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You are here: Home / Gun Issues / Gun nuts / Freedom of Speech! Tyranny! Oppression!

Freedom of Speech! Tyranny! Oppression!

by @heymistermix.com|  January 6, 201410:43 am| 157 Comments

This post is in: Gun nuts

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A long-time columnist at a major publication is fired for exercising his First Amendment right to talk about the Second Amendment. Tea Men, to the outrage cave! Oh, wait:

Mr. Metcalf began his journalism career with a column in Shooting Times, a more technical gun publication, explaining the patchwork of gun laws across America to readers, while teaching at Cornell. Since then, he said, he has written for dozens of gun magazines within the group now owned by InterMedia, culminating with the back-page column in Guns & Ammo.

In the column that led to his dismissal, he said that too many gun owners believed that the constitution prohibits any regulation of firearms. He noted that all rights are regulated, like freedom of speech. “You cannot falsely and deliberately shout, ‘Fire!’ in a crowded theater,” he wrote.

“The question is, when does regulation become infringement?” he continued. Mr. Metcalf ended the column arguing that requiring 16 hours of training to qualify for a concealed carry license was not an infringement.

Remember: hating gays and blahs is constitutionally protected speech under the landmark A&E vs Duck Dynasty Supreme Court decision, which held that the First Amendment has strict application to all reality shows about ignorant rednecks with a Q score above 10. But, as legal scholars will recall, Metcalf’s writing falls under Scalia’s carefully crafted exception (known now as “the Bushmaster clause”) for criticism of the Second Amendment.

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Reader Interactions

157Comments

  1. 1.

    aimai

    January 6, 2014 at 10:44 am

    I’d laugh but the defenestration of these assholes makes the partisan divide all the more unbridgeable.

  2. 2.

    Paul in KY

    January 6, 2014 at 10:49 am

    Maybe we can bridge it on their bodies?

  3. 3.

    Nicole

    January 6, 2014 at 10:50 am

    “We are locked in a struggle with powerful forces in this country who will do anything to destroy the Second Amendment,” said Richard Venola, a former editor of Guns & Ammo. “The time for ceding some rational points is gone.”

    We’re doomed.

  4. 4.

    Just Some Fuckhead

    January 6, 2014 at 10:52 am

    Mr. Metcalf doesn’t seem to realize he was in the marketing department for gun sales. Wonder how he made that mistake?

  5. 5.

    aimai

    January 6, 2014 at 10:56 am

    Just FYI. Venola is thisVenola:

    A former editor of Guns & Ammo magazine who said he was defending himself when he fatally shot a neighbor during an argument is relieved that a murder charge against him will be dismissed.

    Richard Erick Venola, 54, was tried twice in Mohave County Superior Court in Kingman, Ariz., on a charge of second-degree murder in the shooting death of James Patrick O’Neill. Both trials ended with deadlocked juries that were split in favor of acquittal, according to the Las Vegas Review-Journal.

    Mohave County prosecutors decided not to try Venola a third time and on Tuesday asked a judge to dismiss the murder charge.

    Venola told the Review-Journal the decision reaffirms his faith in the American justice system.

    “I’m just looking forward to being able to rebuild my life,” Venola was quoted as saying.

    Venola was tried for the May 2, 2011, shooting death of O’Neill, his 39-year-old neighbor. O’Neill, who was unarmed, was shot in the chest with a rifle.

    At the trials, prosecutors contended Venola shot O’Neill during a drunken argument at the Golden Valley duplex where Venola lived. They contended that O’Neill was facing away from the house as if leaving when Venola shot him.

    Venola contended he acted in self-defense. His attorney said Venola retrieved his rifle from his truck because he believed O’Neill was going to his own home to get a weapon he kept by the front door.

  6. 6.

    Comrade Jake

    January 6, 2014 at 10:56 am

    In related news...

    In a rather macabre bit of irony, a self-professed “gun nut” who was a YouTube channel producer for fellow gun enthusiasts was found fatally shot in the head in his Carnesville, Ga., home on Jan. 3. Police are investigating the case as a homicide.

    If only he’d had more weapons available to defend himself!

  7. 7.

    Emily68

    January 6, 2014 at 11:00 am

    Here’s my thoughts about 1st and 2nd Amendment rights. Even with the most gun-nutty interpretation of the 2nd Amendment, you can still suffer the consequences if you literally shoot yourself in the foot.. And with the most ACLU-iest interpretation of the 1st Amendment, you can suffer the consequences if you figuratively shoot yourself in the foot. But if you say something controversial that the 2nd Amendment enthusiasts agree with, then you get off scot free.

  8. 8.

    Just Some Fuckhead

    January 6, 2014 at 11:06 am

    @Comrade Jake: That was a year ago. This Metcalf story happened some time back as well. Not sure why New York Times is making it news now.

  9. 9.

    El Caganer

    January 6, 2014 at 11:06 am

    Just like they’re doing with politicians, the wingnuts have started devouring any of their own who show signs of sanity. They’re zombies – they think brains only exist to be devoured.

  10. 10.

    Fuzzy

    January 6, 2014 at 11:07 am

    These poor trigger- happy assholes can read? The NRA must have told them what it really said.

  11. 11.

    MomSense

    January 6, 2014 at 11:07 am

    Well regulated militia is the forgotten clause in the 2nd Amendment. Why do they always skip this part?

    School had a two hour delay this morning but I almost killed myself on the ice trying to get to the car and had to crawl back to the door – so I am unilaterally declaring no school today. The walk, driveway and road are covered in thick ice with about two inches of water on the top. I don’t think I could make it to the main road if I wanted to.

  12. 12.

    raven

    January 6, 2014 at 11:08 am

    Breaking: High court puts same-sex marriage on hold in Utah

  13. 13.

    Paul in KY

    January 6, 2014 at 11:08 am

    @aimai: Jeezus! Bet that Mr. O’Neil guy had showed him that weapon at some point in time.

  14. 14.

    Ben Franklin

    January 6, 2014 at 11:10 am

    @Just Some Fuckhead:

    Yeah. He certainly understood the risks, and there are editors between him and publishing. It was a bold experiment; not as bold as Snowden, but a worthy attempt at opening the dialogue.

  15. 15.

