Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Just because you believe it, that doesn’t make it true.

The GOP is a fucking disgrace.

Prediction: the GOP will rethink its strategy of boycotting future committees.

Is it negotiation when the other party actually wants to shoot the hostage?

That’s my take and I am available for criticism at this time.

A last alliance of elves and men. also pet photos.

We cannot abandon the truth and remain a free nation.

if you can’t see it, then you are useless in the fight to stop it.

Historically it was a little unusual for the president to be an incoherent babbling moron.

Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

The words do not have to be perfect.

We are aware of all internet traditions.

They fucked up the fucking up of the fuckup!

Republicans don’t want a speaker to lead them; they want a hostage.

Technically true, but collectively nonsense

They love authoritarianism, but only when they get to be the authoritarians.

“woke” is the new caravan.

Battle won, war still ongoing.

Putting aside our relentless self-interest because the moral imperative is crystal clear.

If you are still in the GOP, you are an extremist.

Republicans seem to think life begins at the candlelight dinner the night before.

The arc of history bends toward the same old fuckery.

Meanwhile over at truth Social, the former president is busy confessing to crimes.

Wow, you are pre-disappointed. How surprising.

You are here: Home / Gun Issues / Gun nuts / Just Exercising His Rights

Just Exercising His Rights

by | 102 Comments

This post is in: 

http://video-embed.mlive.com/services/player/bcpid2436806291001?bctid=3621780684001&bckey=AQ~~,AAAAQBxUr7k~,PsMaWpexSO0gBGbwp0HC65I60alsnUQ1

Grumble, piss moan. Here:

On a bright day in early May, Joseph Houseman, 63, was out enjoying his Second Amendment rights in Kalamazoo, Mich. As traffic went by on East Cork Street, Houseman stood at the roadside, a rifle resting on his shoulder. Witnesses called the police.

“Yes, I’d like to report something,” one man told a 911 dispatcher that day, May 4, according to audio obtained by MLive.com. “There’s an elderly man walking down the street with, it looks like to be an assault rifle. I don’t know if its a bb gun, a pellet gun, or whatnot. But, I mean, he’s older, he’s an elderly man, and I just want to be sure everything is going to be alright.”

The first calls to law enforcement came in around 4 p.m. By 4:22 p.m., 12 officers were on the scene, traffic on the street was shut down, and negotiations were turned over to Sgt. Andres Wells, a trained SWAT negotiator, according to MLive.com. The website, which obtained police reports and recordings of the ensuing 40-minute standoff, on Monday published a video portraying part of the at times tense, at times absurd events. In it, Houseman can be seen pointing and shouting at officers — and at one point he grabs his genitals and gestures in the officers’ direction.

“Folks, I need you all to go inside,” an officer can be heard telling onlookers at one point. “If that gun is live and he starts firing, everyone is at risk.”

Reader Interactions

102Comments

  3. 3.

    The Dangerman

    Tinky Winky says* check your linky.

    *well, he (she? it?) would if Tinky Winky talked

  4. 4.

    rikyrah

    Michelle Obama Calls Out House Republicans For Trying to Roll Back School Lunch Standards

    By: Jason Easley
    Monday, June, 16th, 2014, 2:19 pm
    House Republicans are due to vote this week on an agriculture spending bill that includes a provision rolling back the nutritional requirements in school lunches, but First Lady Michelle Obama is already calling out the GOP.

    …………..

    Republicans are using the rising cost of fruits and vegetables as their reason to roll back the 2010 school lunch nutritional requirement that more fruits and vegetables be offered at meal time. The School Nutrition Association, which gets nearly two thirds of its funding from frozen and processed food companies, is working with House Republicans to roll back the standards.

    This fight has nothing to do with the health and wellness of students. It is all about processed food giants like ConAgra Foods, Tyson Foods and Domino’s Pizza trying to push healthy food options out of the cafeteria.

    http://www.politicususa.com/2014/06/16/michelle-obama-calls-house-republicans-roll-school-lunch-standards.html

  7. 7.

    scav

    I’m just enjoying a flashback to Raùl Meireles and it just being a still, so maybe no so bad.

  10. 10.

    Soonergrunt

    It’s another old fat white guy doing an open carry thing with a long gun.
    Can’t dance for shit.

  11. 11.

    sparrow

    He did know his rights though, just kept asking if he was being detained. Heh, funny enough, the answer was YES YOU FREAKING LOON. Ugh, I am sick of these small-dick losers.

