A Columbine Anniversary Request

A lot of what I had hoped to say on the 10th anniversary of the Columbine High School Massacre in Littleton, CO was already stated by E.J. Dionne of The Washington Post here, so I’ll merely provide the link and let him make the case (the absurdity of President Obama or any leader of this country basically doing a “Pontius Pilate” before the president of Mexico on the matter of assault weapons crossing our borders into that country, subsequently used to commit acts of violence here; the cowardice of members of the Democratic Party in the U.S. House who caved in response to the call from Attorney General Eric Holder to renew the assault weapons ban – if you’re a legitimate hunter and you believe you need an assault weapon, then as far as I’m concerned, you’re not a legitimate hunter; the fact that President Obama believes he owes some fealty to a group that constituted barely more than a third of voters who helped elect him last November; and on and on).

Also, for good measure, Paul Helmke of Handgun Control provides more depressing statistics and context here as to how this country has suffered at the hands of those who grovel before that misinterpretation of the Second Amendment to the Constitution (and to the credit of the Inquirer, this editorial calls for repealing the Tiahrt Amendment, which prevents lawsuits by state and local governments seeking to acquire gun trace data…and this is positive also, I suppose).

But you know what? Maybe I should use this solemn occasion as yet another opportunity to call for common-sense gun laws not just in PA but across the country, but I won’t, partly because I’ve done so numerous times and have run into nothing but the proverbial brick walls. Also, we should all spend every moment we can calling for such reforms not just on this day, but every day.

Instead, I would direct your attention to the pic atop this post. As you can read from this Daily Kos post, it came from something called the “Shad Planking,” a political rally in Virginia (the post gets into a lot more of the particulars). There were Ron Paul supporters in attendance with those actually supporting George Allen for President in 2012, and the “stars n’ bars” were plainly visible everywhere. And so were the teabaggers.

You remember the “teabaggers” of course. The people pandered to by Fix Noise as well as Baby Newton Leroy and Dick Armey, those behind this “spontaneous, grassroots” effort. Some secessionists, armed insurrectionists (one a cousin to the other), and mostly, a bunch of “straight up” racists, as Janeane Garofalo depicted them (with spot-on accuracy as far as I’m concerned).

All I’m asking here is for any NRA member who may actually be reading this (a long shot, I’ll admit) to renounce the teabaggers. Please communicate to me that, in addition to educating others in the proper care and maintenance of guns and instructing law-abiding gun owners to become proficient with the use of these weapons, you would never want to see guns abused by individuals acting irresponsibly on behalf of some faction that seeks no recourse through the political apparatus of this country that encourages lawful, legal dissent and airing of grievances, but instead seeks to undo the democratically elected transformation of our government (particularly in the White House) last November any way that they can (and doing so with guns would be just fine with them).

If you’re really all about nothing else but gun safety, then there really isn’t much to think about, is there?

(Oh, and by the way, speaking of Tiahrt, I got a chuckle out of this.)