In a new piece at Salon, Nevada state legislator Michele Fiore defended her odious Christmas “card”—representing the month of December in her “we love guns” calendar—showing her entire family, save the babes in arms, packing heat. Naturally she was given a sympathetic hearing by Fox News. As Salon reports (my emphasis):
Fiore received criticism after she posted the photograph on Facebook, but she insisted that she only intended to send the festive message that “Christmas is a family affair, I think giving firearms as a present and getting firearms as a present is a great present, and I think because Christmas is a family affair, our ultimate responsibility is to protect and make sure our family is safe.”
[Interviewer Steve] Doocy noted that the other months in the calendar feature her alone bearing a firearm, whereas in the December photograph “the little boy in the front has a pistol.”
“He actually has a Walther P22, my grandson Jake,” she replied, “and number one, that gun is unloaded, and number two, Jake is quite familiar with Eddie Eagle, which is an NRA gun safety program for children.”
And on TPM Memo, Fiore suggests that perhaps she doesn’t have the greatest control over her mouth (my emphasis):
“I am not OK with Syrian refugees. I’m not OK with terrorists. I’m OK with putting them down, blacking them out, just put a piece of brass in their ocular cavity and end their miserable life. I’m good with that,” she continued.
That statement—that she wants to kill all Syrian refugees by shooting them in the head or mouth—should be enough to defeat her in her next election, for the vast majority of those people are innocents, fleeing from terrorists. But of course we’re talking about the state of Nevada here.
Finally, here are some more pictures from Fiore’s calendar, thoughtfully reproduced on Guns.com:
God help America!
sub
Barf
wretch
Do you happen to have any spare barf bags?
I wasn’t aware that Nevada produced these types of idiots; the state went blue in the last two presidential elections, if i remember correctly.
They have a streak of Libertarians (http://www.lpnevada.org). Though, like Fiore, they are sequestered to fringe and embarrassing attitudes.
In fairness to libertarians, killing refugees is not normally one of their platforms.
I do not think Benjamin Franklin’s quote means what she thinks it means.
And the idea of a five-year-old boy having trigger control? She must’ve never shared a toilet with one, and that’s before we even get to a child’s judgement.
Anyone who relies on quotes from Ted Nugent shows a serious lack of judgement too. He should be in prison for his penchant for barely pubescent teens, not being celebrated by a grandmother and lawmaker.
Still, anyone who advocates shooting someone based on their social status and ethnicity shows such a serious lack of judgement, she should be shut away herself.
Yeah I was going to say the same thing about five year olds. They don’t have ‘total control’ over anything. The physical coordination, the mental ability to properly weight the gravity and future outcome of events, and the emotional stability of an adult are not yet there. She’s going to trust a firearm in the hands of someone who regularly spills their juice and often forgets that biting/kicking/hitting is an inappropriate way to express anger? She’s crazy. Recklessly so.
Indeed, my boys always miss the bowl (and they are older than five). A gun in their hands? I might as well set out my will and anyone within 500m.
Fiore’s calendar photos suggest that her appeal to voters must be based largely on firearms length and bust size.
The phrase “peaked in high school” keeps popping into my head.
You’re giving much too much credit. Mentally (not commenting on her bust), she seems to have peaked in elementary school. In the school yard. Watching the bullies.
I don’t think that is fair to elementary children either. Face it, she’s not stuck in some stage of normal development, she’s left the realm of normal development all together to find some new dark stupid zone of her own.
Exactly…reading the last post on this bozo, I kept thinking “childish / immature”
Yes, as we like to say in Merica, she is a piece of work. I’m surprised Trump has not already asked her to be his running mate.
Remember the Howdy-Doody show. Mindless crazy for 5 years. This is your politics in the U.S.
These people call themselves Christians, and they maybe by some contrived definition but they certainly aren’t Christ like. I’m reminded of when Ghandi said:
“I like your Christ, I do not like your Christians. Your Christians are so unlike your Christ.”
The Christmas card defies the turn-the-other-cheek edict.
