On Failed Solutions and "Scapegoat[ing] the Mentally Ill"

So Oregon's resident anti-gun personality, "Baldr Odinson", recently attended "A Town Hall Forum on Gun Violence in Eugene" (warning: link goes to his anti-gun site).

This article does not rise to the level deserving of a full fisking, but there are a few points that stand out and need to be hammered down commented upon.

First off is this:

I was impressed with the solutions that people suggested, such as smart gun technologies, suicide prevention strategies, mandatory proficiency training for gun owners, and mandatory safe storage of guns, among other suggestions.

"Baldr" must be easily impressed. There is nothing new here. There is nothing that hasn't been tried, measured, and found wanting (by both sides) here.

I'm not going to re-hash the problems with all these "suggestions"; that's been thoroughly done elsewhere. However, I will reiterate that every one of these hinges on whether violent criminals will suddenly start obeying laws. That's not going to happen, so all these will only serve to harass peaceable citizens; indeed, it's all such laws can do.

Second was this:

See below for [CeaseFire Oregon President] Penny Okamoto's response regarding mental illness, and how the NRA and other pro-gun supporters scapegoat the mentally ill [link removed, underline emphasis added]

What do you mean, "how the NRA and other pro-gun supporters scapegoat the mentally ill"? Setting aside how transferring a gun to someone adjudicated mentally defective has been illegal since 1968 (you do recall that some Gun Control Act or other was enacted around then, right?), are you not hearing the NRA itself advocating better mental health reporting and treatment services, along with keeping guns away from such individuals? Heck, even PBS talked about the NRA supporting such measures!

Are you not hearing people on your side saying the NRA just wants to arm every criminal and lunatic?

Which is it, "Baldr"? Is the NRA "scapegoat[ing] the mentally ill", or advocating arming them with no questions asked? You can't have it both ways.

Stay safe.

Fisking CeaseFire Oregon's New "Gun Law Survey"

Oregon's resident anti-gunner, "Baldr Odinson" (a.k.a. Jason Kilgore), has been busy posting on his "New Trajectory" site lately.

On Friday (Sept. 25) he linked to a CeaseFire-Oregon-promoted survey of Oregon's gun laws. I won't link to his article, but here's the survey: How Well Do You Know Oregon's Gun Laws?

It's a short, 10-question survey that's in dire need of a good fisking, so here goes (correct answers will be underlined).

New Jersey is at it Again

Hiz 'oner
dougernst.files.wordpress.com

 

Chris Christie’s New Jersey is at it again: bringing the full weight of the state against an innocent CCW carrier.  This case is far too similar to the travesty endured by Shaneen Allen.

The Fletcher Family
Range365.com

          Brian Fletcher mobilized his crew to repair storm related cell phone tower damage in Trenton, New Jersey. He left his North Carolina home less than an hour after an emergency plea from New Jersey. Once in Jersey, he was approached by a police officer. Fletcher handed over his ID and as any good North Carolina citizen would, he informed the officer that he had his CCW in his vehicle.

         Ignoring Fletcher’s critical disaster relief role, his NC CCW permit and his absolute lack of any criminal intent, the cop arrested and charged Fletcher with carrying a firearm - a Class 2 Felony in the Garbage State. It seems if a New Jersey cop approaches, you should only give him your name, rank and serial number, as you are deep in enemy territory.

         Fletcher is now home in North Carolina, free on a $25,000 dollar bond. A law-abiding man, he faces five years in prison and the ruin of his life for a "crime" without intent nor victim. His lawyer is trying for the pre-trial intervention program and hoping for a pardon. 

         We wish NJ governor Christie would shake off his usual food coma and do the right thing. We hope he immediately frees an innocent man, rather than waiting for the right time in his presidential campaign.  

phalsephillysports.files.wordpress.com

        And big guy, start to fix your damn state’s insane gun laws NOW, or you can choke on your overfed political ambitions.  

Be Sure to Check Your Facts...

Alternate title: Why Good Research is a Requirement When Advocating an Issue.

Read this.

Once you've stopped laughing (I had tears coming down my face!), realize that this is why anti-gun writers and bloggers are so consistently unbelievable. They repeat pre-written and pre-approved talking points — which are often based on false assumptions and/or poor logic — carry no credibility or accountability of their own, and when caught in a mistake lie they (sometimes) issue a minor correction and double down their original argument.

This is why we can, and do, do better.

Stay safe.

