The FAST Approaching Gun Ban

I remember the first time I ever heard Michele Bachman was when she was acting as a surrogate for McCain-Palin and went on an infamous rant about investigating "anti-American" members of Congress. I thought at the time that this woman was bat-shit crazy and would be drown in an absolute backlash for such McCarthy like proclamations.

That she became a major GOP figure and the the Tea Party success has over time showed me that the US has room for some really bat-shit crazy people who wrap themselves in supposed patriotism but actually are just inflammatory self-serving fools catering to a faction of the country that is scared shitless that the world is changing.

The fact that she nearly lost her gerrymandered district in the last election leaves hope that maybe, just maybe people are starting see through someone who proclaims they are for freedom and wants to hold un-American investigations, who proclaims she believes in the welfare of the people yet opposes a vehicle that will deal with 20 MILLION uninsured citizens.

Freedom to folks like Bachman simply means the capitalist elite are free to make money and pay less taxes, regardless of the impact on the other 99% of the country.

NRA litters Newtown with Robocalls and postcards urging people to oppose a ban on assault weapons. It takes brass...

WASHINGTON -- The National Rifle Association came under fire late Thursday from members of a gun-control advocacy group in Newtown, Conn., after reports surfaced of Newtown residents receiving robocalls and pro-gun postcards from the NRA.

The advocacy group, the Newtown Action Alliance, posted a Facebook message Thursday about the calls, prompting responses from people who said they'd received communications from the NRA and were upset by them.

"I received one of these," Newtown resident Christopher Wenis wrote on Facebook Thursday afternoon. "I was insulted and offended." Wenis told The Huffington Post in an interview Friday night that in the 36 hours since he first posted his response, he received two more robocalls from the NRA, one later on Thursday night and one Friday evening.

"I've got a 5-year-old son who went to preschool on the Sandy Hook Elementary School campus," Wenis explained. "And this was a really hard week for me on a lot of levels. These calls were the very last thing I needed."

Wenis said that he called the NRA twice to request that his name be placed on a "Do Not Call List" -- first on Tuesday and again Thursday. He said an NRA phone operator assured him he would be removed from NRA call lists. But the calls kept coming. By Friday night, Wenis said, he was desperate to be left in peace.

Another woman, Lisa Abrams, wrote on Facebook that she had "received a call and a postcard asking me to call my congressmen and tell them 'NO ASSUALT WEAPONS BAN' [sic] ... I was not happy and needless to say did just the opposite!"

Tom Maurath, a 40-year resident of Newtown, said he was having dinner with his family on Tuesday when the phone rang at 6:37 p.m. "Our caller ID announces who is calling, and when I heard 'National Rifle Association,' I jumped to answer the phone so my 6-year-old son wouldn't get there first," he told The Huffington Post in an interview. "Our son loves to answer the phone because it might be Grandma."

Maurath said he listened to a prerecorded message about Connecticut state gun legislation for about 30 seconds -- a call that he was stunned to realize took no account of who might pick up the phone.

"The idea that this message could have been delivered to a sibling of one of the families who lost children at [Sandy Hook Elementary School] is just appalling," he said.

In the months since the tragic school shooting in December, Newtown has become a focal point for the nation's renewed debate over gun control, as well as an international symbol of America's epidemic of gun violence. The Connecticut Legislature is considering a bevy of gun-control measures in the wake of the Sandy Hook massacre. On Tuesday, a bill requiring universal background checks for gun purchases in Connecticut cleared a key committee. The state already has a ban in place on military-style assault weapons.

This week Maurath also received a postcard from the NRA, which he shared with HuffPost. The blaze-orange card proclaims, "Despite public outcry, anti-gun legislators in the Connecticut General Assembly are aggressively forging ahead with numerous proposals that are designed to disarm and punish law-abiding gun owners and sportsmen."



(Rep. Dan Carter, mentioned on the card, is the state legislator who represents Newtown.)

Maurath said the script of the phone message sounded a lot like the postcard. He also said that at least a half-dozen of his fellow residents in Newtown had told him they received similar robocalls.

A spokesman for the NRA, which opposes the measures being proposed in Connecticut, said robocalls in the state were made to NRA members and supporters, and were designed to be informative about the legislation being considered.

As is the case in other states, "We have members, contributors, and supporters in Connecticut who expect us to do our jobs and keep them abreast of developments on the legislative front in their state," NRA spokesman Andrew Arulanandam told HuffPost.

Maurath, however, could think of no reason why he would have been singled out to receive such a call. A registered independent, he said he has "thought over and over about any reason I would have been on their lists, but there isn't one. I have zero connection to this group or any affiliated group."