A good example of the ‘this is not true [insert religion]” statement. She is a christian because she says she is, makes statements that intersect those of others claiming to be christian and is recognized as such by others professing similar beliefs. She’s at one end of the political spectrum from liberal nuns seeking social justice, although no less adherent to religious fuzzy thinking.
It would, of course, be inappropriate to comment on the bizarre sexual imagery in her calendar. Said imagery, is not, by the way, all that uncommon. just google.
There’s a verse in one of the gospels, I forget the book, chapter and verse number, where Jesus tells his disciples to gather certain supplies, and “bring a sword” is in there. I’ve seen a few gun nuts use this as a proof text.
Might you have been thinking of Matthew 10.32-39/
I saw a picture on Reddit of a church sign (I don’t remember the denomination):
“The story of Christmas: Middle East family seeks refuge”
If she had been born in Syria, she’d be supporting ISIS
Definitely, 100%, she is their kind of person.
In effect, she is
The emergence of these nitwits (State after State) in such large numbers is a frightening phenomenon. Sometimes I fell like our society is breaking up into three distinct camps, The first comprised of complete ignoramuses and dispassionate a-holes, the second comprised of people too preoccupied with frivolity and woo to pay attention to anything that’s going on around them politically and the third comprised of a dwindling number of critically thinkers who end-up spending an inordinate amount of time cleaning-up the horrible mess perpetually created by those in the other two camps.
Indeed…these lines from Yeats’ poem The Second Coming continually play in my head:
The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere
The ceremony of innocence is drowned;
The best lack all conviction, while the worst
Are full of passionate intensity.
Such a great poem. Too bad it references the Second Coming. Too many of my Christian friends would read it as capturing their feelings that apocalypse is near, but then Jesus swoops in and fixes everything. But Jesus doesn’t swoop in, and the very belief in the Second Coming, in a necessary, purifying, cleansing, apocalypse IS the rough beast that slouches towards Bethlehem to be born.
“The best lack all conviction, while the worst
Are full of passionate intensity.”
These lines, in turn, remind me of Bertrand Russell’s statement that “the whole problem with the world is that fools and fanatics are always so certain of themselves, and wiser people so full of doubts.”
Last picture: that silencer appears to be mounted to the wrong ‘cavity’ …
I seem to recall that possession of a silencer for a handgun is a federal offense. The only exception is for certain members of the military.
“Legal in most States” ..
And then there is this:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/gun-silencers-bill_562a405fe4b0ec0a38941ad2
Makes sense … I mean, we have these weapons for self-defense, so a silencer … uh …uhm … hey look, a pesky spot on the ceiling!
No, they aren’t illegal. See this company for example: http://silencerco.com/about/
I believe the more correct term for guns should be suppressors.
I saw a very interesting presentation by a company that produces the product (I don’t think it was this one). In it, they talked a lot about how silencers don’t make a gun soundless or nearly so like in the but really lessens the noise so you can be near it. If you are target shooting, for example, and are taking 100 shots of practice, your ears can appparently take quite a beating even with ear muffs on. A suppressor helps take the edge off. So I can see some legitimate uses.
“Happy Holidays”? Isn’t that an attack upon Christian values?
Jesus is the Reason for the Season.
Too ambiguous to comment on. Who can know what level of subtlety you intended?
Only one mention of Jesus? That’s practically paganistic, you heathen. Real Christians celebrate Christmachrist.
The religious always become the slaves of ever more restrictive rules. When I was young I was told to always refer to Jesus by his “proper name”: The Lord Jesus Christ. Not even the New Testament does that!
Tell them his proper name was “Yeshua” or, in English, “Joshua.” “Jesus” is the English pronunciation of the Greek version of his name. I’ve had Christians, including my family, get angry when I told them that. “His name was Jesus! Joshua was in the Old Testament! Don’t you know anything?”
I have heard Christians say that as his name is given as Jesus in the New Testament, then that is the name that Christians should use for him (usually the type that think that the King James Version is an “inspired” translation, and that only heretics would use any other!).
Wow the us is starting to sound eerily similar to Germany in the 1930s. I hope people start taking these monsters to task before it’s too late.