  12. 12.

    sharl

    I played a hunch that it was the encounter between Kalamazoo MI police and the open carry gun nut discussed in earlier threads, and fragments of the embed codes (in what JGC posted above and what’s at the MLive site) do in fact appear to match.

    You can see the post and accompanying video here. Note that the video – which I won’t be able to watch myself until later – runs a bit over 10 minutes.

  15. 15.

    SiubhanDuinne

    Speaking of guns, I posted this at the tag end of the Netflix-Verizon thread, but it’s more appropriate here, and it’s a couple of pieces of good news:

    1. Two grieving fathers look for common ground on gun violence. Richard Martinez, father of one of the Santa Barbara victims, and Peter Rodger, father of the shooter, who also died, met today and announced they will look for ways to work together to reduce gun violence.

    2. The Supreme Court 5-4 has upheld a law prohibiting “straw purchases” of guns.

    Baby steps are still steps.

  16. 16.

    PurpleGirl

    @sharl:

    I copied the link and pasted it into a new tab and was able to see it, and only it. If there was text from a newspaper or TV station, that was not included.

    The guy needs to lose the weapon. Stat.

  19. 19.

    Liberty60

    I can’t see the video either, but I bet he is white.
    Otherwise the title would be “Cops shoot armed thug”.

  20. 20.

    Glocksman

    2. The Supreme Court 5-4 has upheld a law prohibiting “straw purchases” of guns.

    It was only a 5-4 decision?

    I can guess who the dissenting votes were.

  22. 22.

    Southern Beale

    I can’t see the video either, and I don’t have any blocking. I think the code might be messed up.

    I thought it might be THIS:

    Concealed weapons holder accidentally shoots self, driver in Cleveland

    CLEVELAND, Ohio – A concealed carry permit holder accidentally shot himself and another man while sitting in the passenger seat of a car on the city’s East Side, Cleveland police said.

    The shooting happened about 7 p.m. Sunday near East 103rd Street and Pierpont Avenue.

    The bullet ripped through the gun owner’s hand before it passed through the driver’s right leg and lodged in his left leg, police said.

  23. 23.

    Trollhattan

    @PurpleGirl:
    What’s the greater offence: the AK or the plaid jammies? Priorities, people!

    I so couldn’t be a cop, dealing with this crap daily.

  26. 26.

    srv

    A lovely story at the NYT’s about the Kagan’s and in-law Asst. SoS Victoria Nuland.

    Mr. Kristol said he, too, sensed “more willingness to rethink” neoconservatism, which he called “vindicated to some degree” by the fruits of Mr. Obama’s detached approach to Syria and Eastern Europe. Mr. Kagan, he said, gives historical heft to arguments “that are very consistent with the arguments I made, and he made, 20 years ago, 10 years ago.”

    Mr. Kagan, 55, prefers the term “liberal interventionist” to the neoconservative label, but believes the latter no longer has the stigma it did in the early days of the Obama presidency. “The sort of desire to say ‘Neocon! Neocon! Neocon!’ has moved out a little bit to the fringe,” he said.

    He’s excited about Hillary:

    “I feel comfortable with her on foreign policy,” Mr. Kagan said, adding that the next step after Mr. Obama’s more realist approach “could theoretically be whatever Hillary brings to the table” if elected president. “If she pursues a policy which we think she will pursue,” he added, “it’s something that might have been called neocon, but clearly her supporters are not going to call it that; they are going to call it something else.”

  27. 27.

    Tone In DC

    Another ammosexual, this one retirement age, proceeds to Lose (what was left of his) Mind.

    Once more for the cheap seats: Barack Obama is not going to confiscate your firearms. Stop freaking the hell out and acting like he has, or will. The NRA and its fellow greedheads just insinuated/pretended/lied through yellowed teeth saying the president wanted to impose such gun control.

    /end rant

  28. 28.

    Villago Delenda Est

    @SiubhanDuinne:

    The Supreme Court 5-4 has upheld a law prohibiting “straw purchases” of guns.

    Let me guess. Fascist fuckstick Scalia and his lawn jockey, Thomas, were amongst the dissenters.

  29. 29.

    Villago Delenda Est

    @Tone In DC: Sorry, but your assertions of fact are not heard by the ammosexuals, who hear only the bleatings of chickhawk fucksticks like Ted Nugent.