Robocalls are nothing new for the NRA or for many large advocacy groups. Tax-exempt groups like charities and advocacy groups, as well as political campaigns, are exempt from many of the restrictions placed on commercial telemarketing calls by the Federal Trade Commission. It's common for advocacy groups on both sides of the political spectrum to purchase mailing lists and phone lists from other like-minded organizations, such as political parties that generally support the same issue platform. The NRA is known for being very protective of its member lists.

Maurath is still in shock over why Newtown residents weren't exempted from this round of NRA robocalls.

"There are only three phone number prefixes here in town, and it's less than three months after the most horrific tragedy imaginable," he said. "You'd think they could have scrubbed the list, just to be decent. Instead, you're making an unsolicited call with no opt-out that my children could answer.

Well 98 days since Newtown over 2,200 Americans have died via fire arms.

It appears we will again face 3 times the death and injury from firearms than we did from 9-11. 9-11 created a reaction where Americans overwhelming supported the gutting of constitution and engaged in the two longest wars in US history.

Yet somehow the power of special interests continues to make it possible for the US ignore that it is desperate in need of gun safety regulations and reduce the number of firearms, the easy access to military grade assault weapons and gun show loophole that allows individuals to end run existing gun safety regulations and registration.

Firearms are a far bigger danger to US citizens than terrorists. Many of the same people that believe Cheney and his lawyer Addington were correct in calling the Geneva Convention and its protection of POWs quaint, site an amendment to the Constitution that is over 200 years old and truly did not comprehend the 21st Century, the lack of impact that militias would have or the carnage that the right to bear unabated would create.

It actually is amazing to me how quickly news cycles kill popular opinion and how well capitalized special interests can kill change in the face of the overwhelming facts that the US gun laws are inadequate and are killing over 10,000 people each year. While I continue to hope the best for my country and truly love it, it is shameful and sad just how f'ed up we can be on critical issues, whether they be guns or climate change or white collar crime. For all the great things about America and the very real goodness of our citizens as a society we are lost people or should I say sheepeople?

http://FunnyOrDie.com/m/7w3q

Here, here for Jim Carey!

Where,where?...There,there?

all kidding aside ..very funny video.

While funny a video the underlying problem is awful. It is rather amazing that the US is so behind the curve on this issue. Imagine if on average 12,000 Americans died at the hands of any source that did not have lobbying power of the gun industry. It would politically be impossible to to fight any legislation or executive action to stop that kind of carnage. If it was inflicted on the nation by a foreign source a declaration of war would to take place.

It was to me the ultimate in hypocrisy to see Karl Rove suggest that gun registration would create lists that the government would use to infringe on American's privacy and rights. This is the same man that supported the Bush Adminstration in the wire tapping and detention of US citizens without warrants that would have taken a mere 48 hours to get because the Administration said they felt the danger was too great in those 48 hours, while in reality in every case danger did not exist and they were at the direction of the Vice President were hell bent on establishing the imperial President, where he had greater power than the other two branches.

If Newtown won't wake up our leaders what will it take?

Never thought I'd be passing thru a gun shop last week. The ones with the banana clips really caught my eye. A clerk said that they are classified as pistols. But is is some sort of kit that can transform them into AK-47's. So even with an assault weapon ban, it apppears to me that some people can still get them.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by yodajazz

Never thought I'd be passing thru a gun shop last week. The ones with the banana clips really caught my eye. A clerk said that they are classified as pistols. But is is some sort of kit that can transform them into AK-47's. So even with an assault weapon ban, it apppears to me that some people can still get them.

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The clerk doesn't know what s/he is talking about. Under Federal law, an AK-47 is considered a machine gun. You can't simply buy a conversion kit to make an AK pistol into an AK-47. S/he was probably talking about converting the pistol into a Short Barreled Rifle (SBR). To modify the pistol into a SBR, you have to pay a tax stamp and do some paperwork including fingerprints.

By the way, the right term is banana magazine.

The Republicans in Congress don't give a shit personally about shooting off guns, ....weakening the virile gun lobby can only hurt their strength in the political arena and strengthen the democrats. Many people vote republican ONLY because they are the perceived GUN party. Being pro-gun does not take away one cent from the uber-rich either, most of the things the republicans stand for put money IN rich people's pockets, health care and free college loans take money OUT of their pockets. One percent of taxes for schools, roads, cops, hospitals....costs the average joe 500 bucks. But it costs the Koch Bros. millions. Every Yahoo that dreams of being Rambo translates into more money in the Koch Brother's pockets.