The Unavoidable Gun Cliché

From a gun made of words, to words full of guns!
Image from 2Dolphins.com

It struck me, when reading comments regarding President Obama's executive orders on guns, first that we have a hair-trigger overreaction as a culture, whenever even a whisper of "gun control" is uttered. And, more superficially, that we have an inordinate number of gun-related clichés. To the point where it's almost impossible to read a comments section or editorial on the issue without recognizing unintentional double-entendres.

Off the top of my head I can think of:

Give it a shot

On target

Jumped the gun

With a bullet

Lock and load

Lock, stock and barrel

Bite the bullet

Pistol whipped

Missed its mark

Gun shy

Calling the shots

Get the lead out

Shooting blanks

Itchy trigger finger

Going great guns

Zero in

Going postal

Drop the hammer

The whole shooting match

Broad side of a barn

Under the gun

Quick draw

Loaded for bear

Riding shotgun

Set your sights on

Dodged a bullet

Trigger happy

Went off half-cocked

A shot in the dark

Pulled the trigger

Under the gun

I'm quite sure this is a very partial list. Because you find endless variations. Especially when writing colloquially, as most tend to do on blogs or comment sections. It may be as difficult to avoid as Biblical quotes and allusions are for an atheist! It really says something that we're so steeped in gun culture that we don't even notice that the language is shot clean through with them!

So, That Happened: A Kids Book on Open Carry

A couple of decades ago, when people would travel to countries that had armed soldiers at airports, carrying large weapons, they'd remark on it. It was odd. Scary. Foreign. Now, gun nuts advocates are trying to make "open carry" of large and/or small weapons a normal thing. To most of us it's still odd, scary and foreign. But when pressed, a lot of open carry advocates will tell you that their showy demonstrations at Chipotle, Home Depot and other ordinary locales, are meant to familiarize the populace with the concept. To normalize it.

I think I speak for a sizable portion of the populace when I say I don't want deadly weapons on random citizens to be normal. And let's be honest, if this is so "normal," why don't they demonstrate in banks? Airports? And what would the reaction be if The New Black Panthers or a Muslim group began holding the same sorts of demonstrations? Frankly, that I'd like to see! Just for the cognitive dissonance meltdown.


Now, I'm about to veer off into a place that you might not see the point of at first, but bear with me. Many of these same people are anti-gay, or at least anti-gay marriage.  One of the big allegations is, that the "Gay Agenda" is to normalize homosexuality, by desensitizing people to it. They will (falsely) tell you that gay people "recruit" children, or at the very least, we wish to "indoctrinate" them into believing that being gay is normal and natural. They see this as something of a sinister infiltration.

How is "Open Carry" different from that (exaggerated) scenario? They're trying to get us to think of openly carried weapons as normal. And, they're indoctrinating children.

[Excerpt]

There’s Now A Book To Teach Your Kids About Why They Should Pack Heat While Shopping

Do you wander around with a Glock on your hip, so you are prepared for the day when you’ll open fire on an armed assailant? Do you worry about how you will explain to your kids why you wander around with a Glock on your hip, so you are prepared for the day when you’ll open fire on an armed assailant? Well, Brian Jeffs and Nathan Nephew, two advocates for openly carrying firearms from Michigan, have a solution for you! The two men have authored “My Parents Open Carry,” a book for children that tells the tale of a young girl and her family as they “turn an otherwise ordinary day into an open carry adventure!”. . .

Read more at: Think Progress

Open Carry Man (A Rocky Mountain Mike Song Parody)

I missed this nugget from a few days ago, Rocky Mountain Mike's tribute to the (not crazy!) open carry brigade. To the tune of Donovan's Hurdy Gurdy Man. Thanks, Mike!

To hear much more from Rocky Mountain Mike, click here.
 

American Taliban?

There is a temptation on my part to let this imagery speak for itself, paste a link, and then leave it at that. But I don't want it to seem that I'm saying this is a 100% direct equivalence. The components of the images are pretty much identical: a weapon, a flag, and a holy book being held by a woman who looks pleased with herself.