  31. 31.

    Tone In DC

    @Villago Delenda Est:

    Sorry, but your assertions of fact are not heard by the ammosexuals, who hear only the bleatings of chickenhawk fucksticks like Ted Nugent.

    LULz.

    And I cannot get over Ted not bathing for weeks (and smearing his sorry ass with waste) to get out of being drafted, back in the day.

  32. 32.

    Trollhattan

    @Tone In DC:
    Instead of sitting at home uh, polishing his receiver, he could be doing something fun and profitable with his neighbors at the senior center!

    A 64-year-old Fresno man was jailed Saturday after police found a small meth lab in his retirement village apartment near Fresno Pacific University, police Sgt. Brian Valles reported.

    Two officers on the department’s Violent Crimes Impact Team stopped a car near Olive and Rowell avenues about 7:45 p.m. for a vehicle code violation. They learned the driver, Robert Short, was on supervised release for selling methamphetamine, Valles said. When officers searched Short’s car, they found four ounces of crystal meth, plastic bags and an electronic scale, materials Valles said are consistent with meth sales.

    The officers then searched Short’s home in the 2000 block of South Willow Avenue in the California League retirement village. There they found more meth, heroin and a small meth lab, Valles said. Officers recovered a half pound of crystal meth with a street value of $1,700. Short was booked to the Fresno County Jail on several drug charges, Valles said.

    Read more here: http://www.fresnobee.com/2014/06/15/3978872/fresno-man-jailed-after-meth-lab.html#storylink=cpy

  33. 33.

    Keith G

    I highlighted (Chrome) right clicked and opened in new tab. It played. A very good example of how police should address a complex situation – when the complexity is a nonviolent (technically) stupid person (drunk? cognitively impaired?) with a gun that is not being pointed at other mortal beings.

  35. 35.

    Suffern ACE

    @srv: GAAAK.

    Why does it seem that the more attention they pay to eastern europe and the long list of enemies in the Mideast, the higher the body count gets.

  38. 38.

    daveNYC

    I would love to hear what the dissent on that decision is. Guns can be regulated, but steps taken to get around those regulations are A-OK?

  39. 39.

    Liberty60

    Repeal the 2nd Amendment.

    Seriously. This shit has outlived any use or purpose it had, given our culture and current case law.

    Lets make guns like cars. Licensed, registered, privileges that can be taken away. Preferably, before someone gets killed, not after.

  40. 40.

    Southern Beale

    @Tone In DC:

    A gun loon on Twitter got mightily offended at me today when I used the words “gun humpers” and used that as an example of how liberals are intolerant! (ummm…. right, yes I am intolerant of every idiot parading around with assault weapons because Freedom. Guilty as charged.) However, he had no problem calling me a gun grabber.

    I don’t want their guns. I don’t want to control their guns. I want THEM to control their guns. The fact that they can’t, well, what can I say. I guess that means a grownup will have to do it for them.

    They also have a nice little meme thingie about controlling guns like cars, and how you can do stuff like have a car on your private property and not register it and all all this stuff. And I’m like, hey that’s fine with me. As soon as your gun LEAVES your private property, then I’d like some restrictions.

  41. 41.

    Rudi

    From the link.

    Geik tells a dispatcher Houseman is “highly agitated” and “does not like police.”

    “He is exercising his open carry rights, however, he has certainly overextended them at this point,” Geik says.

    The lieutenant asks officer Peter Hoyt if this is the same open-carry advocate he has dealt with before. Hoyt says it is.

    About two minutes later, Houseman agrees to sit on the ground and place his gun down. He allows Geik to approach him and take the carbine rifle, which Geik discovers to be empty of ammunition.

    This would be different if man was “Negro” and the city was Benton Harbor. While in BH no shooting, the man should be in jail for at least a mental evaluation…

  43. 43.

    Higgs Boson's Mate

    @Keith G:
    The cops acted with great restraint. OTOH. the odds are that if the person carrying the gun had been, say, black, his brains would have decorated the sidewalk the first time he refused to drop his weapon.

  44. 44.

    Gravenstone

    Since this appears to be a firearms related thread, I got a good chuckle from the July issue of Guns and Ammo. Cover story about how some enterprising gun manufacturer made an end run on NY state’s restrictions on “assault style weapons” – by making an AR 15 style weapon with a pump action. So yeah, you had to completely change the action of the weapon so that it is no longer actually semi-automatic. Rather, you have to manually chamber a new round each and every time you wish to pull the fucking trigger, thus tossing your rate of fire and likely your rapid fire accuracy right out the fucking window. But by the gods, did you ever stick it to those bureaucrat politicians.