    Paul in KY

    January 6, 2014 at 11:10 am

    @Comrade Jake: That was 1 year ago. I know…

  16. 16.

    Napoleon

    January 6, 2014 at 11:10 am

    @Just Some Fuckhead:

    Only a month or so ago

  17. 17.

    Belafon

    January 6, 2014 at 11:11 am

    @aimai: It’s much more fun to think that defenestrate only means to throw something or someone out of a window.

  18. 18.

    scav

    January 6, 2014 at 11:14 am

    @Belafon: Overton Window sneeks up behind them and. . . . pounces!

  19. 19.

    Belafon

    January 6, 2014 at 11:14 am

    @Fuzzy: The holy father has read the sacred parts of the second to them. They don’t need to read any blasphemy for themselves.

    Wait until they discover the printing press.

  20. 20.

    max

    January 6, 2014 at 11:15 am

    Tea Men, to the outrage cave!

    That’s like semen but brown, right?

    max
    [‘I think I just made a Klansman head explode.’]

  21. 21.

    Kay

    January 6, 2014 at 11:16 am

    I like how they freely admit the whole scam, and the content is identical to the ads:

    At some magazines, said Jan Libourel, a former editor of both Guns & Ammo Handguns and Gun World magazines, “the editors only want editorial content for some key advertisers.”
    Reporters and editors say that reviews are often written in close consultation with manufacturers. If a gun is judged to be of poor quality, magazines will quietly send it back for improvements rather than writing a negative review. The system is broadly accepted at these publications, gun writers say.
    Mr. Venola, the former Guns & Ammo editor, described the relationship between the magazine’s editors and the gun makers as a necessarily cozy one. “You have to be in cahoots with the manufacturer, in order to make the publication appeal to the readership,” he said.
    (Mr. Venola had murder charges against him dismissed in Arizona last year. He said he was defending himself after fatally shooting a neighbor during an argument.)

  22. 22.

    Bill Arnold

    January 6, 2014 at 11:17 am

    @Just Some Fuckhead:

    This Metcalf story happened some time back as well. Not sure why New York Times is making it news now.

    The Sunday (2014/01/05) NYTimes had a two front page articles of this sort, one on an anti-GMO campaign in Hawaii, one on Metcalf. Left vs right. Both sides do it. (The anti-GMO story was pretty depressing; I’m OK with people being anti-GMO as long as the objections are reality-fact-based, but mostly, as described in the article, they’re not.)

  23. 23.

    Mobile Grumpy Code Monkey

    January 6, 2014 at 11:18 am

    @MomSense: I heard one person claim that “well-regulated” simply meant well supplied; that is, plenty of ammo. It’s plainly bullshit, but that’s the kind of response you can expect.

  24. 24.

    Just Some Fuckhead

    January 6, 2014 at 11:18 am

    @Kay: Isn’t this Mike Allen’s business model for PayforPlaybook?

  25. 25.

    Just Some Fuckhead

    January 6, 2014 at 11:23 am

    Maybe Guns & Ammo can give George Zimmerman Metcalf’s column.

  26. 26.

    Ben Franklin

    January 6, 2014 at 11:24 am

    @Just Some Fuckhead:

    I take it you’re not going to bite on the Snowden apple. After all, the parallel is not so subtle.

  27. 27.

    Roger Moore

    January 6, 2014 at 11:25 am

    @MomSense:

    Why do they always skip this part?

    Because they don’t really care about the Second Amendment. What they really care about is getting their guns. The Second Amendment is helpful in getting them their guns, but they’re perfectly happy to ignore the part of it that might interfere. It’s exactly the same way they can read the parts of the Bible that tell them they’ll be rewarded for believing in Jesus while ignoring the inconvenient parts about loving your neighbor and giving your money to the poor.

  28. 28.

    Just Some Fuckhead

    January 6, 2014 at 11:25 am

    @Bill Arnold: All the not news that’s fit to print.

  29. 29.

    scav

    January 6, 2014 at 11:27 am

    @Mobile Grumpy Code Monkey: Well, then a well-regulated sex life is one with easy and plentiful access to condoms and birth-control with no limits on number or types of gun being fondled, right? (I’m sure I’m missing something.)

  30. 30.

    Shortstop

    January 6, 2014 at 11:30 am

    @Ben Franklin: painstakingly explaining barbs when people fail to respond flattens the gibe 100 percent of the time.

  31. 31.

    Just Some Fuckhead

    January 6, 2014 at 11:31 am

    Awesome, Sotomayor is hooking us up again, this time in Utah.

  32. 32.

    Felonius Monk

    January 6, 2014 at 11:31 am

    TeaParty motto: In a free republic, there is no room for reason and rationality.

  33. 33.

    Shortstop

    January 6, 2014 at 11:32 am

    @scav: that’s just…okay, sugar, you get a break because of the temp outside.

  34. 34.

    Kay

    January 6, 2014 at 11:33 am

    @Just Some Fuckhead:

    Isn’t this Mike Allen’s business model for PayforPlaybook?

    It is, and the moment he pisses his real employers off he’ll be gone, too.

    I don’t have any sympathy for Mr. Metcalf. He knew who he was actually working for:

    Gun companies have stopped flying him around the world and sending him the latest weapons to review.

  35. 35.

    Ben Franklin

    January 6, 2014 at 11:33 am

    @Shortstop:

    It’s not a barb, at least not intended for Fuckhead. It’s called ‘starting the discussion’.

    Even Hayden acknowledges it’s importance. :)

  36. 36.

    Just Some Fuckhead

    January 6, 2014 at 11:36 am

    @Ben Franklin: Why don’t you and Cassidy go buy some S&M toys and work it out of your systems in one long drug-fueled frenzy?

  37. 37.

    Shortstop

    January 6, 2014 at 11:38 am

    @Kay: I don’t think anyone here has any sympathy for him; we’re just entertained by the verbal Twister game the right will get into as it ‘splains how this is totally different than the case of Mr. Duck.

  38. 38.

    burnspbesq

    January 6, 2014 at 11:39 am

    What “First Amendment right” is that?

  39. 39.

    MattR

    January 6, 2014 at 11:39 am

    @MomSense: In Heller, the Supreme Court has explicitly said (via the Scalia written majority decision) that the “well regulated” part is just words that have no real meaning in limiting the “right to bear arms shall not be infringed” part.

