hazard to the public safety because they have a gun. It’s all those other people with guns who are the problem.
Joel
@NickM: Lost the thread.
Tone in DC
@Litlebritdifrnt:
I just read some of the CDC stuff that you mentioned. Depressing as hell.
Tone in DC
@JCT:
LULz.
Sad but true, about the beagle and Jan Brewer (sp).
Del
@Lee: They won’t arm them and they won’t pay to train them. It’ll end up being yet one more thing the state expects the “union leaches” to pay for out of their own pocket when their wages get cut again.
aimai
@pluege:
Oh for Christ’s sake do you not know that the Cossacks work for the Czar? Are you really under the impression that Biden is some kind of eminence blanc or, to mix my metaphors and my languages wildly, some kind of loose cannon and power behind the throne simultaneously? Obama chose him because they think alike on many things–that’s obvious. He took on the job because he thought Obama could win and because he backed Obama’s policy choices and style–that’s obvious too.
aimai
Mardam
I watched that clip last night, and saw it live back in 2007. It’s sick the way that guy strokes his gun and calls it his “baby” like he was getting ready to stick his dick in the muzzle.
It’s time to reframe this argument. We don’t need to protect guns from people. We need to protect people from guns. Period.
Bobby Thomson
@MattF:
Fixed. Richardson was never thought of as “lefty.” His appeal was his resume, but it fell apart once you heard him talk. Just like Bob Graham.
Calouste
@The Other Bob: Biden vs Christie could make for a rather interesting campaign. Of course, chances are that Christie would sell out to the lunatics to win the nomination, but if he manages to hang on to his recent persona, we might see some frank and open discussions.
Smiling Mortician
@Mardam:
I like this. I’m trying to get it down to bumper-sticker length but haven’t had enough coffee yet. (Hey, I’m on the West Coast and on vacation. Don’t judge.)
Bob
How about the magnificent Biden saying “I said we wouldn’t touch Social Security, I think it’s a bad idea, that’s millions of vulnerable American lives you’re playing with there, and I’m going to do whatever I can to make sure we don’t change a thing.”
Humble Lurker
@Bob:
Considering Obama hasn’t touched Social Security and there’s no proof he plans to do so, I’d say they agree on that point, wouldn’t you?
Brachiator
@jheartney:
Here’s a bit of irony. Wingnuts want teachers to have guns, but then Congress let expire the provision which allows teachers to deduct up to $250 of their out-of-pocket expenses from their taxable income.
Ms. D. Ranged in AZ (IrishGirl)
WTF was Richardson talking about anyway?! What does Poverty have to do with the many mass shootings we’ve experienced? Not a single solitary one of them were some AA kid from the ghetto. Almost all of them were white people, some were white middle to upper middle class high school students or college students, and most had jobs or had just lost a job.
Now if he wanted to distinguish gun violence in general from the mass shootings like Aurora and Sandy Hook, okay but even then…what’s the correlation between poverty and say bank robbery? There isn’t a clear cut correlation. What about Domestic Violence? Nope, rich men beat up on rich women almost as much as the poor do.
And let’s not forget what an outstanding job we’ve done on addressing poverty in the past….I sort of liked Richardson but this was a patently stupid and simplistic answer.
Joe is a goofball but he’s a mostly honest goofball.
Gus diZerega
@Humble Lurker: Touching faith on your part, given the previous 4 years.
Mister Papercut
@Litlebritdifrnt:
Which means 32 people are shot dead by someone else?
That’s exactly one Virginia Tech massacre. Every. Day.
GMVictory
I can’t wait for the PTA bake sale to raise money to buy guns for the teachers. C’mon everyone! Chip in!
Teachers can include ammo on the student school supply list for their handgun. Y’know, defray the costs for the school.
Paula
@Ms. D. Ranged in AZ (IrishGirl):
It’s not off when you’re talking about violence in poor urban areas. A lot of people end up in a cycle of violence because they need to protect themselves against gang/drug activity; sometimes it means having to join those groups yourself.
Drive-bys are not mass shootings, but they can’t be separated from the larger conversation about how the easy availability of guns threatens everyone.
Again, gun buybacks in these areas have proven to be successful. It is possible for people to break the cycle without being coerced.
Darkrose
Oh, Joe. How are you so awesome?
AHH onna Droid
@Ms. D. Ranged in AZ (IrishGirl): @Paula: It turns out it’s not poverty per se but societal inequality, which can be addressed post income with tax policies and social welfare. However, I disliked him referring to ghettos. They are communities, communities unwillingly at war with more than just themselves.
Gun buybacks are ineffective, especially w when you have illegal guns being trafficked in for criminal gangs. Just like background checks and waiting periods don’t work when theres a gunshow loophole.