(Hat tip: Borepatch)

Michael Moore Relies on the 2nd Amendment

         Big screen fabulist, noted hypocrite, virulent anti-gunner and left-wing barking moonbat Michael Moore may be supporting Michelle Obama’s claim that chronic obesity can lead to early-onset senility.

The Big Wheezel
patdollard.com

Very early Thursday morning, the big chunk took to Twitter to demand the immediate release of every African-American in prison for drug or nonviolent offenses. For his next belly-flop into insanity, Moore imperiously demanded the police be disarmed. 

Oddly enough, he justified that stupidity by noting; “We have a 1/4 billion 2nd amendment guns in our homes 4 protection.” Although somewhat true (Moore may have underestimated), that's very odd reasoning from someone who wants the public’s firearms seized at gunpoint by the police. You wonder if there is any cognitive dissidence echoing around behind his overused pie hole. 

However, it does seem that even that blind pig can find an acorn of 2nd Amendment truth once in a while.  

Go to bed Mikey, you’re drunk on yourself.

 
Twitter images courtesy of dailymail.co.uk

Quote of the Day — "Bill Volckening" (March 27, 2015)

From the comments of an OregonLive.com article on Oregon Senate Bill 941, "Oregon lawmakers introduce bill to expand gun background checks":

"@Blind Archer @Bill Volckening Sorry, but if you're a gun person, we have nothing to discuss. You're koo-koo-kray-kray."

Sorry, there's no way to link directly to that specific comment, but for the sake of posterity and "memory hole insurance", I got a screen cap:

(Full disclosure: Yes, I'm the "Blind Archer" to whom he's responding.)

The first part is a lie; he's not sorry — not one bit. You can tell from the scorn and disdain nearly leaking from the computer monitor.

But the sadly funny thing is, I didn't ask for anything particularly difficult or unreasonable. You can read the exchange, starting from his original comment…

… followed by the brief back-and-forth:

So much for that "national discussion on 'gun violence'" we're supposed to have. Was that too much, to ask that he respond by citing actual incidents and keep name-calling and ad hominem attacks to a minimum? (Rhetorical question)

This is what they think of us: we like guns, and so we are too crazy/stupid/unstable to converse with. We're the "Other"; less than human — certainly less then themselves — and therefore less worthy or deserving of even basic courtesy.

Makes you wonder: what other rights and courtesies would they be willing to deny us, given the chance?

Stay safe.

Local Newspaper The Oregonian Calls for Governor's Resignation [UPDATED]

Gov. John Kitzhaber (source: Fox News)

In a surprising development, the editorial staff at The Oregonian, Oregon's largest-circulating birdcage-liner, is asking that recently-reelected Governor John Kitzhaber resign from office, over the scandals concerning his and his fiancée's apparent unethical conflicts of interest.

Via Fox News:

Kitzhaber, a Democrat in his fourth term as governor, has been under attack since revelations that his fiancée, Cylvia Hayes, was being paid to lobby on behalf of the clean energy industry while at the same time holding the title of Oregon's first lady and filling the role of unpaid policy adviser in the Kitzhaber administration. The Oregon Government Ethics Commission is investigating whether Hayes' consulting work was a conflict of interest, but the Oregonian says the evidence is clear.

"Whether through gross inattention or complicity, Kitzhaber has broken faith with Oregonians. His career in Oregon politics is one of great accomplishment, but his past success does not excuse the mess he has made of the office with which Oregonians entrusted him. He is now less a governor than a source of unending distraction," The Oregonian wrote. (emphasis added)

KGW reports both how much Cylvia Hayes made from her unscrupulous side work, and also how the "jobs" were lined up:

The call for resignation follows an earlier Oregonian report that associates of Kitzhaber helped create jobs for Hayes, work that influenced state policy on energy.

Her calendar shows Hayes held the paid posts simultaneously as she served as an unpaid energy adviser inside Kitzhaber's office, The Oregonian reported.

One of the jobs paid her $5,000 for five months after Kitzhaber started his third term. A current Kitzhaber aide, Greg Wolf, was key in creating the position and in suggesting Hayes take the job, the newspaper reported.

The second was a two-year fellowship created by Dan Carol, a Kitzhaber campaign advisor who later joined his staff. It paid $118,000 over two years.

The Oregonian reported that both jobs involved foundations and organizations with direct interest in state policy making.