  40. 40.

    Bill E Pilgrim

    January 6, 2014 at 11:42 am

    This guy could have kept his job if he made his articles about BENGHAZI, as everyone always should.

  41. 41.

    pseudonymous in nc

    January 6, 2014 at 11:45 am

    @Just Some Fuckhead:

    This Metcalf story happened some time back as well. Not sure why New York Times is making it news now.

    It’s more about follow-up, which is that in the current climate of rationality = bad, heresy against Big Gun will have you excommunicated for life.

  42. 42.

    Belafon

    January 6, 2014 at 11:46 am

    @Just Some Fuckhead: I jumped over to DailyKos, and according to the legal people over there, she took the question on whether a STAY should be granted, referred it to the entire SCOTUS, which as a body said that a STAY should be upheld until the appeal ends. There was no decision on the ruling on the Utah law, because that’s not what the SCOTUS was asked about.

    From a legal standpoint, granting the stay makes sense. Do people really want marriage licenses being issued that would be invalidated if the appeal upholds the law?

  43. 43.

    Ben Franklin

    January 6, 2014 at 11:47 am

    @Just Some Fuckhead:

    The part that hurt was comparing me to Cassidy. :)

  44. 44.

    Kay

    January 6, 2014 at 11:47 am

    @Shortstop:

    Oh, I know. He’s whiny in the piece though. Devoted his whole life, his 67 years, can’t believe he’s a pariah, etc.

    He was selling weapons. Had nothing to do with “nuance” or “the Second Amendment” or “journalism”.

  45. 45.

    Violet

    January 6, 2014 at 11:48 am

    @raven: So now are the married gay couples in Utah are going to be in the same situation as the ones in California were? Or will Utah invalidate their marriages?

  46. 46.

    Shortstop

    January 6, 2014 at 11:49 am

    @burnspbesq: the one the can’t-pass-8th-grade-civics-class keeps boneheadedly invoking in defense of Phil Robertson and everyone else who publicly gay bashes and then suffers social disapprobation or employer-enforced discipline. For weeks, we’ve been making fun of the right’s failure to understand the basic parameters of this amendment. mistermix is employing broad sarcasm.

  47. 47.

    burnspbesq

    January 6, 2014 at 11:50 am

    @raven:

    Breaking: High court puts same-sex marriage on hold in Utah

    The stay pending appeal, which makes sense, would have been entered immediately after the District Court decision was entered but for the amazing incompetence of the State’s lawyers. The Federal Rules of Appellate Procedure are not complicated; even Shortstop or Ben Franklin could have figured out what the state needed to file. But they screwed it up, with the unfortunate consequence that a large number of potentially invalid marriages were performed.

  48. 48.

    Shortstop

    January 6, 2014 at 11:50 am

    @Violet: the legal near-consensus is that those marriages will stand.

  49. 49.

    Just Some Fuckhead

    January 6, 2014 at 11:50 am

    @Kay:

    He was selling weapons.

    Did he try to make the case he was also now going to sell GUN TRAINING and open that market up for advertising in Guns & Ammo?

  50. 50.

    Just Some Fuckhead

    January 6, 2014 at 11:51 am

    @Belafon: They won’t be invalidated.

  51. 51.

    Violet

    January 6, 2014 at 11:52 am

    @Shortstop: Can’t blame the couples for rushing to the courthouses and getting married at midnight and shortly after. They knew this or something like it would happen, I’m sure.

  52. 52.

    Just Some Fuckhead

    January 6, 2014 at 11:54 am

    @Shortstop: Burns doesn’t get sarcasm when he’s still groggy from an auto-erotica asphyxiation ejaculation.

  53. 53.

    burnspbesq

    January 6, 2014 at 11:55 am

    @Just Some Fuckhead:

    Don’t project your sexual fantasies on me, pervert. Unlike you, I don’t have to resort to enhanced interrogation techniques in order to get it up.

    Mm has written enough stupid shit about the Constitution over the years that there is no reason to assume sarcasm when ignorance is just as plausible.

  54. 54.

    Just Some Fuckhead

    January 6, 2014 at 11:57 am

    @burnspbesq: It was sarcasm, Burns.

  55. 55.

    JPL

    January 6, 2014 at 11:58 am

    There’s white stuff coming down outside. I’d say it is a light snow rather than flurries because it covered my deck.
    I woke up and it was 28 and now it’s 24.

  56. 56.

    Shortstop

    January 6, 2014 at 11:58 am

    @burnspbesq: Were you a quicker study (see above, and 10,000 other cases of you responding to obvious snark with indignant squeals), you might have noted that the absolute only thing Ben Franklin and I have in common is lack of respect or affection for you. In this, as was amply demonstrated in the hilarious thread post-Cole’s Burns burn, we are firmly entrenched among the majority here.

  57. 57.

    burnspbesq

    January 6, 2014 at 12:00 pm

    @Shortstop:

    After Hobby Lobby, assuming the Tenth Circuit will get this right is the triumph of hope over experience.

  58. 58.

    Violet

    January 6, 2014 at 12:01 pm

    @JPL: It was 27.8 when I woke up. Dropped to 27.3 and has been climbing since. I think we’ll get above freezing soon. I hope my tropical plants survive. The papaya looks miserable. I didn’t cover the brassicas, although I did harvest the broccoli. The weather guy says the low is supposed to be 20 tonight, which is utterly ridiculous for us. I think I’ll find an old sheet and cover the barssicas this afternoon. Might save something.

  59. 59.

    burnspbesq

    January 6, 2014 at 12:02 pm

    @Shortstop:

    You’ve clearly mistaken me for someone who cares what you think on any subject.

  60. 60.

    Ben Franklin

    January 6, 2014 at 12:02 pm

    @Shortstop:

    I think we also share a love of dogs… :)

  61. 61.

    Belafon

    January 6, 2014 at 12:04 pm

    @Violet: Don’t know where you are, but it was 16 this morning in the Dallas area. Finding places warmer than Dallas this morning is just weird.

  62. 62.

    JPL

    January 6, 2014 at 12:05 pm

    @Violet: I ended up buying plantkets from home depot and used some sheets and table cloths. They are still calling for the temp to fall to four overnight. I assume they will cancel school because most students are bused. Atlanta city schools have already canceled for tomorrow.