    Fucking imbecilic, gun fellating lackwits. They are actually trying to sell this as “progress” to their sheep like adherants. All so they can retain that sexy “black gun” styling.

  45. 45.

    Southern Beale

    @Higgs Boson’s Mate:

    This tied up a half a dozen police vehicles for 10 or 20 minutes, traffic at the nearby businesses ground to a halt. Thank god those police officers weren’t needed elsewhere for something like a bank robbery. Are we going to have to increase the size of police departments because of this? I mean, how is anyone supposed to know that an open carry loon isn’t a criminal? They don’t fucking wear signs. If I see a man parading around in his jammies carrying a big rifle, hell yeah I’m calling the police.

    So it seems the gun humpers with their open carry hard-ons are creating the very police state they claim to not want.

  47. 47.

    Keith G

    @Liberty60:

    Repeal the 2nd Amendment.

    That plainly will not happen for many decades to come – at the least. You might as well ask for a unicorn that shits gold.

    The best bet is to control the Presidency long enough to have a massive influence in the make up of the federal judiciary and to have a strong majority in the Senate – and have a Senate leadership willing to finish ripping up the undemocratic customs used in the Senate such as “Blue Slips”.

    We also need to start winning back some state legislatures. A slow, but ultimately doable process.

  49. 49.

    Tone In DC

    @Trollhattan:

    The officers then searched Short’s home in the 2000 block of South Willow Avenue in the California League retirement village. There they found more meth, heroin and a small meth lab, Valles said. Officers recovered a half pound of crystal meth with a street value of $1,700. Short was booked to the Fresno County Jail on several drug charges, Valles said.

    A damn 64 year old doing this shit.
    Dude has been watching a lot of Breaking Bad, I figure.

  50. 50.

    srv

    @Higgs Boson’s Mate:

    Mr. Kagan is equally resolute. The possible fall of Baghdad, he said, demands a response from Mr. Obama, who he fears has made up his mind to retrench the United States into a more “normal” and less internationally engaged posture. “I would be delighted to be cosmically wrong,” he said.

    Mr. Obama better get on board, or we’ll have to wait for Hillary to re-free the Middle East.

  52. 52.

    Tone In DC

    @Southern Beale:

    “Gun humpers”, I like that. Descriptive yet succinct.

    …an example of how liberals are intolerant! (ummm…. right, yes I am intolerant of every idiot parading around with assault weapons because Freedom. Guilty as charged.)

    As for the intolerance charge, any winger accusing a liberal of this is truly blinded by a large, biblical plank.

  53. 53.

    Keith G

    @Higgs Boson’s Mate: It’s wrong to say that. I think a lot depended on the professionalism of these officers and the fact that the weapon was pointed skyward. I would like to think that those officers (innocent til proven guilty) would respond to behavior and not color.

    That said, there are a hell of a lot of jurisdictions where this would not have been a G rated video. And there are also many places where, as you mention, race/ethnicity alone would have initiated a very different outcome.

  54. 54.

    muddy

    @Gravenstone: It’s not to maintain the black gun styling. It’s to muddy the waters about what constitutes an assault weapon. Then they can wank on about how you can’t judge the gun by its cover and whatnot.

  56. 56.

    flukebucket

    On a bright day in early May, Joseph Houseman, 63, was out enjoying his Second Amendment rights in Kalamazoo, Mich.

    Classic opening sentence.

  57. 57.

    Glocksman

    @daveNYC:
    I just read a short piece on the case.

    It turns out that the guy in question lied on the form when he said he was buying the gun for himself.
    His argument is that the straw purchase law shouldn’t apply because the person he was buying the gun for was legally allowed to own firearms.

    The government’s position is that the law prohibits straw purchases, period.

    Absent legislative intent to allow certain types of straw purchases, the court made the right call.

  60. 60.

    Gravenstone

    @muddy: Shit, they’ve been doing that for years already. You can buy weapons that to all outward appearances are AR-15s, but are chambered for .22 LR. Much less lethal for man sized targets (although by no means non-lethal). And the ammosexuals howl to the hills about banning such an innocuous “target rifle”. In the end, its all about trying to maintain that sexy “military styling” look. But they’re not compensating for anything, nosiree Bob.