I wonder if we are really wise in Switzerland (as well as in EU), allowing US citizen to come and stay 90 days without requiring a visa 😉
Great question.
I would definitely recommend, as the head nitwit in the good ol’ USA aka The Donald would say: at the very least you should “monitor them very closely” while they’re there.
There is some discussion over this side of the pond of barring The Donald from the UK:
http://metro.co.uk/2015/12/09/could-donald-trump-really-be-banned-from-entering-the-uk-5553330/
“David Cameron’s spokesman said the PM believed Trump’s comments were ‘divisive, unhelpful and quite simply wrong’, while Jeremy Corbyn branded them an ‘affront to common humanity.’ Nicola Sturgeon labelled them ‘obnoxious… offensive’ and Lib Dem leader Tim Farron said it illustrated why Trump was ‘utterly unsuited’ for the role of President.”
Boris Johnson (Mayor of London) say:
‘Crime has been falling steadily in both London and in New York – and the only reason I wouldn’t go to some parts of New York is the real risk of meeting Donald Trump.’
Fiore seems like something South Park would dream up as an over-the-top caricature of a GOP gun nut. Only these people actually exist!
The fact that someone like her holds a political office is incredible. When I converse with friends from other countries, I often find myself on the defensive to explain that we in the US are not a bunch of empty-headed, overfed, narcissistic, aggressive yokels.
But then you have people like Fiore, who seems to check all of those boxes, and then some. And she was ELECTED to a position of responsibility. Which means she is not an easily dismissed anomaly, at least in Nevada.
“we in the US are not a bunch of empty-headed, overfed, narcissistic, aggressive yokels”
Unfortunately, a big slice of the US populace is just that.
Watch them out there baying for Trump to “make us great again!” Good grief, they want to vote for a simpleton bully. They haven’t grown past elementary school, mentally.
“we in the US are not a bunch of empty-headed, overfed, narcissistic, aggressive yokels”
Yes, this claim loses credibility daily.
On several other sites I have looked at today it seems that the typical response from the gun-nuts to any non-American who comments on their gun culture is either
1) go back where you came from, ‘cuz Amurika!
or
2) we whupped your asses in 1776, so Amurika!
or
3) we won WWII for you, thank Amurika!
or
4) holy Second Amendment, we’re freeeeee in Amurika!
(Did I mention “Amurika” ?) The rational responses were a minority, and generally limited to the anti-gun posters.
At times, it’s hard to escape the impression that the majority of Americans are indeed “empty-headed, overfed, narcissistic, aggressive yokels”, and historically-challenged as well.
It’s odd, because all the Americans I have met in person (at university, throughout my career, and in trips to the USA) were individually likeable and seemed as sane and reasonable as anyone else.
Well, internet comments do seem to bring the best out in people. 😉 I’ve occasionally been startled by the awful things I’ve seen some of my friends post because I know them to actually be nice people who aren’t that unhinged. I think sometimes people are just venting because it’s a safe place to vent. Unfortunately, all of that venting is kind of self-reinforcing.
That’s why the civility enforced here is so important. It’s not just a “dumb person” thing. You see it also on other websites populated by very smart people, but when they are not encouraged to keep it civil or, worse, are encouraged not to, it becomes a hateful place in a hurry.
So I’m actually a little more optimistic about what people are naturally like in this country, but there are a number of factors, like the internet and demagogues, that are showing everyone’s worst side.
I agree with you about the civility: I used to read (but not post on) another American biology professor’s blog (a died-in-the-wool SJW), but found myself increasingly alienated both by his authoritarianism and the torrent of abuse that would be unleashed by his “free-thinking” followers on anyone whose opinion differed from theirs in the slightest way.
Then I found this site, after a disparaging reference to PCC(E) on that blog, and it was like a breath of fresh air. Since then, I have never looked at that other blog again.
LOL, same here. I followed that same professor’s blog for several years but eventually it dawned on me that his readers were a bunch of incivil cisphobic nitwits. I’m so glad somebody directed me to WEIT somewhere along the way.