  63. 63.

    shortstop

    January 6, 2014 at 12:05 pm

    @Kay: Today’s American right: always simultaneously bullies and victims.

    @Violet: New Mexico, too.

    I just have to hand it to these Utahns for their organizational skills. Almost no one saw Shelby’s ruling coming (it wasn’t expected until the new year, IINM). Getting your partner to suddenly leave work and meet you at the county clerk’s office before EOB on the Friday before Christmas (with what, two hours’ notice?) is quite a feat. Yet something like 300 couples pulled it off, and hundreds more were ready to go Monday morning.

  64. 64.

    burnspbesq

    January 6, 2014 at 12:05 pm

    @Shortstop:

    Leave it you to be so bitter that you can’t recognize a compliment. I said your reading comprehension skills exceed those of the Utah Attorney General’s office.

    Upon reflection, I may have been mistaken.

  65. 65.

    pseudonymous in nc

    January 6, 2014 at 12:06 pm

    Another quote from that article, discussing previous heretics:

    In 2012, Jerry Tsai, the editor of Recoil magazine, wrote that the Heckler & Koch MP7A1 gun, designed for law enforcement, was “unavailable to civilians and for good reason.” He was pressured to step down, and despite apologizing, has not written since. In 2007, Jim Zumbo, by then the author of 23 hunting books, wrote a blog post for Outdoor Life’s website suggesting that military-style rifles were “terrorist” weapons, best avoided by hunters. His writing, television and endorsement deals were quickly put on hiatus.

    Here’s Tsai’s recantation, and it really does sound like something from the Inquisition. His sin was to suggest that there might be firearms that do not belong in the hands of Bubba P. Igfucker who wants it because it’s on Call Of Duty.

  66. 66.

    Belafon

    January 6, 2014 at 12:06 pm

    @Ben Franklin: You should read the Benghazi cartoon @Bill E Pilgrim links to, because if you substitute Snowden, that’s exactly what you sound like.

  67. 67.

    JPL

    January 6, 2014 at 12:07 pm

    @Belafon: When I lived in Dallas, I can remember using empty milk jugs in the pool, in order to keep the ice away from the tile.

    Our pipe under the sink froze but we were able to thaw it with a hair dryer before it burst.

  68. 68.

    Kay

    January 6, 2014 at 12:08 pm

    @Just Some Fuckhead:

    We have a concealed carry trainer with a homemade sign out by my office. The sign is itself crazy. It has those little graveyard US flags stuck around it, leaning every which way, and the letters are almost randomly-sized and dripping red paint. You really don’t have to know anything else about him other than he made that sign.

    I don’t think emergency medical people should have to go up his winding driveway if he calls. It’s too risky. Screw that. We have to limit casualties. Let him learn first aid.

  69. 69.

    pseudonymous in nc

    January 6, 2014 at 12:09 pm

    @Belafon:

    Finding places warmer than Dallas this morning is just weird.

    Boston is apparently a balmy 53F right now. Yeah, file this one under weird shit that happens when weird is the new normal.

  70. 70.

    Violet

    January 6, 2014 at 12:09 pm

    @Belafon: Yeah for sure. Turned on the TV and the Today Show people said it was 52 or 55 there (can’t remember). They were wearing light jackets. Ridiculous.

  71. 71.

    Tone In DC

    January 6, 2014 at 12:11 pm

    @aimai:

    His neighbor. Shot during a drunken argument. As said neighbor was facing away from Venola/shit-from-shinola.

    Maybe this Bronson wannabe plays golf with Five Deferments Cheney and G. Zimmerman.

    I was living here in Humidity Central in the late 80s and early 90s when things got, uh, call it out of hand (murder capital and all). I can not fathom being as paranoid as these people.

  72. 72.

    shortstop

    January 6, 2014 at 12:14 pm

    @burnspbesq:

    You’ve clearly mistaken me for someone who cares what you think on any subject.

    Which is why you brought up me and my alleged thought process, apropos of nothing.

    Burns, if you’re going to keep being a world-class asshole (and it’s hard to see how you stop at this point, given your kryptonite reality filter), you’re going to have to get better at this insulting repartee thing. Nearly every one of your retorts is something a seventh-grader would reject as unsophisticated. Alas, like a bald Sarah Palin, you lack the intellectual ability to see just how sadly you come off. “Dunning, Kruger and Burns, attorneys at law; how may I help you?”

    @Ben Franklin: Do we? Well, there’s that, then.

  73. 73.

    Elizabelle

    January 6, 2014 at 12:15 pm

    @Kay:

    Quite the example.

    It would be noonish now. Be a safety squirrel.

  74. 74.

    Ben Franklin

    January 6, 2014 at 12:16 pm

    @shortstop:

    Well, you said you love dogs. What was it, a Queensland Heeler?

  75. 75.

    The Snarxist Formerly Known as Kryptik

    January 6, 2014 at 12:17 pm

    So essentially, the only consequences are for those insufficiently subservient to the almighty 2nd, politicians and journalists alike. If you love your guns enough, you can fucking get away with murder.

    Fuck this all. NRA fucking wins forever apparently.

  76. 76.

    Belafon

    January 6, 2014 at 12:17 pm

    @JPL: I don’t mean to imply that it never gets below freezing here, or never has (I grew up in Abilene, and we had to worry about freezing pipes and sometimes snow). But 16 in Dallas and the 50s in New England or even 28 where Violet is, that’s just not right.

  77. 77.

    Villago Delenda Est

    January 6, 2014 at 12:18 pm

    @MomSense:

    Why do they always skip this part?

    Because it forecloses them treating firearms like toys, by implication.

    One of the little catches about a “well regulated militia” is that you must show up at a government facility well before noon and someone in authority will inspect your firearm for functionality. If you arrive with it loaded and with the safety off, which what these fetishists inevitably do, your weapon will be confiscated and your services as a militia member will be no longer required. And your toy is taken away from you because you’ve demonstrated, in irrefutable terms, you’re not responsible enough to be entrusted with a firearm under any circumstance.

    That’s why they ignore it. It is the check and balance against firearms fetishists.