  62. 62.

    Citizen_X

    @srv:

    “I would be delighted to be cosmically wrong,” he said.

    As they say, Mission Accomplished.

    Oh, and I notice that their family has been “serving” the war drum-beating community for generations. Apparently, though, not in uniform. Curious, that.

  63. 63.

    Shakezula

    Embedded in the 2nd Amendment is the understanding that if a non-white person pulls this stunt, his ass will be shot into little bitty pieces.

  64. 64.

    shortstop

    So they gave him back his gun with no charges. And when he shoots someone tomorrow, they’ll say no one could have predicted this. I mean, telling the cops “I hate you motherfuckers; there’s a revolution coming” is the kind of conversation you hear on every corner.

  65. 65.

    Trollhattan

    @Tone In DC:
    Boggles the mind, doesn’t it? Being in Fresno and all has me wondering whether ol’ Robert Short might be an ancient biker. If I recall my American Meth History (taught now, I believe, in 8th grade) biker gangs in the Central Valley and SoCal desert got the epidemic going in the ’70s and ’80s. Doubt they ever dreamed it would prove so prevalent, or that the cartels would take over what was a tidy business for them.

  66. 66.

    Southern Beale

    @Glocksman:

    This was the argument I got into on Twitter today. They gun nuts are all like, “but whaaaah then I can’t buy a gun as a GIFT!” Someone else chimed in that gifts are exempt. I have no fucking clue if that’s true or not but if it’s not true and you can’t buy a gun as a gift for someone, SO FUCKING WHAT. Grow the fuck up. Kids are being slaughtered in their kindergarten classes, you dumbfucks.

    Anyhoo, the best part of this SCOTUS case is that the REASON the guy asked his buddy to buy the gun for him was because his friend got the law enforcement discount, being an ex-police officer. His friend wanted the discount, which is why he asked his buddy to lie on a background check form and buy the Glock for him. So, lie on a federal form to rip off a gun shop of a few bucks. Playing the world’s teeniest tiniest violin, but the gun loons are all lack Whaaa my freeeeedumb my freeeeeedumb!!!!

  67. 67.

    pseudonymous in nc

    @Southern Beale:

    I don’t want their guns. I don’t want to control their guns. I want THEM to control their guns.

    “Keep your guns. Just don’t expect me to trust you with them or assume that you’re a Responsible Gun Owner™.”

  68. 68.

    Comrade Dread

    So someone tell me again how I’m supposed to be able to tell a stalwart patriot exercising his 2nd amendment rights in the proud tradition of our forefathers, and a psychotic/drunk/high/dumbass loon who’s about to start killing everyone in sight?

  69. 69.

    pseudonymous in nc

    @Glocksman:

    The government’s position is that the law prohibits straw purchases, period.

    Scalia was all ‘call the waahmbulance’ about it, but Kagan’s argument was pretty solid about the controlling legal framework: it’s no different than going into a gun shop and giving your name as Mickey Mouse, even if you’re legally allowed to buy under your own name.

  71. 71.

    Liberty60

    @Keith G:
    Oh, absolutely, the 2nd isn’t going away anytime soon.

    The point is go on the offensive, and put them on the defensive, forced to justify their position.

    Instead of beginning every argument with “why of course owning a gun is just like being free to speak” we start to implant in everyone’s mind- “Why is owning a gun a right, but owning a car is not?” or “Is owning a gun really a natural right like speaking freely?”

    Right now gun rights are seen as not just legislatively inviolable, but morally and culturally.
    We need to change the conversation to crack that taboo, and make the possibility of guns being a privilege something real.

    Nothing can become real until it first exists in our minds. That’s the first step.
    Along with electing noncrazy people. But the two work together.

  72. 72.

    Southern Beale

    Oh look what just popped in the email box:

    ORLANDO — A man accidentally shot himself in the foot when a handgun fell out of his waistband on June 13 in a Winn-Dixie parking lot in Orange County, police said.

    L.C. Williams, 70, told police that his holster to his Hi-Point 40SW broke, and so he stuck the gun in the right side of his waistband so that the gun would be concealed.

    As Williams was approaching his pickup truck around 12:37 p.m., the gun accidentally fell out of his waistband, struck his foot, and then discharged into his right foot, according to a police report.