I never visit that other site anymore.
“The fact that someone like her holds a political office is incredible.”
Isn’t there any kind of selection process? In the UK the political parties make some effort to select candidates for election to Parliament who at least meet some minimum standards (of course, it’s also possible to stand as an independent, but they don’t tend to be elected). A quick google showed me that (as of 2014) 84% of UK MPs had a university education (almost a quarter of them at Oxford or Cambridge), with a fifth of them holding between one and four postgraduate degrees.
I must admit to some ignorance here: I studied American political history at secondary school, but that was limited to the 18th and 19th centuries, and I don’t really know how the modern American political machine works.
(Perhaps I’m being “ableist” here, but I really want the people running my country to have brains and a good education as well!)
In the US Congress (comparable to the UK parliament) you will find a very high percentage of members with university degrees.
However, Ms. Fiore is in the state assembly in a rabidly “red” (conservative/Republican) state in the far west of the US. State assembly members are much less likely to have them; and they are much more likely to be extreme — because they elected by a small geographical area. The bar for running for a state assembly (or state legislature) is pretty low and it doesn’t cost much. People from all walks of life run, in most places.
Looking at Wikipedia, it doesn’t seem that the UK has anything comparable to US state legislatures/assemblies. Seems like the nearest thing would be local councils; but they are much smaller in scale. For instance, the Minnesota legislature meets here:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Minnesota_State_Capitol
Now I could be wrong, since much of what I know of UK political systems comes from hours of staring at Wikipedia, but I THINK the closest thing you have to our state governments are the devolved governments of Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. Please let me know if I don’t know what I’m talking about.
Also, is Nevada really “rabidly red”? As was pointed out above, it swung blue in the last two presidential elections, and they’ve been sending a Democrat, Harry Reid, to the US Senate for as long as I’ve been paying attention.
This is a good example of why the red state-blue state dichotomy is misleading. My understanding is that most states, whether they’re red or blue overall, have within them a strong red-blue divide between their rural areas (usually red) and their urban areas (usually blue). Whether a state is red or blue overall is largely a matter of whether the majority of its population is rural or urban, though I’m sure there are exceptions.
In the case of Nevada, I would assume that a large percentage of its population is urban, living in or near Las Vegas, and so tends to be liberal. But I would wager that once you get out of that area, the rest of the state is, in fact, “rabidly red.”
Just hoping those rhino figurines in the background of the ‘Diamonds’ photo aren’t actually made from ivory.
A gun is a home safety device like a bucket of gasoline is a home safety device.
…unless you’ve developed NRA level match control from and early age.
Jake is quite familiar with Burning Bobcat, which is a gasoline safety program for children. The bucket of gasoline he keeps in his room is always stored properly and handled with the respect such a fine tool deserves.
The only way to deal with a bad kid with fuel is a good kid with fuel.
And I say this as someone who thinks gasoline is cool. I’m just not deluded into thinking I’m safer with buckets of it lying around.
30-odd people died at the weekend producing that stuff. It’s a fittingly hilarious subject for parodying American gun sanity.
About as sharp as a beach ball (Ms. Fiore that is).
A somewhat under-inflated pair of beach balls, I’d say. Plus a third that provides the support for her face, because there’s not a lot else there of any substance.
I was explaining “beach ball diagrams” (focal plane solutions for earthquakes) over lunch in the galley today. Trying to re-work the explanation in terms of Ms Fiore’s (and others) choice of plastic surgery … is a depth of pedagogy as yet unplumbed. But the oilfield has certain expectations, and having skirted the concept … I may have to undertake the challenge. Foreshocks and … aftershocks.
I’ll go and scrub my brain. Fortunately we don’t have any hydrofluoric acid on board any more.
Religious right critic Frank Schaeffer has suggested that right wingers quite widely have serious inferiority complexes.
Early in the James Bond movie “Goldfinger” (1964), a woman Bond is picking up on embraces him while he is wearing his gun shoulder holster. She says “Why must you always wear that thing?” He (tongue-in-cheek) says
“I have a slight…inferiority complex”.