  78. 78.

    shortstop

    January 6, 2014 at 12:22 pm

    @burnspbesq: That kryptonite reality filter I mentioned above — also known as exceptional cognitive dissonance — allows you to publicly make predictions like that after your .000 average. I guess the inability to be embarrassed protects you from some misery, but it’s kind of like children who lack pain sensors burning themselves on stoves over and over.

    Read again and note that I didn’t say the 10th would affirm Shelby’s ruling. I said the legal near-consensus is that the same-sex marriages already performed in Utah will stand. If you have evidence that this is not the consensus of almost all people with legal cred who are commenting on this case, please present it. (Your personal dissent does not render my comment incorrect.)

  79. 79.

    Violet

    January 6, 2014 at 12:22 pm

    @The Snarxist Formerly Known as Kryptik:

    Fuck this all. NRA fucking wins forever apparently.

    It’s not even the NRA. It’s the gun manufacturers. The NRA is their marketing arm. It’s just another example of how our government is owned by corporations. Talk about “special interests.”

  80. 80.

    shortstop

    January 6, 2014 at 12:24 pm

    @Ben Franklin: I do love dogs. We did have a blue heeler back in the day. I think I remember this conversation now; did we talk about never being able to train him not to grab guests’ heels when they got up to go to the bathroom?

    Today’s model is a skinny mostly-beagle on stilts. Pointer? Doberman? Who knows? Probably five or six other breeds mixing it up in there.

  81. 81.

    Ben Franklin

    January 6, 2014 at 12:28 pm

    @Belafon:

    I’m glad someone sees the parallel. If we must chastize the gunnutz for suppressing speech and discouraging inconvenient dialogue, then the flip-side should pop up.

    I thought a mirror-image wrt Snowden’s hero/villain status as camoflauge to prevent a discussion of the genuine issues, rather than obsessively shooting the messenger, was spot on for this discussion.

  82. 82.

    Patricia Kayden

    January 6, 2014 at 12:29 pm

    @aimai: Wow. Another Zimmerman!

  83. 83.

    BGinCHI

    January 6, 2014 at 12:29 pm

    Rochester’s finest.

    http://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/man_shoots_self_friend_restaurant

    Fucking idiots.

  84. 84.

    JPL

    January 6, 2014 at 12:30 pm

    @Belafon: It’s twenty five in Atlanta which isn’t uncommon but overnight single digits are. I hate this new normal. Last year around this time, my roses were still blooming on and off.

  85. 85.

    Belafon

    January 6, 2014 at 12:30 pm

    @Ben Franklin: I didn’t mean it as a complement.

  86. 86.

    JPL

    January 6, 2014 at 12:32 pm

    Why aren’t teens allowed to buy guns? They certainly know how to operate them.

  87. 87.

    Ben Franklin

    January 6, 2014 at 12:33 pm

    @shortstop:

    Yeah. I have a Red (15 years young) and when in Yosemite we had neighbors and the lady got between him and us, even though he was leashed.

    She called him Cujo after that ankle wound, but she had big dogs and she was cool about it. Ankle-biting is a deep instinct, as is their loyalty to the pack. so no. I don’t think they can be untrained.

  88. 88.

    Violet

    January 6, 2014 at 12:34 pm

    @BGinCHI: The utterly predictable part:

    No charges have been filed, according to the sheriff’s office.

    The gun owner has suffered enough. Of course.

  89. 89.

    Ben Franklin

    January 6, 2014 at 12:34 pm

    @Belafon:

    ditto.

  90. 90.

    Violet

    January 6, 2014 at 12:35 pm

    @JPL: Why can’t I own a nuclear weapon? Infringing upon my 2nd amendment rights!

  91. 91.

    shortstop

    January 6, 2014 at 12:37 pm

    @Violet: I have actually heard this argument made. By a private US citizen who went on to insist that Iran had absolutely no right to have nuclear weapon capability. I had to go lie down for a while after hearing that.

  92. 92.

    Bill E Pilgrim

    January 6, 2014 at 12:37 pm

    Jeebus if I had wanted to listen to lawyers being assholes to each other this often I would have just entered a life of crime. Like becoming a politician or something.

  93. 93.

    BGinCHI

    January 6, 2014 at 12:39 pm

    @Violet: The people with the toddler should get to punch him in the junk as many times as they’d like. If it were me I would have pistol whipped him. He’d be lucky I’m a liberal.

  94. 94.

    shortstop

    January 6, 2014 at 12:39 pm

    @Bill E Pilgrim: Oh, I’m not a lawyer. But Burns is only one because he has a couple of clients who still haven’t fired him and he hasn’t actually been disbarred. Yet.

  95. 95.

    Certified Mutant Enemy

    January 6, 2014 at 12:41 pm

    @Violet:

    Or even artillery, a fully armed submarine (a fully functional unarmed submarine would likely get one into trouble), etc…

  96. 96.

    charluckles

    January 6, 2014 at 12:44 pm

    It is about marketing and selling a product based on fear. Thats the entire reason this gun culture exists; the literature, the organizations, the furious politics and the destruction of anyone who even hints at not towing the line. It’s all about the sales.

    I own a gun, I see it, how do we get other gun owners to see it?

  97. 97.

    The Snarxist Formerly Known as Kryptik

    January 6, 2014 at 12:44 pm

    @Violet:
    @shortstop:
    @Certified Mutant Enemy:

    But just remember if you disagree, then you’re the truly Anti-American psychopathic monster, Supreme Court sez so.

  98. 98.

    Bill E Pilgrim

    January 6, 2014 at 12:44 pm

    @shortstop: Right but that ruins my joke. So for that reason, in this thread you are a lawyer. Sorry.

  99. 99.

    Glocksman

    January 6, 2014 at 12:44 pm

    @MattR:

    Grammatically, according to the English language experts quoted by the pro-gun side, that’s correct.
    I don’t know as I’m not an English language expert.

    Legally, it’s whatever Scalia and four of his fellow jurists said it is.

    @Kay:

    As a former longtime reader of Guns & Ammo, Shooting Times, and other gun magazines, I learned quickly to see what the reviewers weren’t saying in their reviews and learned the code words.

    Simply put, any new gun that wasn’t hailed as better than John Moses Browning’s Model 1911 sucked, and phrases such as ‘sturdy design’ and ‘strongly built’ when used in handgun reviews meant ‘too big and heavy for the average human to hold properly’ in plain English.