    The fired round then ricocheted into another car, which was unoccupied at the time.

    The round struck the front grill area of the vehicle, causing about $500 in damage, police said.

    Police determined the incident was an accident.

    Because GOD FORBID we should go to the goddamn grocery store unarmed. I mean, there might have been a robbery in progress and our 70-year-old Captain America could save the day. Or shoot himself in the foot.

  73. 73.

    Southern Beale

    @Trollhattan:

    Oh you’re in Fresno? Well, then, did you hear the one about the Fresno man who accidentally shot himself while playing dominoes? The story showed up in my in-box but has apparently been taken down. Wondering what happened.

  75. 75.

    beth

    I also saw that those Open Carry idiots held a rally in a Target parking lot this weekend and Target did nothing to stop them. Moms Demand Action is pushing Target to change its policy on open carry in its stores and I think that’s a place they’ve got a good shot at (no pun intended). If there’s any store that gears itself to the “moms pushing strollers” set, it’s Target. I’ve got a Target credit card and I’ve let them know I won’t shop there while they put their customers and employees in the position of having to decide whether that guy in camo with ammo is a homicidal nut or just a regular gun nut. I hope others will do the same.

    I’m going to Kzoo soon – you better believe if I see some looney walking around me with a gun, I’m calling the police.

  76. 76.

    Trollhattan

    @Southern Beale:
    Not in Fresno (thank the lord) but have lived in Stockton, which is just a smaller version. Did not hear about domino boy, but we have a local story of a school teacher who spent part of his Saturday night mowing .down cyclists with his car.

    On Saturday, Wesley Cuong Tran, 31, hit three bicyclists in midtown, police said. He first caught law enforcement attention around 11 p.m., when a police officer at 21st Street near L Street spotted a vehicle speeding south – the wrong way – on 21st Street. The car then turned west on L Street and apparently tried to go south on 20th Street when it hit two bicyclists, injuring one.

    After stopping the vehicle, police learned that the driver, Tran, had argued with another bicyclist. Police said Tran told officers the bicyclist used a knife to puncture one of Tran’s tires and left.

    Police said their investigation showed that Tran changed his damaged tire and went looking for the bicyclist. According to police, Tran found the man and intentionally hit him with his car, leaving the bicyclist with a head injury. Police did not disclose where that collision took place but said Tran apparently was fleeing when he lost control of his car and hit the other two bicyclists. One had minor injuries, and the second was not hurt.

    http://www.sacbee.com/2014/06/15/6485185/man-arrested-after-hitting-three.html#storylink=cpy

    Summertime, baby!

  77. 77.

    Randy P

    As I noted on the earlier thread, I found it encouraging that there is actually a law against open carry while drunk in Houseman’s town. That’s the reason the police wanted to give him a breathalyzer. So even in a place like that, there’s a (gasp!) restriction on second amendment rights. And yet somehow civilization survives.

  78. 78.

    elftx

    Would love it if these police depts could bill their wasted time with these nuts to the NRA.

  79. 79.

    Villago Delenda Est

    @pseudonymous in nc: A “responsible gun owner” would accept the costs of demonstrating how responsible they are. Like assuming liability for the use of their weapons, by any party, authorized or unauthorized. However, because they oppose registration of firearms, it’s painfully obvious that they’re unwilling to assume responsibility should they fail to report the theft of their weapons due to their own negligence, or the use of their weapons by other parties that results in harm to another.

    They shuck the responsibility for their toys at every turn. They want the rights, but not the inherent responsibilities that go hand in hand with them.

    They are not responsible. They demonstrate this every time they brandish their firearms.

  80. 80.

    Villago Delenda Est

    @Randy P:

    And yet somehow civilization survives.

    Well, actually, civilization is preserved in those places. It’s where you don’t have those restrictions where civilization breaks down, because we have to show off our metal death p3nises, ya know, to compensate for our status as a bunch of Walter Pecks.

  83. 83.

    Southern Beale

    @Villago Delenda Est:

    “They shuck the responsibility for their toys at every turn. They want the rights, but not the inherent responsibilities that go hand in hand with them.”

    yes, dammit please why isn’t this part of the “conversation”? That’s the ENTIRE point. God. Thank you for that.

  84. 84.

    The Other Chuck

    @Villago Delenda Est:

    lawn jockey

    Can we please be better than this, no matter what a vile monster the object of our derision is?

