What would Charlton Heston do?
You know how hard core conservatives are always bitching about how the ACLU doesn’t do enough to defend the free speech of Jesus Freaks and other kooks who exist on the outer fringes of the right wing? Well, I was reading another Plaxico Burress story in the Post (seriously, I’m freaking hooked on this!) and a thought occurred to me…
Where is the statement expressing outrage from the NRA that a humble American gun owner like Plaxico, who was just trying to protect himself and his family by carrying a hand gun, is being mercilessly persecuted by The Man and his Draconian gun control laws?
Just a thought.
15 comments:
Bloomberg's pandering on the Plaxico issue is sickening. Wall St gamblers who killed our economy and lost people their retirements still get to chill in the Hamptons but Plaxico should go to jail? He shot himself!! Athletes are celebrities get robbed all the time and Sean Taylor was only murdered a year ago, targeted for his wealth.
Personally, I am against guns but people love them and the government allows their possession. Mandatory jail Sentencing for illegal gun possession is definitely a racist policy as is the NRA refusal to defend Plaxico.
I hate the gas bags TV pundits, "he should have done this or that," it is so overblown. Plaxico made a mistake and he will pay a heavy price. I mean this is not the end of the world.
It is not like he shot his hunting partner while bombed and then lied about it to the press for hours so he could sober up. Nothing happened to big Dick aside from the victim apologizing for being shot!!
Hell, Senator Jim Webb carried a loaded gun to work, which was against the same type of gun possesion laws. Our govt leaders get a pass, while athletes need vilified as evil bad role models.
finally bloomberg pointed the finger where it belongs--at the club. burris is clearly not the first moron to carry a gun into a club, and they had an obligation to report this...but bad publicity sees most of these sorts of incidents swiftly snuffed, the offenders ushered out a back door into a private car. club owners don't want investigations of this sort of thing, let alone the customary drug use, underage drinking, blah blah of celebs.
he should be arrested. i don't go to clubs like this, but i don't like the idea of some moron packing heat in a crowded place where i might be (witness the shootings in a palm desert, CA toys r us for this argument). this is hardly racist policy--the nra has to disavow themselves of idiots, lest they risk their "credibility".
this issue should be isolated from whatever one thinks of bloomberg. he's been against illegal gun ownership here for some time, and if you ask 9 out of 10 new yorkers, they'd concur.
Plaxico is too tan for the NRA to care.
Andrew Sullivan just gave you a shout-out for this post...
I'm gonna go out on a limb here and say that the NRA is supportive of the idea that guns and alcohol do not mix. Carrying a gun into a liquor store or bar is generally a pretty severe crime anywhere, even outside places with restrictive gun laws like NYC.
But, you know, maybe it's because the NRA is full of RACISTS!!!
Heh, Sullivan linked to this post.
The NRA has always stressed safe gun ownership. They have run programs for decades for people of all ages and backgrounds, including children and law enforcement officers, on how to properly keep and bear arms. Not only was Plaxico unsafely carrying a pistol, but his expired Florida pistol permit is not valid in New York.
This isn't worth the NRA's time.
You know how when the right gets up in arms about how the ACLU or whatever hasn't made a statement on something, it turns out they have, as a simple google search would reveal?
http://www.nraila.org/News/Read/InTheNews.aspx?ID=11879
A few random reactions to this post:
Like most conservatives, I don't "bitch" about what the ACLU doesn't do. I'd be quite happy if it just stopped doing what it does. When we (conservatives)point out that the ACLU has failed to support the right to express some conservative idea or take some conservative action, we are not wishing that the ACLU would change. We are only pointing out its hypocricy. It's a common mistake that liberals make. Please stop making it.
Of course, you think that means I am being hypocritical because I don't support the ACLU's right to do what it does. But I do. I'm just expressing my dislike for what it does, which is my right, of course.
As for Burress, any owner of private property should have the to tell people that they can't come with firearms. That's what private propery rights are all about. Maybe the NRA recognizes this, and is remaining silent for that reason: it doesn't have a dog in that fight. I don't know; I'm not a member.
Bloomberg knows little about the law, which is why he is trampling on Burress' rights as a criminal defendant. The government should present its case to a jury, not to the press. If I were Burress' lawyer I'd be raising hell about that.