And in a move that surprises precisely nobody, Gov. Kitzhaber responds that he's not going anywhere (via the same Fox News article):

"I'm not going to consider resigning," said Kitzhaber. "I was elected by the people of this state to do a job, and I intend to do it."

This whole mess is shocking for several reasons, not the least of which is that Gov. Kitzhaber was re-elected despite these scandalous concerns, but also that The Oregonian editorial staff endorsed his campaign!

If this were happening in any other state, the ironic schadenfreude would be delicious. But because this is my state, I weep for our future.

[UPDATE:] A "prospective petition" has been filed to recall Gov. Kitzhaber, and needs to gather at least 220,000 signatures in 90 days. As petitioner Arin Marcus says, "Two hundred twenty thousand people in Oregon are upset with the governor so it shouldn’t be that difficult." The election was pretty close, so I'd say there's a lot more than that. The hard part will be finding them all and getting them to sign in time.

If Gov. Kitzhaber resigns or is recalled, the Oregon Constitution says he will be succeeded by the Secretary of State, which in this case is Kate Brown, a Portland-area Democrat. I'll admit I don't know too much of her personal political leanings, but: She's a Portland-area Democrat (Strike 1); she's a career politician, holding office for more than half her life (Strike 2); her educational background is in Environmental Conservation, Women's Studies, and law (Strike 3); and she's received various awards and distinctions from groups like Basic Rights Oregon (LGBT-rights advocates), Oregon Commission for Women, the American Mental Health Counselors Association, and the Oregon Psychological Association (Strike 4?). It's a safe bet that gun owners' rights aren't high on her priority list, but maybe we'll get lucky and she won't be a fully-committed anti-gunner [*snerk*]. [/UPDATE]

Stay safe.

Videos: This Math Stuff is Hard!!!

If you're travelling at 80 mph, how long will it take you to go 80 miles?

Tough question?

Yea, not really. But you couldn't tell that to some people:

10 minutes? No. 80 minutes? No. 8 minutes? No.

America's education standards, broadcast for the world to see. But at least she gets it in the end.

Unlike others asked the same question:

Note that the video cuts off before they come to the correct answer.

Sometimes, I fear for the future of America's youth. Other times, I'm positively terrified for it.

But then, I find another example that give me hope:

"1 hour." No hesitation, no uncertainty. Amen, brother.

Stay safe.

Gun Cleaning Accident

 Jose Canseco Shoots Finger In Gun Cleaning Accident

(riveraveblues.com)

Hey, hey, hey: be careful out there!

HT: TMZ

Why Haven't the West African Flights Stopped?

"Of course, you can’t expect our government to be as competent as Nigeria’s."

Scott Johnson sums it up rather succinctly in his Powerline article Ebola Panic and the Limits of Political Sanity.  Go read it now; we'll wait.

This president is refusing to institute travel bans and quarantines. All for reasons of his own political beliefs, calculations, appearances and future plans. He has willingly chosen this path to the detriment of the men, women, and children of the United States. This is an inconceivable dereliction of a sacred duty. Except... it is completely believable for this president, his fellow-travelers and party.

(Drudge via Powerline)

Feeling the pressure of the public's well-founded concern, Obama appointed the "Ebola Czar" that he was adamantly against, then receptive to the possibility, and then finally wholeheartedly in favor of. This appointment is political eyewash; certainly not as anywhere near as constructive as a quarantine. It's telling that Obama's Ebola Czar is not a doctor, but a lawyer and political apparatchik.

Czar Ron Klain is the former chief of staff to Gore and Biden, a current press flack and lobbyist, and as a well-connected, reliably progressive, and administration-friendly political hack; absolutely loyal to the Obama administration. He has not a whit of infectious disease, medical, or health care system experience. Not the appointment that 'Boma would make if he was concerned with stopping the spread of a Cat 4 infectious disease within America's borders. It reaks of an effort to "massage the message", "keep a lid on things", and "control the damage" (all traditional political flack functions) -- 19 days before the critical Mid-term elections.   

Political Hack - And Ebola Czar - Ron Klain
(indystar.com)

Tell me again how America's in the best of hands.

  

More Thoughts on Ebola, Civilization, and Government Incompetence

Ebola virus (source: Legal Insurrection)

Following up on Charlie Foxtrot's piece on Ebola and civilization, I have a few more thoughts to add.

I'll start off by being blunt: I have little-to-no faith in the various responses we're hearing or the powers-that-be from whom we're hearing them.

(This became a bit of a rant, so I'm hiding the rest below the fold. You have been warned.)