I've already seen some commentary on Facebook that virtually shrieks that the woman on the right would be either a) beheaded or otherwise murdered were she to go against her faith, or b) outright behead or murder us. Graphic, right? People have some vivid imaginations. They also seem to see wholesomeness with the girl on the left, and danger in the girl on the right. And most of all, they'll complain that Christianity and Islam are not equivalent, in that Islam is inherently dangerous, and Christianity is not.

I'm not sure this holds up historically. I think atrocities have been committed by religious people in general. I think radicals in any religion are dangerous. It may be true that there are more organized, potentially violent religious extremists on the Islamic side of the aisle at the moment. But let's not pretend that the Bible hasn't been used to justify murder and mayhem, nor that the lady on the left looks any more sane than the lady on the right.

Source: Free Thought Blogs

Georgia "Guns Everywhere" Law Leads to Altercation on First Day

Sorry. Couldn't resist.

Gun lovers, I've got news for you: you're coming off like idiots. Even to people like me, who was raised around guns, learned to shoot at a young age, and until recent years, didn't really have much of an opinion on gun rights or gun control. But with the Open Carry guys in Texas and elsewhere? With all of the oopsies at "gun safety" demonstrations? With the absolutely insane, knee-jerk, instantaneously furious commentary in the blogosphere? You're impossible to take seriously, and extremely easy to come down against. You're your own worst enemies.

[Excerpt]

First day of ‘guns everywhere’ law in GA sparks convenience store showdown

On July 1, the state of Georgia enacted the Georgia Safe Carry Protection Act — also known as the “guns everywhere” law — which allows licensed gun-owners to bring their weapons to churches, bars, government buildings and other places where they were previously prohibited. The Valdosta Daily Times reported Tuesday evening that the new law had already pitted two armed citizens against each other in a standoff at a local convenience store. . .

Read more at: Raw Story

Jon Stewart: Open Carry vs. Stand Your Ground

NRA Backtracks: It's Now Not Weird to Strap on Your Gun and Go to Chipotle!

Nope, not weird.
Image from source, Slate.

A little advice, gun people: whatever point you think you're making by strapping an AK-47 (and I give zero shits if I've got the terminology right) to your back, and walk into fast food restaurants, hardware stores or other benign public spaces, you look crazy. You look dangerous. And you're winning zero converts. It doesn't matter one whit if you have the right to do something. I have the right to call you a tiny-dicked, overcompensating douchenozzle, but other than to make this point, I wouldn't do that. Decorum. Maturity. Manners. Get some.

Now, when it comes to the NRA, they put their finger to the wind, and got it shot off by their own members. After previously calling these fast food warriors "weird," they've now back peddled, and are blaming their previous position on some low-level lackey, who was expressing his own personal opinion. On the NRA webpage. Yeah, that makes sense guys, let's go with that!

[Excerpt]
 
NRA Apologizes for Calling Some NRA Members “Downright Weird”

The NRA, last week, took the out-of-character step of telling some of its most enthusiastic supporters of guns and the freedom to take them into your local Chipotle to, you know, maybe take it down a notch. “[A] small number have recently crossed the line from enthusiasm to downright foolishness,” Friday's NRA statement reads. Here’s more. . .

Read more at: Slate

Daily Show Laments Gun Massacre Apathy

The Daily Show with Jon Stewart returned after a break to report on the latest gun massacre. It's a brilliant piece that somehow manages to be funny, and points out the fact that we're just accepting the reality of these things now. That nothing will be done to curb violence, and that the NRA and gun activists will always win, so why bother fighting? Regular shooting sprees are the price we pay for what amounts to a Constitutionally protected fetish/hobby.*

The Daily Show
Get More: Daily Show Full Episodes,The Daily Show on Facebook,Daily Show Video Archive

*I'd like to point out that I've always been neutral to guns in general, but have been pushed--shoved really--to the anti-side. When I see these idiots strapped to the nines, and showing up "in force" at Chipotle and Home Depot? Well, they're pretty much putting a bow on it.