    @pseudonymous in nc:

    The ones decrying Tsai’s comments about the HK subgun probably imagine themselves needing a gun designed to penetrate the body armor worn by the ACORN and FEMA thugs coming to drag them off to the UN Re-Education camps they read about on Newsmax.

    In other words, paranoid lunatics.
    The problem is the paranoid lunatics shout down the saner voices on the progun side.

  100. 100.

    Just Some Fuckhead

    January 6, 2014 at 12:46 pm

    @Violet:

    The gun owner has suffered enough. Of course.

    Shot happens.

  101. 101.

    shortstop

    January 6, 2014 at 12:48 pm

    Speaking of clueless law enforcement peeps (who don’t charge reckless gun owners), a friend just cracked me up by informing me that a Mr. John Faucett, chief law enforcement officer in mighty Kirklin, Indiana, and the man running for sheriff of Frankfort County, posted this on FB thinking it was bona fide news. The centerpiece of Faucett’s platform is his desire to establish a drug task force to deal with the “90 percent” of Frankfort County crime that is “drug-related.”

    Yikes. It’s like this all over, isn’t it?

  102. 102.

    Original Lee

    January 6, 2014 at 12:49 pm

    Completely off-topic, but I’m trying to remember the author and title of a science fiction short story I read in an anthology many years ago. The protagonist was a scientist who had lost the love of his life, so taking the phrase “one woman in a million” literally, he traveled from planet to planet in search of a woman who was essentially identical to his lost love. But when he found her, he had changed so much during his quest that she rejected him.

    I appreciate the help!

  103. 103.

    Villago Delenda Est

    January 6, 2014 at 12:50 pm

    @Glocksman:

    ACORN and FEMA thugs coming to drag them off to the UN Re-Education camps they read about on Newsmax.

    I so wish that Obama would get off his thin black ass and get these things up and running, so these assholes can be “processed” into something more useful.

    Like fertilizer.

  104. 104.

    piratedan

    January 6, 2014 at 12:50 pm

    @Violet: geez, since when did every dumbass discharging a gun in a totally inappropriate area turn into Boo fucking Radley?

  105. 105.

    Certified Mutant Enemy

    January 6, 2014 at 12:51 pm

    @shortstop:

    One of the those victims was 29-year-old Jesse Bruce Pinkman, a former methamphetamine dealer from Albuquerque who had recently moved to Boulder to establish a legal marijuana dispensary.

    Umm….

  106. 106.

    Villago Delenda Est

    January 6, 2014 at 12:51 pm

    @charluckles:

    Yup, it’s about cash registers ringing, and amoral assholes profiting off of fear and death.

    The merchants of death need to move product.

  107. 107.

    Violet

    January 6, 2014 at 12:52 pm

    @BGinCHI: Wonder if the toddler and baby parents and the restaurant owners can sue him for reckless endangerment or anything else that might fit?

    If people who own guns were actually charged if the gun injures someone or property, and as a result they have to go to jail and/or pay a huge fine plus have their various insurance rates skyrocket, things might be a bit different.

  108. 108.

    Bill E Pilgrim

    January 6, 2014 at 12:52 pm

    @shortstop: Rather than releasing it directly with attribution traceable to him, you’d think he would have just leaked it.

  109. 109.

    shortstop

    January 6, 2014 at 12:54 pm

    @Violet: I’ve thought that, too. But if the idea of your own toddler accidentally offing himself with your unsecured gun doesn’t deter people, would a fine? Charging these people would only provide some measure of satisfaction for the rest of us. Hey, I’ll take it.

  110. 110.

    Freemark

    January 6, 2014 at 12:56 pm

    @shortstop: The 2nd Amendment doesn’t apply outside the good ole US of A so it makes perfect sense.

  111. 111.

    shortstop

    January 6, 2014 at 12:56 pm

    @Bill E Pilgrim: Never mind — I see your edit, and haw!

  112. 112.

    Glocksman

    January 6, 2014 at 12:56 pm

    @Violet:

    If I had to guess, the Sheriff’s office is going to let the county prosecutor determine what charges should be filed, and I doubt his office is open on Saturday.

    If nothing else, NY State should immediately suspend his permit based on his demonstrated inability to both safely handle a firearm in public and his bad judgment in producing one in a public place without just cause.

    And am I a bad person for reading that article and laughing out loud that it was WHAM reporting the story?

  113. 113.

    Comrade Misfit

    January 6, 2014 at 12:57 pm

    Would someone mind pointing me to the section of First Amendment law that says that a magazine, newspaper or, for that matter, a TV network is not allowed to choose what points of view they want to put into print (or air)?

    Because I’m sure as hell not finding it.

    Like every other freaking publication, Guns and Ammo has the right to control what appears within its pages. And when editors go against the publisher’s wishes on what makes the pages, the editors tend to get fired.

    Does anybody not get this?

  114. 114.

    Violet

    January 6, 2014 at 12:57 pm

    @shortstop: These kinds of gun owners don’t think their gun and their toddler would do that. They “keep their gun safe” etc. Willful blindness. But charging them every single time it happens, plus hitting them in the pocketbook would be a different story. You can have all the guns you want but if someone or something get hurt with one of your guns, unless you’ve reported it stolen, then that’ll cost you.

    Can’t see why city and county governments and insurance companies would be against it. Lots of potential revenue sitting on the table.

  115. 115.

    Cassidy

    January 6, 2014 at 12:58 pm

    @Just Some Fuckhead: Neither of you are my type. I’ve never really been attracted to “whiny bitch”. I don’t mind a little crazy eyes, though.

  116. 116.

    Bill E Pilgrim

    January 6, 2014 at 12:58 pm

    @shortstop: No I made it up entirely. His name is Faucett.

    Edit: Okay then!

  117. 117.

    Paul in KY

    January 6, 2014 at 1:00 pm

    @Belafon: I would think 16 degrees in Dallas is akin to 45 below in Madison, WI.

    Do homes in Dallas even have insulation?

  118. 118.

    Violet

    January 6, 2014 at 1:01 pm

    @Glocksman:

    If nothing else, NY State should immediately suspend his permit based on his demonstrated inability to both safely handle a firearm in public and his bad judgment in producing one in a public place without just cause.