I can’t help but associate these two pieces of information.
Yes, it’s very interesting.
The group (in the US) that has the highest percentage reporting that they feel threatened and feel the need for a gun for protection are … wait for it …
White, middle-aged, middle class males. About the least threatened large group of people to ever walk the earth.
I think they feel threatened by women, other races, etc. That’s why they like Trump, he acts just like they could back in the good old days, before women and minorities were expected to be treated equally.
Twits.
Exactly right. The basis of much of reactionary conservatism is fear and insecurity. The last recession, triggered largely by conservative and libertine policies, created a large pool of unemployed, and underemployed and tentatively employed. Once they felt strong and in control of their lives. Now, they see their way of life slowly seeping away. They see no prospects for future improvement. Every minority, such as feminists, gays, Mexican and Muslim immigrants as the ones responsible for the decline. Oh, and Obama.
This suggests the solution will only come with a period of cultural stability and growth in jobs. Good luck with that.
The GOP has convinced the white, working class to vote against their own economic interests for 4 decades now. It’s remarkable.
Just this morning, I heard an interview on NPR with a woman in (poor) rural Kentucky, who had gotten health coverage because of “Obamacare”.
She voted for the new GOP governor who it bent on repealing it! And she did that knowing that.
These folks (bless their hearts) seem to just be too simple to realize that it’s a rigged game.
In their defense, they have been educated by a system that is dedicated to keeping them simple.
I have the impression that many Americans don’t realise that the Man in the High Castle is fiction
God help America? What happens if there is no God?
That’s what we’re finding out.
His followers have always provided the best evidence of his non-existence.
So, she’s about to fly to Paris intent on mudering people. That should turn out well for her.
I’m not an American but the result of their next election seriously worries me.
The fact that a person like this holds office in this day and age is, indeed, incredible.
Nowhere in her biography is there a mention of any college education. High school was the end of the line for Michelle. A single mother with two daughters, she had her first child at 19. Kudos to her for raising two daughters and what the hell to Nevada for electing her to office.
She runs a health business and has stated the following (from Wikipedia): “If you have cancer, which I believe is a fungus, and we can put a pic line into your body and we’re flushing, let’s say, salt water, sodium carbonate, through that line, and flushing out the fungus.”
Right, cancer is a fungus.
Nevada, the very state she represents, voided her health care license in 2013.
Ignorant, uneducated opinion with a vote in the state house.
“let’s say, salt water, sodium carbonate,”
Erm, does she think that the salt in salt water is sodium carbonate, rather than primarily sodium chloride? Must have slept through high-school chemistry lessons.
I grew up in northern Arizona and couldn’t escape this sort of lunacy. My parents had an entire closet full of weapons, which they never even bothered to lock. There was nothing to stop my little sister nor myself from opening the door and investigating. I recall the day my parents realized they’d been robbed. I have no idea how many guns were taken, but the closet was emptied.
Bizarre. I thought the threat of an armed resident was supposed to keep all the robbers away?
Shock horror news : many robbers wait until the house is empty before robbing it. You see, they’re not complete an utter idiots.
Sorry, but considering some of the comments above, I have the mental image of your parent’s guns coming out of the closet.
Sorry. But sometimes laughter is the only option.
No, Jerry, she didn’t say that. I can see how the phrasing wasn’t great, but she said wasn’t ok with terrorists & that she wanted to kill *them*. Before that she said she wasn’t ok with Syrian refugees, yes, & *then* she said the thing about killing terrorists. It’s important to notice details like this so that you’re not misconstruing stuff. She’s an easy target: she’s an idiot, sure, but she didn’t say what you’re saying she said. Re-read her words; I urge you.
I think you are mistaken. You’re right that it’s important to be very careful about this, so I went to the interview to listen to what she says and it’s pretty clear she’s talking about refugees. She is using terrorist and refugee interchangeably, basically.
Listen for yourself here: Fiore on refugees
Here’s a transcript. She is recounting a conversation between herself and another Nevada legislator named Chuck.