Gun Fetishists Creep Out Texas Restaurant Staff

 

I've long called extreme gun nuts "gun fetishists." Recently, I saw the term ammosexuals, and that really made me laugh, because it fits right in. I myself have always been Switzerland as it concerns guns and gun rights. But more and more, as the gun nuts (and let's be clear, I'm not talking about all gun owners here) get nuttier and nuttier, I'm finding my neutral position more difficult to defend. Take this goofy bunch in Texas. Please.

[Excerpt]

Pro-Gun Lunatics Scare the Crap out of Fort Worth Restaurant Staff
 
So, imagine the following scenario: you're at work at a fast food place, just trying to get through your shift, like any other day. You spot a whole bunch of guys carrying assault weaponry right in front of the restaurant. What do you do? For the employees of one Fort Worth, Texas Jack in the Box, the answer was "hide in the goddamn freezer and call the cops." That seems like a pretty reasonable course of action to me, all things considered. When a bunch of crazy white dudes with assault rifles weapons start wandering through the parking lot, it's best not to ask questions before trying to get the f**k away. . .

Read more at: Kitchenette

George Zimmerman "Hand Painting" Really Photo-Shopped Stock Image

Image from Wonkette
(Click to embiggen)

Which is weirder, that a hand painting by George Zimmerman is going for tens of thousands of dollars on eBay, or that the Z-man just manipulated a stock photo, and called it an original? Sheesh.

[Excerpt]

Surprise, Surprise, Surprise: George Zimmerman Stoled His Inspirational Flag ‘Painting’ From A Stock Image
 
Nope, it’s not Jasper Johns Day on Wonkette — that there, courtesy of an anonymous Wonkette reader, is a montage of 1) George Zimmerman’s “hand painted artwork” that is currently hovering at a high bid of $99,966.00 on the Ebay, 2) a popular “waving flag” image from the interwebs, and 3) a fancy-schmancy overlay of item 1 on item 2, which is the kind of thing that can be done by a smart reader who actually knows Photoshop. . .

Read more at: Wonkette

George Zimmerman in Trouble Again

The George Zimmerman/Trayvon Martin case came to prominence because Zimmerman was let go after an unarmed Martin was killed, with no charges filed. The details of the case sounded quite fishy, and the more we learned about Zimmerman, the shadier he seemed. Negative things came out about Martin too, though how they could be at all relevant, I never sussed out. Since Zimmerman knew none of Martin's history, it's very unlikely that they influenced the events (an no, conservatives, pot doesn't make you into a raging supervillain). [Due to autoplay video, story continues below the jump]

Another Shooting: This Time a Mall in Paramus, New Jersey

I was listening to someone, I don't even remember who, talking about gun violence in America. It was on liberal talk radio (a rare entity indeed), and I'm not sure if it was a host, or if it was a caller or guest. But basically, they were lamenting that when there is a shooting, the media--with rare exceptions--is expected not to focus on the guns, but the violence. Any attempt to get at the problem (almost said "target") has to tippy-toe past the obvious. It's a minefield of sort of reverse political correctness. Any misstep will bring down the wrath of the NRA and all of Right Wing World.

Sandy Hook was an aberration, probably because it was so unspeakably tragic, involving so many young children. It was the closest we came to actually talking like normal people about guns, but even then, there was a lot of squawking. For some reason, it's perfectly acceptable for the right to get as political as they want about it. More guns is the answer, they say. Everybody from teachers to shop owners to every damned citizen should be armed they say. They expect strapped citizens to go all Dirty Harry on any potential threat, and that it will all work out like an action movie.

And while one side is afraid to argue, and the other side mutters inanities, armed crazy people keep shooting things up.

[Excerpt]

Shooter on the loose at New Jersey mall



A shooter opened fire at a New Jersey mall late Monday, sending panic through the shopping center and igniting a massive police response. The gunman inside Westfield Garden State Plaza Mall in Paramus, New Jersey, has not yet been found during a sweep of the shopping center by Bergen County SWAT, said county Chief of Staff Jeanne Baratta. . .