    Last guy I scolded for racist terms turned out to be black, but aside from whether that made it okay, context doesn’t really come out in blog replies. Ultimately it’s a selfish reason: I don’t want to be painted with that brush by association.

  85. 85.

    Ash Can

    This fuckwit was just lucky some good guy with a gun didn’t decide he was a bad guy with a gun.

  86. 86.

    Ruckus

    @Tone In DC:
    I’m amazed it worked. I saw lots of rather strange behavior when I took my draft “physical”. Guys wearing panties. Some nice ones by the way. But things like the urine test, pee in a small vial and then the unmarked vial is put in a rack with all the other unmarked vials. Same for the blood test. One tube, never marked, placed in a rack with all the rest of the unmarked tubes. If your pee was red, that maybe would get noticed. If you really demanded they would have you speak to a really bored looking dude sitting at a desk. BO and shit stains? Can’t imagine that would have gotten any attention.

  87. 87.

    Gex

    @Southern Beale: Let’s introduce these asshats to the concept of the gift certificate. You can essentially buy the gun, they just have to go pick it up and put their name on the paperwork.

    I have a lot of questions for people who want to put a gun out into the world that doesn’t have a paper trail to its owner.

  88. 88.

    Gex

    These guys assert that standing around and waving their guns around at everyone isn’t threatening. If that is the case, there is nothing out there threatening enough to justify their position.

  90. 90.

    Rasputin's Evil Twin

    Let’s see, if I spot someone carrying a rifle or shotgun into a store, or just walking the streets, can I shoot him, because I’m a “good guy with a gun”? (Don’t let the name fool ya – I’d really be a good guy with a gun, honest.) Hey, if I’m a GGWaG, I can tell who’s a BGWaG, and act accordingly, really. It’s in the Second Amendment, or Second Commandment somewhere.

  91. 91.

    Joel

    He was only seventeen, in a madman’s dream
    The cops shot the kid, I still hear him scream…

  92. 92.

    CONGRATULATIONS!

    L.C. Williams, 70, told police that his holster to his Hi-Point 40SW broke, and so he stuck the gun in the right side of his waistband so that the gun would be concealed.

    @Southern Beale: I emphasize Hi-Point (the Joe Camel of the gun industry) as although they are not technically one of the Southern California “Ring of Fire” manufacturers, they are the bottom of the barrel as far as quality control, and the true miracle of this story is not that it didn’t kill anybody when Gramps McRacist dropped it, but that it didn’t go off just from the motion of him walking around.

    Also, their price point (less than $150 for that fine piece of hardware Grandpa was hauling around), put plainly, means their target buyers are teenagers and young adults. You would never buy one of these if you were in any way a serious shooter.

  93. 93.

    Villago Delenda Est

    @The Other Chuck: Would you prefer “House Ni*CLANG*”, perhaps?

    The man is utter scum. He’s willing to assume the role that white racists demand of him.

    Fuck him. If there was ever a “race traitor” on this planet, it’s guys like Clarence Thomas.

  94. 94.

    Southern Beale

    @CONGRATULATIONS!:

    Well, you know what I find interesting is that when the guy’s holster broke, his next option was to tuck the gun in his waistband, a maneuver that looks super cool on TV but is responsible for a myriad of self-inflicted eunuch-isms. I mean, leaving the gun in the truck just plumb didn’t occur to him. I find that very odd.

  97. 97.

    Elizabelle

    As soon as Hillary Rettig put up her link in the morning open thread, I knew that Mr. (*!$&) Houseman would be starring on the front page of Balloon Juice.

    Take a bow, Hillary R too, for a funny comment on the Michigan Live newspaper site:

    commenter Elizabeth Bentley: Every time I see an open carry individual, I get a vision of individual who thinks and acts like Mr. Houseman. He’s the poster boy for open carry.

    commenter mirights: That is the problem. I have seen many people open carry and none of them have ever acted like Houseman. Same problem in any movement. The fringe element always gets the most attention.

    commenter Hillary Rettig: Yes, but only in one movement is the whole point to carry a murderous weapon.

    commenter Proud2BCentrist: Ya, delusional thinking Hillary. The gun does not commit the murder. It’s the person behind a piece of steel.

    Still makes me laugh.

  98. 98.

    johnny aquitard

    “Folks, I need you all to go inside,” an officer can be heard telling onlookers at one point. “If that gun is live and he starts firing, everyone is at risk.”