The NRA is not concerned with defending the gun rights of non-white people. Most of their membership sees dark skinned people as the threat they carry guns for in the first place. When the NRA types talk about guns for self-defense, they mean defense from big black men, especially big black ARMED men.
I overheard a NRA nut a while ago tell a bunch of his NRA gun nut friends this 'joke':
"Guy goes into a gun shop and buys a 44 magnum, a 45, and a Glock pistol. Store owner says, 'Well you now own the most powerful handguns ever made. What are you going to use them for?'
Guy goes 'Oh, just for shooting at some cans... Some Africans, some Mexicans, some Puerto-Ricans.'"
The NRA nuts thought this was just fuckin' hilarious.
It'd be very informative to see the demograpic breakdown of their membership. I'd be surprised if it less than 99% white.
If Plaxico was a white football star, the NRA and every rightwing blog would be spittle-flecked with outrage over it. They'd make it a cause and a symbol, and everyone damn well knows it.
Like most conservatives, I don't "bitch" about what the ACLU doesn't do.
And then you go on for the rest of the paragraph and the next doing exactly that.
Only pointing out your hypocrisy...
"The NRA is not concerned with defending the gun rights of non-white people. Most of their membership sees dark skinned people as the threat they carry guns for in the first place. When the NRA types talk about guns for self-defense, they mean defense from big black men, especially big black ARMED men."
Did anyone even read Andrew Edwards link? And will the original post be amended to reflect the fact that the NRA HAS complained about the treatment of Plaxico Burress?
I see we're dealing with history as stated in "Bowling for Columbine" now, saying that the NRA is racist. The fact is that the NRA was founded by Union veterans, and gun CONTROL was one way that the KKK and the racist establishment of the South sought to keep the "non-white people" you reference in line.
"And then you go on for the rest of the paragraph and the next doing exactly that."
Work on you reading comprehension. You don't have to actually be registered for the SAT to sign up for a course that promises to increase your verbal score. Give it a try. Just a friendly suggestion, Anonymous.
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Believe it or not, the NRA was originally partly supported by the Federal government. Until the late sixties, it wasn't a right-wing political lobby for "gun rights" at all. Its original mission was just to improve civilian marksmanship. Seems that during the Civil War, the Army was surprised to find out that most recruits didn't know one end of a gun from the other, belieing the myth that 19th c Americans were all gun-totin' cowboys. The NRA was founded by Union veterans in the 1870s to ensure that at least some Americans would be ready for future wars.
At any rate, the Federal government had always had a deal with the NRA where anyone who organized an NRA chapter with 10 or more members could get - absolutely free - a surplus Army rifle for each member. Originally, it was just single-shot Springfields, but after WWII, you got M1 semiautomatics - pretty potent firepower.
This ended with a "bang" about 1968when several enterprising young fellows from West Oakland, CA formed just such a chapter and received their free rifles. These lads - Huey Newton, Eldredge Cleaver, Bobby Seale, among others - were then photographed for Life magazine wearing their Black Panther leather jackets and berets, and holding their M1 rifles. All hell broke loose - black radicals were SCARY - and all ties between the Federal government and the NRA were very quickly severed. So that, boys and girls, is how the NRA became the right-wing nut hatchery we all know and love today.
Believe it or not, the NRA was originally semi-officially supported by the Federal government. Until sometime in the sixties, it wasn't a right-wing lobby for "gun rights" at all, its mission was simply to improve civilian marksmanship. It seems that during the Civil War, the Army was surprised to find out that most recruits didn't know one end of a gun from the other, belieing the myth that 19th c Americans were all gun-totin' cowboys. The NRA was founded in the 1870s by Union veterans to ensure that at least some Americans would be ready for future wars.
At any rate, the Federal government had always had a deal where anyone who organized an NRA chapter with 10 or more members could get - absolutely free - a surplus Army rifle for each member. Originally, it was just single-shot Springfields, but after WWII, they issued M1 semi-automatics - pretty potent fire power.
This ended with a "bang" about 1968when several enterprising young fellows from West Oakland, CA formed just such a chapter and received their free rifles. These lads - Huey Newton, Eldredge Cleaver, Bobby Seale, among others - were then photographed for Life magazine wearing their Black Panther leather jackets and berets, and holding their M1s. All hell broke loose - black radicals were SCARY - and all ties between the Federal government and the NRA were very quickly severed. And that, boys and girls, is how the NRA became the right-wing nut hatchery we all know and love today.
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