Read more at: CNN

John Kerry Signs UN Treaty, Gun Rights Advocates. . .Up in Arms

Apropos of nothing, what's going on with
Kerry's face anyway? Image from
source, Huffington Post

Heh, sorry about the pun in the headline, but have you notice how many hackneyed gun metaphors we have? On target, locked and loaded, half-cocked, they're just everywhere. It's like an atheist (like me) trying to avoid saying "oh, god" or "Jesus Christ!" Oddly enough, religion seems tangled up in the gun rights battle. In fact, their love for guns seems to be equal parts politics, religion and sexual fetish. There is no faster way to get a rise out of anybody than to raise the specter of gun control.

So, is it any wonder that an treaty having to do with guns, signed by Secretary of State John Kerry (a DemonRat!) might get a rise out of them?

[Excerpt]

Arms Trade Treaty, Signed By John Kerry, Opens New Front In Senate Battle Over Gun Control

The latest front in the Senate battle over gun control opened Wednesday, as Secretary of State John Kerry signed the United Nations Arms Trade Treaty in New York. . .

Read more at: Huffington Post

So, About that "Citizen Hero" Theory to End Mass Shootings

This is what I've been saying, but said better. Take a look.

[Excerpt]

Do Armed Civilians Stop Mass Shooters? Actually, No.

In the wake of the unthinkable massacre in Newtown, Connecticut, pro-gun ideologues are once again calling for ordinary citizens to arm themselves as a solution to mass shootings. If only the principal at Sandy Hook Elementary School had possessed a M-4 assault rifle she could've stopped the killer, they say. This latest twist on a long-running argument isn't just absurd on its face; there is no evidence to support it. As I reported recently in our in-depth investigation, not one of 62 mass shootings in the United States over the last 30 years has been stopped this way. More broadly, attempts by armed civilians to intervene in shooting rampages are rare—and are successful even more rarely. (Two people who tried it in recent years were gravely wounded or killed.) And law enforcement overwhelmingly hates the idea of armed citizens getting involved. . .

Read more at: Mother Jones

Don't Take Your Guns to Starbucks (Rocky Mountain Mike Song Parody)

Even a heart attack can't keep Rocky Mountain Mike down. Here's his take (to the tune of Johnny Cash's Don't Take Your Guns to Town) on the absolute asshats who insist on making public spectacles of themselves by carrying their weapons into Starbucks (and elsewhere). C'mon, gun nuts, isn't that taking your fetish just a bit too far?

 

Gun Violence: A Recurrent American Problem

For some reason, we're not allowed to point to guns themselves as any part of the problem. Which is curious. When they say "guns don't kill people, people kill people," I always wonder how well these killers would do with a cocked finger. The guns are positively part of the problem. And our fetish for them is no excuse for denying that fact.
 

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Another Mass Shooting: Washington Navy Yard

How many times is something like this going to happen? Arguably, on into infinity, since it is apparently impossible to do anything whatsoever about guns. At all. At all. At all. No matter what, our gun fetish is so all-consuming, its place in the Constitution so somehow overriding of every other right, that nothing is ever going to change. So, this will happen over and over.

As usual, the chorus from the right that "if only there were more good guys with guns. . ." is ringing out. It's an overly simplistic, best-case-scenario, dream-world, go-to response. It doesn't take into account friendly fire, people mistaking the good guy for a bad guy, or the fact that your average Joe isn't freakin' Dirty Harry. Also as usual, if you visit Right Wing World, you'll find a hyper-defensiveness, and a readiness to assign motives that fit their world view. And odd, repurposed (and vaguely racist) insults of President Obama, stuff like, "is he going to say the shooter looks like his son?" [Story continues below]



And as usual, there will be mutterings of doing something, but after getting bupkis despite a big push after Sandy Hook, nobody will have the energy to do so. And nobody seems to have the clarity of mind to say out loud that "the answer to gun violence is more guns" is a lot like mutually assured destruction.