    What? You’re suggesting they infringe upon his sacred second amendment rights? He’s a Responsible Gun Owner. What happened was Just An Accident.

  119. 119.

    shortstop

    January 6, 2014 at 1:01 pm

    @Bill E Pilgrim: Bwa ha ha ha ha.

    @Comrade Misfit: Burns! Have you met angry armed pinko chick? She’s the one person in the universe as impervious to bleedingly obvious sarcasm as you are. Coffee date, stat!

  120. 120.

    BGinCHI

    January 6, 2014 at 1:03 pm

    @Violet: Yep. Exactly right. With rights come responsibilities, as well as higher rates.

  121. 121.

    Paul in KY

    January 6, 2014 at 1:06 pm

    @Original Lee: I guess each planet must have had less than a million inhabitants? Sounds like one of those 50s short stories that really don’t make any sense.

  122. 122.

    shortstop

    January 6, 2014 at 1:07 pm

    @Violet: Don’t get me wrong; I’m all for it, and often say the same thing. But I can’t help thinking that a lot of small-town and rural county law enforcement is siding, in tribal fashion, with the offending gun owners. Based on their public comments after these incidents, “This could happen to any of us” is something many of them really believe. We’ve also seen some of them suggest that holding gun owners accountable for securing their weapons is a slippery slope to banning guns.

  123. 123.

    Villago Delenda Est

    January 6, 2014 at 1:08 pm

    @Comrade Misfit:

    The wingtards insisted that A&E was violating Phil Robertson’s first amendment rights.

    They don’t see a problem with purging dissidents from the staffs for magazines for firearms fetishists, though.

    Or do you not get this? Are you that dense?

  124. 124.

    scav

    January 6, 2014 at 1:12 pm

    I Love this detail.

    Witnesses said the shot went off with a baby nearby and shattered an otherwise peaceful lunch.

    “All of a sudden we heard this explosion,” said Ellen Smith, of Mendon. “I literally thought somebody had a firecracker. I didn’t think it was a gun, but then I heard someone say, ‘Oh my god, what did you do?’ And I turned around and saw all this smoke and it was just silence. Everyone was stunned. This guy shot himself.”

    Smith called 911.

    “This guy was so gray. He was bleeding pretty heavily,” Smith said. “He kept saying, I’ve got a permit, I’ve got a permit.”

  125. 125.

    Violet

    January 6, 2014 at 1:13 pm

    @shortstop: That’s why I think the best argument is money. Fines are easy money for the county/city government. Higher insurance rates mean more money for the insurance companies and cost money to the gun owner. Money, money, money. Show them the money.

  126. 126.

    Paul in KY

    January 6, 2014 at 1:15 pm

    @shortstop: I think she plays for the other team (than Burns).

    Burns is a dude, right?

  127. 127.

    Just Some Fuckhead

    January 6, 2014 at 1:15 pm

    @scav:

    “This guy was so gray. He was bleeding pretty heavily,” Smith said. “He kept saying, I’ve got a permit, I’ve got a permit.”

    That’s like a coupon for one free accidental shooting. I hope he gets charged for the second shooting.

  128. 128.

    shortstop

    January 6, 2014 at 1:20 pm

    @Paul in KY: Oh, I didn’t think they were going to be having sex. Meeting of the “minds” only.

  129. 129.

    Ruckus

    January 6, 2014 at 1:20 pm

    @Paul in KY:
    She absolutely does. I doubt that anyone will make any headway with any argument other than unlimited arms. Good writer though, was a navy officer in I believe the 80’s.

  130. 130.

    MomSense

    January 6, 2014 at 1:20 pm

    Speaking of guns, is there any way we can get rid of the Toyota ad on this site that sounds like two shots being fired???

  131. 131.

    Gravenstone

    January 6, 2014 at 1:21 pm

    @burnspbesq: Pro tip Sparky, formulating any sentence as “even so and so could …” is not now, nor has it ever been complimentary. It is implicitly insulting and derogatory. So kindly go pound sand up your puckered ass, you sanctimonious halfwit..

  132. 132.

    Original Lee

    January 6, 2014 at 1:21 pm

    @Paul in KY: IIRC, most of the planets had several million, therefore multiple candidates for One True Love Duplicate. He would get the planetary authorities to bring the women to his ship and he would “test” them. His idea was that his One True Love Duplicate would react to his overtures the way his One True Love Original would have; if the candidate failed the test, she was clearly not his One True Love Duplicate.

    I think it was from the 1950s or early 1960s, but since I can’t remember the anthology, either, I’m pretty much at sea.

  133. 133.

    Ruckus

    January 6, 2014 at 1:21 pm

    @Paul in KY:
    Burns may be a dude in more than just the way you meant that.

  134. 134.

    Paul in KY

    January 6, 2014 at 1:26 pm

    @shortstop: My mind stays in the gutter, it appears…

  135. 135.

    Paul in KY

    January 6, 2014 at 1:28 pm

    @Original Lee: Thank you for the synopsis. I read alot of bad SF back in early 70s. Read some great stuff too.

  136. 136.

    Ruckus

    January 6, 2014 at 1:30 pm

    @MomSense:
    The best way is to notify Toyota that due to the quality and content of their ads you will never purchase a Toyota. If you could say that you will never purchase another Toyota that would be even better.
    I must have something turned off as I don’t get any sound. I believe I have flash turned off, although I can’t remember how I did that.

  137. 137.

    Mnemosyne

    January 6, 2014 at 1:42 pm

    @shortstop:

    But I can’t help thinking that a lot of small-town and rural county law enforcement is siding, in tribal fashion, with the offending gun owners.

    That does seem to be the case. Plus, there’s the old bugaboo of selective enforcement — a white guy who accidentally shoots his kid is let go with a “he’s suffered enough” while a black guy who accidentally shoots his kid gets arrested for negligence.

  138. 138.

    Glocksman

    January 6, 2014 at 1:50 pm

    @Ruckus:

    If you’re running Chrome, it’s under Settings>Show Advanced Settings>Privacy>Content Settings>Manage Plug Ins
    I have mine set to click to play.

    That’s why right now I have 1 banner ad for OEM wheels and 2 more for unlocked cell phones. :)

  139. 139.

    Jebediah, RBG

    January 6, 2014 at 1:55 pm

    @The Snarxist Formerly Known as Kryptik:

    Fuck this all. NRA fucking wins forever apparently.