“[I asked] What are you talking about, Chuck? He’s like, the Syrian refugees. I’m, like, what are you kidding me? I’m [unintelligible word] about to fly to Paris and shoot ’em in the head myself. I mean I am not ok with Syrian refugees, I am not ok with terrorists – you know, I’m ok with putting them down, blacken them out, just put a piece of brass in their nocular [sic] cavity and end their miserable life, I’m good with that.”
I think one good thing the NRA does is offer gun safety classes. That, however, has to be qualified with how this can comport with gun safety for kindergarten-aged children. The only safety lesson a child of five should have regarding guns is, “DON’T TOUCH!”
I don’t know what the mindset is of people who feel it is safe to let young children handle weapons, but most parents won’t let their five year-old child handle a steak knife out of concern that they don’t have the coordination, strength or maturity not to injure themselves with it.
I would fully support the NRA in its gun safety lessons if they would sign on to licensing and registration regulations (which they actually did agree to in the not so distant past) and made the safety classes mandatory for anyone purchasing a gun, minimally in the same way we do this for people driving cars. As it stands, some small percentage of gun owners take these classes and then give guns to children neither physically or emotionally mature enough to handle deadly weapons. The absurdity of this agenda can be easily seen by considering how many parents would put their kids in Eddie Eagle driving classes as preschoolers and then proudly declare, “My son knows how to handle my F-450…if you notice, his hands aren’t currently on the modified steering column that allows him to reach the accelerator…he has total mechanical control!”
The NRA could be a force for good if they chose. Improving gun safety and responsibility and reducing gun crimes are not incompatible with the right to own guns, but they embrace gun anarchy instead.
Bullseye.
apologies to pcc for the puffho link:
“NRA’s “Eddie Eagle” Doesn’t Fly or Protect”
also to:
“Joe Camel with Feathers: How the NRA with Gun and Tobacco Industry Dollars Uses its Eddie Eagle Program to Market Guns to Kids”
Per her calendar pics, Assemblywoman Fiore appears to fancy herself the Mamie van Doren of the machine pistol.
In the style of Slashdot correcting typos,
Fixed that for you!
If only it weren’t so implausible.
Is it breaking Da Roolz here to have a small tiny piece of my reptilian side wishing that her grandson shoots her in the buttocks with that cute little gun? I suppose I should banish those thoughts because somebody might get hurt and her grandson might be psychologicall scarred (although HOW he won’t end up scarred with that family around him is beyond me).
Oughta be a Roolz waiver for such venial violations …
Her position is even more odious that the Donald’s “Keep all Muslims out…even US citizens” position. One can only hope that enough voters have the sense to kick her out of office.
She seems to be about two things: her own sex appeal and kicking ass. It’s an unattractive package.
Can we just go ahead and replace the Statue of Liberty with a statue of Kim Kardashian holding an assault rifle and a Big Mac?
“I’m OK with putting them down, blacking them out, just put a piece of brass in their ocular cavity and end their miserable life.”
Ammunition cartridge is generally made of brass, but that part isn’t fired at the target, a slug of lead is, which is sometimes covered by a copper cover, aka, “full metal jacket”.
So unless she intends to catch the ejected brass and screw it into the victims eye with her thumb, she’s talking nonsense.
Perhaps, since she seems to not know what she is talking about, she is simply pandering to her base.
This business of “protecting my family” and using a gun to do so mystifies me.
I protect my family by having comprehensive health insurance, by giving and supporting decent college educations for my kids, by ensuring my wife and I have enough put away for a comfortable retirement…. even making sure my grandkids wear their seatbelts, for heaven’s sake (or for FSM’s sake).
A gun won’t make any of that better or more achievable….
Rather a lot of Americans seem to genuinely believe that the zombie apocalypse is immanent, and are organising their lives on that expectation. Some may be expecting Skynet, but they’re just as worried.
On the other hand, what if you were unemployed and had no special skills. You wouldn’t be able to do any of those wonderful things for your family. Imagine the sense of betrayal and disappointment.
What’s a good way to make a guy feel powerful and in control of things? Playing Rambo at the range might seem pretty reasonable.