[Excerpt]

Washington Navy Yard shooting leaves at least 12 dead plus gunman Aaron Alexis

A former Navy reservist went on a shooting rampage Monday inside a building at the heavily secured Washington Navy Yard, firing from a balcony onto office workers in the cafeteria below, authorities and witnesses said. Twelve people were killed, plus the gunman. . .

Read more at: CBS News

 

North Carolina: Guns Everywhere!

Bartender, I'll have a shot! Image from source,
Think Progress.

It's become almost a cliché that the answer to gun violence is more guns. Basically, the argument is that life--in any area--is so dangerous because of gun violence, that we must be allowed to protect ourselves. With guns! There's a (circular) logic to it, but it's just so friggin' weird. I've been around guns all my life, have friends and family who have veritable arsenals, but I still don't understand this country's gun fetish, I really don't.

[Excerpt]

North Carolina Gun Owners Will Soon Be Able To Carry Firearms At Bars And Playgrounds

On Tuesday, North Carolina lawmakers approved a bill allowing gun owners with concealed-carry permits to bring their weapons to playgrounds, bars, and public recreation areas, although bar owners will still be permitted to deny entry to armed patrons. Gov. Pat McCrory (R) is expected to sign the expansive bill into law soon. The measure will also allow concealed-carry permit holders to keep their guns in cars parked on school campuses. The bill was stripped of an especially extreme provision that would have eliminated the requirement for background checks or handgun permits. . .

Read more at: Think Progress

SCOTUS: They Can Have Your DNA

Gun nuts fetishists enthusiasts get all freaked out about potential background check laws, because they are paranoid about a "national registry"--a thing precluded in the verbiage of all of these potential laws--that would presumably let the gubmint know who has what kind of gun. I'm not sure I see the problem there, but gun freaks lovers fans think it is a super, duper, gigundo assault on their "freedoms."

Well what say you, gunners, about the latest Supreme Court ruling on DNA? I'm just curious if this will spur our most vocal hot-button-issue contingent to even shrug their shoulders. Obviously, there's not much we can do about a SCOTUS decision in the short term. . .but I'm just wondering. Isn't this a much larger potential assault on freedom?

[Excerpt]

The Police Can Now Access Your DNA Without A Warrant, Even When You Can’t Access It At All

The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday upheld the use of DNA databases to collect genetic information from suspects arrested but not yet charged, without any requirement that officers first show probable cause. The 5-4 ruling overrules a state court determination that Maryland’s DNA collection law permits unconstitutionally invasive searches. . .

Read more at: Think Progress

Quote of the Day: The Rude Pundit on "Playing Politics"

This probably doesn't belong under Quote of the Day, because it wasn't today, but it's worth pointing out anyway. Have you noticed that after there is a mass shooting, if anyone dares talk about what might be done to prevent a future occurrence, they're met with, "Now is not the time! Don't play politics with gun control after this awful tragedy!" After Sandy Hook happened, and it felt like there might actually be some meaningful change, parents of slain children who were working toward that change were criticized for "playing politics" and exploiting the deaths of their own children. Wow. Harsh, right? It happens all the time, on a variety of subjects.

Oddly though, the right wing is allowed to play their version of politics. If a mass shooting happens, they are instantly on the defensive, shooting down (heh) any whisper of talk about gun control. Isn't that playing politics? Anyway, that's The Rude Pundit's point, and I should just stop yammering and give it to you:

His royal rudeness, Lee Papa

". . .In the aftermath of the Newtown massacre, it was wrong, according to you, to talk about gun control. Now, in the wake of the nightmarish destruction of the Moore tornado, you tell us it's wrong to talk about climate change and it's wrong to say things that mock right-wing responses to other tragedies. We should wait, you say, wait until the bodies are recovered, the bodies are buried, the bodies are mourned. Of course, even when politicians and pundits wait, you then say that they are exploiting a tragedy for political gain. Like 9/11. Oh, wait. That was you, so it doesn't count, of course, sorry, forgot. . ." --The Rude Pundit