Wednesday, January 09, 2013

Carrying Coal To Newcastle On A Dead Horse

     Is it the new hobby of NBC talking head Matt Lauer?  He spent several minutes of an interview this morning hectoring Chris Christie, the Republican Governor of New Jersey about if he would or would not support a "Federal ban on assault weapons..." or "...high capacity clips...."

     While Governor Christie correctly pointed out his state's tough gun laws (I'd call 'em insane), he otherwise refused to answer, deflecting instead to issues of violent video games,* metal health and drug use, he never did own up that a Federal ban as strong as the previous AWB would have no effect in New Jersey (well, very little; the NJ magazine-capacity limit is 15 rounds).

     Neither man saw fit to mention that the rifle used at Sandy Hook was A) Not legally possessed by the killer and B) Compliant with Connecticut's own AWB.

     A spankin' new Federal AWB is high on NBC's wish list; it appears to be high on the Democrat wish list as well, and never you mind that the last one cost 'em their majority and possibly the Presidency as well.  Much as I love to see elected offices get turned over at the Federal level -- I don't think we should ever let any of 'em get too comfy -- it'll be better to stop this lunacy before it gets off the ground, before millions are punished for the criminal acts of one deranged young man.  The Left and their mouthpieces are going to keep pushing this.  We need to keep pushing back.
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* I'm not convinced this is any more a "scourge" than violent films and TV shows -- or kids, most of them boys, playing any of the pretend soldiers/cops'n'robbers games they've probably been playing since their ancestors wore skins and hunted the Great Sloth right off the planet.  I think it's hardwired right into their brains.

22 comments:

Turk Turon said...

A House GOP staffer was recently asked which was more likely: Speaker Boehner supporting a new AWB, or becoming a pagan.
"Probably the latter," he said.

I don't think there is going to be any new Federal gun control legislation in the next two years. Congress is too distracted by fiscal issues.

Ed Skinner said...

Sheriff Joe, regardless of his sometimes questionable reputation, may actually have a pretty good idea: unpaid but otherwise trained volunteers in the schools. Rather than new controls by the government, the government simply facilitates a solution.

Jess said...

I don't understand the politeness. When they vary off subject and into liberal fog vision, figuratively slap them back into reality with cutting and rude remarks. They don't seem to understand they have no logic, so it's our responsibility to teach.

If I was Christie, I'd introduce legislation to ban NBC from broadcasting in the state of New Jersey. They're responsible for more harm than any firearm and dangerous to the public.

Roberta X said...

Jess:

Second para: So, First Amendment not as important to you as the Second? Not important at all? Good to know. I don't think we're on the same side.

First para: Pretty sure Chris Christie is a politician; he's hoping to be invited back because face time is face time, even if he has to make nice to Lauer to get it. Don't assume these people are your friend just 'cos they ride an elephant to work.

Ed: interesting idea. Liability issues might be a problem.

Turk: Bet your Garand on that?

Jess said...

Actually we are. The banning of guns is just as ridiculous as the banning of free speech. I was being facetious.

I've never felt Christie represented conservative ideas and find a lot of what he does is showboating and counterproductive. If he really wants to present his official opinion, a written statement is the best method. Then again, that's almost cast in stone and can't be denied as malicious editing or allow some face time on television.

Anonymous said...

I've seen blog posts suggesting there was no rifle at Sandy Hook. The talking heads repeat it because someone said it once, but that doesn't make it true. Your thoughts on the opinion?

rickn8or said...

Christie served his purpose when he went all kissy-face with Teh Won in the photo op before the election. That's the last positive pat on the head the press is going to give him.

Unless of course he runs in the Republican primary for President in 2016.

Tam said...

"I've seen blog posts suggesting there was no rifle at Sandy Hook. "

An MSNBC talking head on the morning of the 15th misspoke and said "four handguns".

From this error from the mouth of a man who doesn't know a handgun from a hole in the ground, a whole Sandy Hook Troofer movement has sprung.

I guess I'm just a gullible sheeple for believing the ME and local PD when they state that half-empty AR mags, a Bushhamster, and ~150 rounds of spent 5.56 brass were found in the school.

Roberta X said...

Secondamendmentliberty said...

"I've seen blog posts suggesting there was no rifle at Sandy Hook. The talking heads repeat it because someone said it once, but that doesn't make it true. Your thoughts on the opinion?"

Are that it's not worth more than thirty seconds of my time. The kind or number of guns and ammo used in a crime has no bearing on the individual right to keep and bear arms, any more than the deliberate home explosion on Indy's south side applies to the right to sell, buy and use natural gas.

Bear said...

RE:Weapons at Sandy Hook.

Unless a detailed police report including photos and ballitics test results is released and examined, I don't freaking know, and neither does anyone else. Early lamestream muddia reports had the alleged* shooter's weaponry as:
1. Two handguns
2. Three hand guns, and a Bushmaster found in the trunk of the shooter's vehicle.
3. Four handguns.
4. Two handguns and a Bushmaster.
5. Two handguns and a shotgun.
6. _Four_ handguns and a Bushmaster.
7. Two handguns, a Bushmaster, and shotgun left in the vehicle.
8. ... after that I lost track, except that there was also allegedly footage of the police showing the Bushmaster in the vehicle.

(* Dear Bog, even the reports on the alleged shooter. It was two brothers. It was two brothers and a third unidentified person. It was one shooter. It was one shooter down, with police in hot purstuit of the second shooter. It was one shooter, but oopsie, not the one we said but really his brother.

"Neither man saw fit to mention that the rifle used at Sandy Hook was A) Not legally possessed by the killer and B) Compliant with Connecticut's own AWB."