This is deeply disturbing. People like Fiore and Trump are lacking a healthy sense of shame. It’s also deeply disturbing the level of notoriety they’ve gained and the number of supporters.
There is so much to say that is disturbing about this woman – but what chilled me to the bone was the apparent lust to kill people. It is so beyond my comprehension. Trump claimed that the Planned Parenthood murderer (which has now dropped off the radar) was mentally ill. But this Fiore woman is of the same cut of the cloth. That desire for blood and vengeance – and obviously no one is taking away her guns. Additionally, she has successfully raised at least one generation to be as hate-filled, and blood-lusting as her.
Is there any clearer example of why we should restrict gun ownership?
Exactly! That’s what sickens me. It’s a common signature in gun nuts and far righters for them to tell you with relish what they will do to “the bad guys” whether it’s someone violating their rights, breaking into their home, or a foreign threat, it’s not just some sober minded justification. A big part of it is the sheer glee and satisfaction they take from the very idea of being able to do harm.
I think some percentage of them actively wish and hope for societal collapse or SHTF scenarios just so they can fulfill their Rambo fantasies of shooting people and “taking out the scum.” It’s sickening. They’re a detriment to society because they do nothing at all to actually help make things better. Never constructive, only destructive.
Every pro-gun person I’ve ever spoken to, whether on the web or in actual conversations has this ridiculous mentality and this includes one of my friends who is in law enforcement! Why a police officer would want more people armed is beyond me. The only rationale I can think of is that they then get to blow away criminals with the justification, “Hey, they might’ve been armed.”
Anyhow, we got into this ridiculous conversation the other day where I was giving him stats about guns and references to peer reviewed studies on gun violence showing that death is directly correlated with gun ownership across multiple countries and all 50 states in the U.S. None of this deterred him. He asked me what I’d do if I were held at gunpoint on the streets of New York and the criminal asked me to give him my wallet and phone. Then my friend adds on the condition that I’m not carrying a gun myself. I said I can’t say for sure how I’d react, but I’d probably assess the situation and if I thought he was really out to simply rob me, the best course of action is likely to comply with his demands. But, here’s where it gets batshit crazy. I said, let’s assume I am carrying a gun. What am I supposed to do? The mugger takes me by surprise and I’m supposed to somehow draw my weapon and take him out while I’m looking down the barrel of a firearm? He actually said this would be a good idea because it may take the criminal by surprise that I’m not complying. My only response was, “WHAT. THE. FUCK.” Sorry, but I’m not willing to take the risk that I can draw a weapon and “surprise” the mugger faster than he can pull a trigger.
After I recovered from the sheer absurdity of that conversation, I went on to reiterate that hypothetical scenarios do not constitute an argument and that anecdotes are not data. I really wonder how many Americans would answer the following multiple choice question correctly:
A good guy with a gun stopped a mass shooting the other day. A gun owner accidentally killed his child the other day.
Based on the above information, which of the following is likely correct:
A) More guns make us safer.
B) Fewer guns make us safer.
C) We have an equal likelihood of stopping a bad guy or killing someone accidentally if we own a gun.
D) None of the above. Anecdotes are not data.
Twi**er user Matt Haughey is promising that until the election he will photoshop every presidential candidate photo taken with a gun, and replacing the gun with a dildo. Here are some he’s done so far (NSFW).
http://fusion.net/story/242110/gopdildo-matt-haughey/
For better or worse, having viewed the photos I automatically did a mental photoshop of Fiore’s photos. Made me laugh. So, for better.
She better not turn that 5-yr old with a pistol loose in Chicago. Some cop, feeling his life is threatened, will take him out. I suppose I’m being unkind to Chicago police (sorry about that) but then, current events make me wonder.
Silliman College? Oh the irony.
Your screwed if this brain dead bimbo is an example of your Legislators.
She misquotes Franklin in her calendar. Here’s the correct quote:
“Those who would give up essential liberty to purchase a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety”
Here’s her version, distinctly wordsmithed into a style probably characteristic of her mental aptitude:
“They who can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety.”