Thoughts on Ebola - And Civilization

An Evolving List:

Citizens! You Have Nothing To Fear!
(Times of India)

21st Century Homo Sapiens is a fantastically interconnected, interdependent species. Where someone sneezing in Liberia can result in someone dying in Texas. 

Political Correctness is more powerful than millennia of experience and science.

Race can be injected into anything.

There is wisdom in admitting you do not know all the facts and are taking a conservative, risk mitigating approach until the situation becomes clearer. Wisdom has never been behind the podium at a 'Boma press conference. 

One point of infection can quickly become thousands of potential points in a modern mobile society; especially when assisted by political posturing and bureaucratic incompetence.

It is fantastically expensive to control a point of infection in a modern, interconnected, mass-service society; best to fight it over there. Sound familiar?

The best way to fight an infectious disease might just not be the 1st Armored. Completely different skill sets. I fear for our soldiers.  

The CDC is a $16 Billion a year clown show. And we're not laughing. 

Viruses evolve. Bureaucracies have a demonstrated ability not to.   

This'll keep me from commercial aircraft, cruise ships, malls, movie theaters, basketball games, DMV lines...  See, there's an upside to Ebola. 

Ye gods, what happens when we get a truly nasty virus? In all likelihood, this Ebola outbreak is nothing more that a pre-test. Somebody has got to go back to school.    

Reality has a rude habit of destroying carefully constructed fantasies. 

Elections have consequences.

Competency matters.

Paranoiac preparations are suddenly less paranoiac. 

Shaneen Allen Enters PTI

Damn, I love a happy ending. 

"Philly mom, Shaneen Allen, did a happy dance outside a New Jersey court Thursday morning after an Atlantic County prosecutor relented in her controversial gun-carrying case, allowing her to enter the same pretrial intervention program offered to former NFL star Ray Rice in his domestic abuse case."
      David Chang, NBC 10 Philadelphia

Shaneen Allen
(nationalreview.com)

Philly Mom Charged With Carrying Licensed Gun in Wrong State Allowed to Enter PTI Program

However, the insanity that threatened this woman with 10 years in jail for a simple mistake without intent nor harm still exists. Brian Aitken was sentence to 7 years in a New Jersey prison for similar violations of the state's draconian anti-citizen gun laws. Aitken continues to fight the unjust conviction and clear his name. His memoir, The Blue Tent Sky: How the Left's War on Guns Cost Me My Son and My Freedom, has been selected as the Conservative Book of the Month.  

California Anti-Gun Dreamin’

As part of a continuing effort to build their Golden Utopia upon the breaking bones of California, our Loonislature has put four more bad anti-gun bills on the governor’s desk. They vary from the ridiculous regulation of BB Guns as firearms to the sublime un-Constitutional stripping of Second Amendment Rights based on simple accusations. 

To Wit(less):   

AB 1014 (Skinner, Williams)

        Establishes shall-issue “Gun Violence Restraining Orders” and “Firearm seizure warrants” to be issued by California’s notoriously anti-gun courts

SB 808 (De León)

        Criminalizes home-built (hobbyist) firearms without serial numbers

AB 1609 (Alejo)
          New firearms importation regulations, penalties

SB 199 (De León)

        Expands regulations on BB guns

All is not lost, as our Governor Moonbeam, "Flaky Jerry" Brown, is now an island of reasonableness in the Looney-Left sea of Sacramento. Such is the state of California politics. All friends of Gun Rights should contact the Governor’s Office and oppose all these bills.   

Governor Jerry Brown

c/o State Capitol, Suite 1173

Sacramento, CA 95814

Phone: (916) 445-2841

Fax: (916) 558-3160 

E-mail and fax Governor Brown

Breaking! NJ Blinks! Shaneen Allen to PTI

In a hard fought victory for common sense, decency and justice, The New Jersey Prosecutor <spit> will allow Shaneen Allen to choose Pre-Trial Intervention (PTI.)

Philly mom arrested for carrying handgun in A.C. to receive pre-trial intervention

PTI is a program that allows first time offenders to avoid the life-long stigma of a felony conviction. Ray Rice, the Baltimore Ravens running back, benefited from PTI when he beat his fiancee unconscious in a hotel elevator. That same program was denied a mother of two who made an honest mistake and took her licensed CCW into New Jersey. Unlike Rice's, Allen's incident was without intent nor harm to another.

