Gun Nuts want to CELEBRATE the Anniversary of 20 Children Slaughtered by a Gun Nut

[Satan]

A trio of pro-gun groups has come together to declare December 14, the one-year anniversary of last year's horrific Sandy Hook Elementary School massacre, "Guns Save Lives Day." Because when you think about all the people saved by America's many, many handguns and rifles and shotguns, what springs to mind but the day when 26 innocent people—20 of them children—were slaughtered with guns?

According to a press release issued jointly by the Second Amendment Foundation, the Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms, and DefendGunRights.com, Guns Save Lives Day is dedicated to reminding people that "crazy people, criminals and gun control extremists prefer unarmed victims."

"The event is designed to counteract what certainly will be a day of activism and misinformation from the gun prohibition lobby," Larry Ward, founder of DefendGunRights.com, says. "We wanted to ensure that the public has the facts on gun rights and understand how many Americans stand with them in defense of Second Amendment rights."

My initial thought upon seeing the Guns Save Lives Day press release and website was that the whole thing was an elaborate hoax, a subtle scam put on by a political prank group like the Yes Men. There's no way gun advocates are clueless enough to sponsor a pro-gun day on the anniversary of the Newtown tragedy, especially not with a logo that uses a handgun to make the letter L, right? Wrong.

One call to the Second Amendment Foundation and I was on the phone with Dave Workman, who works for both the S.A.F. and the Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms. Workman confirmed that Guns Save Lives Day is authentic. "It's real," he said before asking me if I was originally from Los Angeles.

People in support of Guns Save Lives Day can sign a petition saying as much at GunsSaveLivesDay.com. Once there, you can also share with your Facebook friends the latest Guns Save Lives Day "meme": A big red heart graphic with "Guns Save Lives" written on it.

In an interview with the Seattle Times, Alan Gottlieb, president of the Washington-based S.A.F. said Guns Save Lives Day organizers "are not planning on doing anything that’s insensitive whatsoever."

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[fraroc]

Fuck. Them.

[ashstralia]

Perhaps if you had hordes of armed kindergarten kids sandy hook never would have happened.

[Igosplut]

You will never take guns from the illegal possessor's by targeting legal owners. I would say all legal owners want any illegal things to stop. Rather than put up bullshit about legal owners, maybe all should work twoards a better solution.

[Satan]

Well, the key phrase there is "legal owners".

In the specific case of this tragedy, the person ultimately responsible was the supposed "responsible" gun owner who believed in paranoid militia fairy tales and taught her mentally vacant monster of a son how to shoot automatic weapons.

It was actually justice that he shot her first. Too bad it didn't end there.

Whether this fucking stupid bitch had a criminal record or not, she obviously wasn't capable of owning a gun the way that the old guys in the powdered wigs would have wanted. How do you prevent something like that in the future?

Certainly not by celebrating the violence.

[Igosplut]

How do you prevent something like that in the future?

Certainly not by celebrating the violence.

You can't . Nothing stops people without records doing bad things. You can never guage that.

And it might be a small point, but it wasn't a "automatic weapon". That's a federal license thats very hard to get and comes with more restrictions than you could guess. And I don't believe anybody would "celebrate" violence here....

[ashstralia]

I agree. After the Port Arthur spree in 1996 (google it), I was forced to hand in 2 vintage rifles which had been in my family for many many years... Didn't matter that they were for all intents and purposes inoperable, and I got paid for them.

But I could still go and buy a black market glock tomorrow for $500.

[sadaist]

I am all for bearing arms & gun rights. But to say this was in poor taste would be giving way too much credit to it.

And rather than worry about guns so much, perhaps we should focus on better mental health care?

[Nickdfresh]

I agree. After the Port Arthur spree in 1996 (google it), I was forced to hand in 2 vintage rifles which had been in my family for many many years... Didn't matter that they were for all intents and purposes inoperable, and I got paid for them.

But I could still go and buy a black market glock tomorrow for $500.

That's a good price!

[twonabomber]

I am all for bearing arms & gun rights. But to say this was in poor taste would be giving way too much credit to it.

And rather than worry about guns so much, perhaps we should focus on better mental health care?

Gotta be careful there, we don't want to upset the mental cases. Can't offend anyone any more.

[ELVIS]

Says who ??

[Seshmeister]

It's funny how in the US you have a bunch of people who don't like the influence of 'Big Pharma' and other corporations but ignore the huge amount of lobbying by multi billion dollar Big Firearm.

sales at the two publicly traded firearms manufacturers, Smith & Wesson (SWHC) and Sturm Ruger & Co. (RGR) have been booming since Barack Obama was first inaugurated nearly four years ago. Profits at the two companies also have soared, with those of Smith & Wesson up nearly 140% over the period while Sturm Ruger’s earnings have jumped nearly 200%. The Obama administration may have struggled to add jobs elsewhere, but employment within the firearms exploded by more than 30% between 2008 and 2011, according to the National Shooting Sports Federation.

[Igosplut]

It's funny how in the US you have a bunch of people who don't like the influence of 'Big Pharma' and other corporations but ignore the huge amount of lobbying by multi billion dollar Big Firearm.

sales at the two publicly traded firearms manufacturers, Smith & Wesson (SWHC) and Sturm Ruger & Co. (RGR) have been booming since Barack Obama was first inaugurated nearly four years ago. Profits at the two companies also have soared, with those of Smith & Wesson up nearly 140% over the period while Sturm Ruger’s earnings have jumped nearly 200%. The Obama administration may have struggled to add jobs elsewhere, but employment within the firearms exploded by more than 30% between 2008 and 2011, according to the National Shooting Sports Federation.

Mostly on the knee-jerk reaction on Obama outlawing any gun ownership. There is also a shortage of ammo as thats another way to hit the gun lobby.

[Satan]

Except Obama has done no such thing. Despite the ever growing calls from the public to do so, in the wake of multiple mass tragedies.

To the contrary, he actually signed PRO gun nut laws, such as allowing guns to be carried in National Parks.

Ironically the gun nuts never protested against Chimpy, who actually ordered BlacKKKwater thugs to confiscate legally owned guns from New Orleans residents in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina.

[baru911]

And it might be a small point, but it wasn't a "automatic weapon". That's a federal license thats very hard to get and comes with more restrictions than you could guess. And I don't believe anybody would "celebrate" violence here....

Not a license unless you want to be a dealer in them. For Joe Average Citizen who can legally own a firearm and want to buy one - You have to live in a State that allows transferable automatic weapons. You then find a class III dealer who will do the transfer of whatever transferable pre-1986 full-auto weapon you want to purchase. (Wanna see what's out there? Go to Subguns and you can see how expensive one is.) Then you fill out the required paperwork, have the head law enforcement officer (generally the Sheriff) to sign one of the forms, have a background check completed, send in your $ 200.00 and the paperwork. You then get to wait between 6 and 9 months for the paperwork and tax stamp to come back and then you can pick-up the transferable full-auto weapon from the Class III dealer and take it home. The same process goes for cans. All other weapons or sawed off shotguns have the same process but the tax stamp is $5.00 not $200.00.