    It’s always everyone else who has to accommodate them, isnt’ it?

    It’s all on us, the rest of society. It’s never on them. We have to re-arrange our lives around their loony demands to walk up and down our streets with a deadly weapon.

    They put everything on the rest of us, on our neighborhoods, on our schools, wherever we gather, on our social institutions including childhood, and they take no responsibility for themselves.

    I want that changed. If they refuse to take responsibility and continue to make everyone else bear the costs of their acting out, then I will support having the guns taken away. They become a menace. Unrestricted firearms have no place in this society or any society worthy of the name. I can’t be the only firearm owner who changed his mind about this.

    I can totally see why there are people who hate guns and demand them all to be melted down. And while I still do not agree that is a reasonable solution (but one I will support nevertheless), I no longer think their resentment and fear and anger and even hatred is unreasonable.

    These gun rights absolutist freaks have given them every reason to feel that way.

  99. 99.

    Ivan X

    @Villago Delenda Est:

    @The Other Chuck: Would you prefer “House Ni*CLANG*”, perhaps?

    Please, no. Don’t be an asshole because you’ve been reasonably called out.

    The man is utter scum. He’s willing to assume the role that white racists demand of him.

    Fuck him. If there was ever a “race traitor” on this planet, it’s guys like Clarence Thomas.

    All of that may or may not be true, but doesn’t change your choosing to use the langauge of white racists, and thereby conveying their message. You can only call Thomas a lawn jockey explicitly because he’s black; ergo, you’re being racist. You didn’t call Scalia anything race-based, after all.

    And I also understand that you’re ostensibly speaking “for Scalia” when you call Thomas a lawn jockey. Only you’re not. Those are your words, using language that suggests you are capable of seeing black people as inferior to white people. If you didn’t, it wouldn’t occur to you to say it. These prejudices may come from the society we live in, but if we want to rise above them, we don’t give public voice to them, much less defend them.

    Even if Thomas is a “race traitor” (and whether or not you’re qualified to make that judgment is a separate discussion) doesn’t explain why you’d want to sink to his level by using racial language, nor excuse your choosing to do so.

  100. 100.

    Kay

    @johnny aquitard:

    It’s always everyone else who has to accommodate them, isnt’ it?
    It’s all on us, the rest of society. It’s never on them. We have to re-arrange our lives around their loony demands to walk up and down our streets with a deadly weapon.
    They put everything on the rest of us, on our neighborhoods, on our schools, wherever we gather, on our social institutions including childhood, and they take no responsibility for themselves.

    Agree 100%. I think that’s the key to the whole thing. I saw a video of one of the open carry parades inside a store and there’s this woman in the background and she looks at them, and then scurries to grab what looks like a bag of diapers off the shelf and ducks down that same aisle, other direction, away from them.

    I thought, “You assholes. You’re scaring her”.

  102. 102.

    DavidTC

    @Southern Beale:

    This tied up a half a dozen police vehicles for 10 or 20 minutes, traffic at the nearby businesses ground to a halt. Thank god those police officers weren’t needed elsewhere for something like a bank robbery. Are we going to have to increase the size of police departments because of this? I mean, how is anyone supposed to know that an open carry loon isn’t a criminal? They don’t fucking wear signs. If I see a man parading around in his jammies carrying a big rifle, hell yeah I’m calling the police.

    You know, it used to be, if you wanted to distract the police from a crime you’re going to commit, you would have to break the law somewhere else. Have someone go somewhere else, fire a gun off. Or hurl a brick through the window of a jewelry store, while across town the other guys waited for the police to respond there before they hit a bank. At the very least, call in a bogus police report.

    All actual crimes. The closest to ‘legal’ that used to be possible was to leave a suspicious package somewhere, but I suspect that doing that to get the police called on purpose is also a crime, although they’d have to prove it was that. (Although I guess it might be littering, so technically illegal anyway.)

    We know how it works, it’s not just a trope on TV. It’s actually how professional robbers operate. (Granted, most robberies are committed by idiots. But there are professional crews out there.)

    Now, apparently, you just need to have someone standing around with a gun. Perfectly 100% legal. Or, to make it even better, have three or four people wandering around with guns, and then have all but one leave before the police get there.

    I’m not a huge fan of police overreach, but the entire point of the police is to keep the peace. Having people walking around randomly with long guns scaring people is the opposite of ‘the peace’.

Comments are closed.