Far East Cynic

There is such a thing as decorum.

I once again, marvel at the stupidity of the pro-gun community. The bodies from the Santa Barbara are hardly even cold-and yet we have to hear this:

“Your dead kids don’t trump my Constitutional rights.” – Joe the Plumber (yea, that guy) to the families of the Isla Vista shooting victims,

Somehow, the word “douchebag” does not seem to cover it.  But then “Joe the Plumber” has a long history of stupidity. There are more eloquent ways of defending the Constitutionality of the 2ndAmendment. Sorry, but I find the statement callous, regardless of how it was prefaced.

Let’s pretend, shall we? Even if there is some merit to his argument ( of which there is not-again, the second amendment only makes sense when the first sentence is included), there is such a thing as timing and decorum. I mean really, did he have to make this point now? Really?

And he’s not the only one. Look at this:

Here is a recording of a robocall received today by a voter in the 25th Congressional district, touting Tony Strickland’s pro-gun stances, voting record, and support from organizations like the NRA.

The timing could hardly be more tasteless. Just yesterday, a UCSB student shot over a dozen people and killed six (three by stabbing) – most of them fellow students. Tony Strickland actually represented Santa Barbara and Isla Vista in the State Senate until late 2012, and many of these victims were likely former constituents of Strickland’s.

I am always amazed these folks have a propensity to come out strongly immediately after a shooting. Can’t they wait a while and be discrete? Can’t they let the process of mourning go on? I mean after all it is not like anyone is going to do anything substantial to stop it or at the least, severely limit the ability of people to get guns they have no business having. 20 dead children? Too bad.  6 dead-13 wounded, “well I feel your pain but I have to have a gun to open carry to Chipotle”.

I’m sorry, if you need more than a pistol, a shotgun, and a rifle, to defend your family, then you have made some really bad lifestyle choices. And trust me on this one-I have made more than my fair share, but in all of them, I never needed a weapon.

This is neither the time or the place to have this discussion. That idiots choose to make it the time, completely disgusts me. Save your f*cked up arguments for when someone actually brings a meaningful gun control bill to the House floor. Because you will never have to use them. In our current world, there is no Congressman with the ability to do so.

And idiots like Joe know that. So all they are doing is pissing into an open grave. I would hope even gun nuts find that offensive.

Charles Pierce sums it up well:

This is a country now at war with itself. This is a phrase that is generally tossed about when political debate gets too heated. It was popular to say it back in the 1960s, when it seemed quite possibly to be true, with leaders bleeding out on balconies in Memphis or kitchen floors in Los Angeles, and students bleeding out from gunfire on college campuses, and half-baked revolutionary idiots blowing themselves up in Greenwich Village. But this is not the same thing. This is a country at war with itself for profit. This is a country at war with itself because its ruling elite is too cowed, or too well-bribed, or too cowardly to recognize that there are people who are getting rich arming both sides, because the only thing that stops a bad guy with a gun is a good guy with a gun, so you make sure that it’s easy for the bad guys to get guns in order to make millions selling the guns to the good guys. This is a dynamic not unfamiliar to the people in countries where brushfire conflicts and civil wars are kept alive because distant people are making a buck off them.  In Africa, war is made over diamonds and rare earths. In South America, war is made over cocaine. Here, for any number of reasons – because Adam Lanza went crazy or because Elliot Rodger couldn’t get laid – and the only constant in all those wars is the fact somebody gets rich arming both sides…

There are not enough words to describe how these pro-gun fanatics suck.