Only because that part of their narrative is long established: "Everybody knows" that murderous nutcases always get their guns from honest folks who lawfully possess them; that those stupid gun-clutching rednecks just pass out their guns to criminals like candy at Halloween, when they don't just leave them in their fronts yards with 'Free to a Bad Home' signs. Criminals' guns aren't the problem; it's those evil black rifle in the irresponsible hands of trained, law-abiding, honest folk.

I was in a discussion in which a victim disarmer asked when "we" were going to hold MRS. LANZA responsible for her role in the muders of those children. Because it was her fault they were dead, not the killer's fault. The troll specifically avoided assigning any blame to the killer. Because if you blame the criminal, you can't really blame the secondary and tertiary (robbed gun owners, innocent gun-owning bystanders) victims.

Old NFO said...

I'm more worried about an EO than something out of the congresscritters...

Roberta X at Tam's doc said...

Since I am quite often watching news coverage with a genuine weapons-recognition expert, I get a somewhat different perspective than the poor schmoe listening to the radio. The trunk shotgun, Tam was rattling off mfr. & model while the vid was rolling.

...But it really is beside the point. Yeah, bad man shot kids (this happens weekly in Chicago, just fewer of them and not as telegenically). Would it be any better if he had bashed in their heads with a sledgehammer? Burned down the school? Handed out poisoned cookies?

Bear said...

"Would it be any better if he had bashed in their heads with a sledgehammer? Burned down the school? Handed out poisoned cookies?"

According to the troll I was silly enough to try talking rationally to: Yes. He went so far as to claim that the UK's (he was a self-idenified Brit) higher-than-US violent crime rate didn't count because it wasn't done with guns.

perlhaqr said...

[T]hose stupid gun-clutching rednecks just pass out their guns to criminals like candy at Halloween, when they don't just leave them in their fronts yards with 'Free to a Bad Home' signs.

HAHAHAHHAHA!

Next time I need to get rid of something bulky, it's going in the front yard with that sign. :D

Anonymous said...

Bear

Sorry, but not all Brits are hoplophobic illiberal idiots - just, as there, the most opinionated, loudest voiced and the only ones ever quoted by MSM.

Roberta

Pedantic I know (it's one of the few things I'm good at) but I believe it's 'Coals to Newcastle' and since we haven't currently any pits still working in Northumberland and Durham, I believe we could do with some ;-p

Oh, and the dead horse? Yes please, on Stotty Cake!

Anonymous said...

" ... never you mind that the last one cost 'em their majority and possibly the Presidency as well."

Is this calculation changed at all when one considers who currently Occupies the White House?

Has anyone noticed whether the President is casting about for a replacement Attorney General? Or is he content with the one that's there now? I suppose it's good to remember to keep calm.

Mike James

Jeffro said...

Christie was on CBS This Morning yesterday as well. Charlie Rose and Nora O'Donnell looked like a skunk just walked in while interviewing the Governor. Which made me totally confident in their ability to be non partisan. /sarcasm off

At any rate, they did ask him about more gun regs, and he said while that was important (I believe he said "as well it should be"), he did feel that since that happened where gun laws were already among the strictest, that the focus should be on mental health and so on.

So, on a practical basis, Christie is performing predictably in his RINO role, and gun owners should just cross him off, period.

Turk Turon said...

RX: I wouldn't want to bet my Garand on *anything*, not voluntarily. But if I had to bet it, involuntarily, I would want to unload it first.

Tam said...

"2. Three hand guns, and a Bushmaster found in the trunk of the shooter's vehicle."

[citation needed]

No credible source ever said that there was a Bushhamster in the trunk.

Once all the KIA and WIA had been carted off, and they started going through the vehicles in the parking lot and figured out which one was the perp's, they recovered a "long gun" from the trunk.

Video footage and LE statements seem to indicate that it was a shotgun. Nobody has said it was a Bushhamster.

Roberta X said...

Able: we handle the plural differently in the States -- something to do with all those discarded "u"s from colour and flavour (et al) clogging up the system.

Bear said...

Tam: "No credible source ever said that there was a Bushhamster in the trunk."

That was my point. Pay attention. There has been damned little credible reporting period. Every "news" service rushed out every little freaking rumor, guess, wild-ass supposition, and misidentification as soon as possible so as to "trump" the competion. Unfortunately, this fed the conspiracy types who started with their own silly assumptions: 1) that the lamestream muddia can be trusted to report accurately, and 2) that any mass shooting has to be a coordinated plot by anyone but the shooter.

Credible reporting? Aside from the issues of weapon(s) reportdly used and numbers and identities of the shooter(s) already mentioned, how about the great and accurate reporting on the the deaths of the mother, father, brother, the mother being/not being/ a teacher/maybe a substitute/where she was killed? Or the news service that ran with the claim by the "uncle" that Lanza was on Fanapt without noting almost immediately (Google would have helped) that the "uncle" was a notorious hoaxster/fraud/nutcase with a history of impersonating other folks?

All of which is why I said no one will really know what was used until a detailed police report with ballistics test results is released and examined.

Able: "Sorry, but not all Brits are hoplophobic illiberal idiots - just, as there, the most opinionated, loudest voiced and the only ones ever quoted by MSM.

Never said every one is. I know from personal contact that there are reasonable folks there. But not even counting the idiots that the muddia manages to quote (or give high profile, high pay jobs to), I seem to encounter the hoplophobes and sensible people at about a 10:1 ratio. But that might be overly optimistic; I wasn't really keeping a spreadsheet on encounters.

Tam said...

Bear,

My apologies. We are in agreement, and I went off half-cocked.