    Its incredibly frustrating, but maybe, given enough time, most of the dumbass gun-nuts will accidentally shoot themselves/SYG each other.
    In the meantime, the rest of the population takes lots and lots of unnecessary casualties.

  140. 140.

    Lurking Canadian

    January 6, 2014 at 2:02 pm

    @Certified Mutant Enemy: as I understand it, Scalia closed that loophole by a close-reading of the word “bear”. 2A forbids regulation of any weapons a citizen can “bear” (ie carry). So not even he agrees with a right to own things like ICBMs and Abrams tanks, although shoulder fired SAMs are apparently ok.

    The interesting corner cases, which I don’t believe he’s addressed, are “suitcase” nukes (if such a thing exists), canisters of sarin and aerosol dispensers of weaponized anthrax. I’m sure the reasoning will be fascinating when he gets to those.

  141. 141.

    SiubhanDuinne

    January 6, 2014 at 2:08 pm

    @MomSense: I keep my speakers muted always unless I actually want to hear something.

  142. 142.

    Just Some Fuckhead

    January 6, 2014 at 2:09 pm

    @Jebediah, RBG:

    In the meantime, the rest of the population takes lots and lots of unnecessary casualties.

    “Freedom frags”

  143. 143.

    Trollhattan

    January 6, 2014 at 2:28 pm

    @Kay:

    Remember wen GM pulled their LA Times ads after Dan Neil savaged them in his column? Good thing he wasn’t writing about Glock–they’d have probably skipped the whole middle, financial step and gone straight for the source of their annoyance.

  144. 144.

    GHayduke (formerly lojasmo)

    January 6, 2014 at 2:29 pm

    @Belafon:

    Jesus Christ, I just looked that up on wikipedia prior to reading this post (actually, I looked up transfenestrate, which means to throw somebody through a closed window)

  145. 145.

    GHayduke (formerly lojasmo)

    January 6, 2014 at 2:31 pm

    @Bill Arnold:

    I’m anti-GMO simply because I believe un-fucked with food is likely better for us than fucked-with food.

  146. 146.

    LanceThruster

    January 6, 2014 at 2:35 pm

    I may not agree with what you’re saying, but defend my right to seek your death for daring to disagree.

    That about cover it?

  147. 147.

    MomSense

    January 6, 2014 at 2:43 pm

    @SiubhanDuinne:

    Mine are muted now, too but it was quite a shock. The other problem is that I don’t have an exclusive relationship with my computer although I can usually tell who she has been with based on the ads.

  148. 148.

    Paul in KY

    January 6, 2014 at 3:01 pm

    @GHayduke (formerly lojasmo): Look up ‘The defenestration of Prague’. Famous among the fenestrate set.

  149. 149.

    pseudonymous in nc

    January 6, 2014 at 4:01 pm

    @Comrade Misfit:

    Does anybody not get this?

    Well, duh. We’re just noting a) the contrast between this and Papa Duck; b) how the bangstick media’s forthright defence of individual liberty doesn’t extend to saying certain things about certain bangsticks.

  150. 150.

    pseudonymous in nc

    January 6, 2014 at 4:03 pm

    @Violet:

    He’s a Responsible Gun Owner. What happened was Just An Accident.

    Unless it turns out that he’s got previous, in which case he was never a Responsible Gun Owner and his actions should not be taken as representative of Responsible Gun Owners, because reasons and shut up.

  151. 151.

    catclub

    January 6, 2014 at 4:32 pm

    @Paul in KY: “Do homes in Dallas even have insulation?”
    Yes. Mostly for airconditioning purposes, but the effect works for heating, too.

  152. 152.

    Central Planning

    January 6, 2014 at 4:59 pm

    @BGinCHI: That is just down the road (ok, maybe 5 miles) from my house.

  153. 153.

    J R in WV

    January 6, 2014 at 7:37 pm

    I was on the jury for a murder trial once, and the ballistics expert was asked first how many police ready rooms (like the NFL Locker room) he had been in. Answer was I can’t count that high, many many.

    Next question was how many of them didn’t have any bullet holes from unintentional discharges?

    Long silence…. “Probably none of them…”

    In other words, trained professionals accidently discharge their weapons, often.

    I worked with a very professional woman who’s husband was a big city police officer. She walked with a limp when the weather changed, because her professional law officer husband accidently shot her in the thigh at the dinner table. With a .357 magnum, a very big pistol round. She was lucky to live, let alone keep her leg.

    So lots of unintentional discharges of weapons, everywhere. Even in the halls of the professionals. This is why the USMC and the Army have very strict rules about weapons and ammunition. Also why cops and sheriffs tend to be a little forgiving when a civilian has an accidental discharge, and say “It could happen to anyone.” Because it can. And does.

    Stupid, though, to take a deadly weapon out in a public space. Very stupid. Against the law in many places. You are expected (and often required) to keep them concealed; pulling one out is a crime called brandishing. This is why they are called “Concealed Carry Permits” people. Keep them put away, where they are much less dangerous.

  154. 154.

    WereBear

    January 6, 2014 at 8:21 pm

    I must say, it makes me believe in Karma.

  155. 155.

    Glocksman

    January 6, 2014 at 9:56 pm

    @J R in WV:

    Stupid, though, to take a deadly weapon out in a public space. Very stupid. Against the law in many places. You are expected (and often required) to keep them concealed; pulling one out is a crime called brandishing. This is why they are called “Concealed Carry Permits” people. Keep them put away, where they are much less dangerous.

    Ours in Indiana are called ‘License to Carry Handgun’ and it’s legal to open carry, but your point stands.
    Personally I think open carry outside of the hunting fields is just stupid, both from a discretionary standpoint and as the armchair commandos like to say, from a tactical standpoint.

    My POV is ‘why disturb others with my concealed handgun’ and ‘why risk having someone call the cops on me, which could lead to my accidentally getting shot’

    From a tactical standpoint, why make yourself into a target for the criminal armed with a brick or bat who wants to upgrade his weaponry.

  156. 156.

    Central Planning

    January 6, 2014 at 9:56 pm

    @Paul in KY:

    ‘The defenestration of Prague’

    That’s the new Peter Jackson movie, right?

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