Shaneen Allen and Her Two Sons
(Gary Bernard Charwin in NJ.com)

From the very start this case has been a travesty of justice, driven by the New Jersey's obsession with guns in civilian hands. The Atlantic County Prosecutor, Jim McClain, threatened Allen with greater than 10 years in jail for crossing a state line with a licensed firearm. Thanks to Tom Gresham, the Second Amendment Foundation, the New Jersey 2nd Amendment Society, the NRA, and the resulting nation-wide groundswell of outrage, McClain was forced to reverse course.

This is a significant victory, but it is also a battle that should never have needed to been fought.  

Ms Allen has already spent 46 days in jail and has lost her job. We think it would be only fitting if Prosecutor McClain endured the same fate.

If the law is an ass, McClain is an @$$hole. 

The Dumbs Equinox

Two long-form posts hanging fire, work, showing the house, and early brain-death have prevented today's post. 

My apologies.

I might just have to go to the range for some recoil therapy. 

Happy First Day of Fall. 

True Believers Confronted By Truth

While this link isn't gun related per say, it does examine the fanatics that compose the activist core of the climate change movement. It's a story of true believers confronted by those inconvenient truths known as facts. The result is often increased levels of rhetoric, emotion, hysterics, demonstrations and sometimes violence. In their need to triumph, the true believers will say and do anything, including outright lying and making even crazier demands.

The Crumbling Climate-Change Consensus
Extremists’ rhetoric heats up as their case falls apart. 
  
And Then They Came For The Bolt-Actions

Congressional Candidate Just Wished Ebola on NRA

Now does it sound gun related? I give you the Brady Bunch, Bloomby, SCGV, the Mad Moms, etc. You can't ignore the politicians, however, they're apt to be just mercenary.
  

Click to Imbiginate   (obamacartoon.blogspot.com)

And it's from John Fund.  Come on, John Fund...


Fanaticism consists in redoubling your efforts when you have forgotten your aim.
     George Santayana

HT: NRO, Mark Vanderberg and Bob Owens

Astroturfy Prosecutors Against Gun Violence

(omnomnomnibus.blogspot.com)

The problem with being a world-weary, cynical pessimist is that the human condition doesn't surprise anymore. Nothing is ever new. No extraordinary depravity invigorates. Peter has been robbed for Paul so many times that it's a given. No lie is too big, no crony capitalist too brazen, no politician too craven to eclipse what has already occurred. It's all the same o' - same o'.

Then... something pops up that restores one's faith in the lacks of humanity:

Prosecutors Form New Coalition to Combat Gun Violence
          USA Today, Yamiche Alcindor, 9/17/14

(USA Today)

This breathless article from USA Today (America's Fish Wrapper) plows the same old barren ground, but does so in such an over-the-top, unreflective, and unexamined way as to make it truly extraordinary. It's penned by Yamiche Alcindor, who, despite her name, is not an Asian basketball player, but a "breaking news reporter, [who] splits her time covering quickly developing incidents and stories about the social issues affecting the USA. She's also a proud Miami Heat fan." (Well, that ship has also sailed.) Apparently proficient with the copy/paste function, she has crafted an article almost certainly pulled directly from the Prosecutors Against Gun Violence press release. That lack of journalistic discretion is in no way unique these days, but her transmittal of so many obvious howlers and her own embellishments make it damn enjoyable.

"As concerns mount over shootings and mass killings..." Ms Alcindor wastes no vowels before sticking her toe in the incredulity. On Sep 17th, 2014, just where are those mounting concerns? It may seem like a small literary fiction, but it provides a disingenuous answer to the important "Why now?" question. I don't see it - maybe those prosecutors are better at discerning the facts... To that point: 

"The group, Prosecutors Against Gun Violence, includes attorneys from several major metropolitan centers including Manhattan, Brooklyn, Los Angeles, Seattle, Miami, Houston and Milwaukee." Umm... any faint suspicion that since the cities listed have some of the worst rates of violence, they might not have the best solutions to gun violence?

" 'We are really key players in fighting gun violence proactively,' said Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance Jr." (He's the son of Cyrus Vance, failed Secretary of State to Jimmy Carter, the second worst President of the modern era.) Junior then spends the rest of paragraph describing how he procedurally reacts  to crime. Junior DA also claims to have "[H]elped dismantle gun gangs in New York City." Oh, this is good: gun gangs? Poly pistols or ol' skool 19-eleventy fans? Hey Cy, how about calling them drug gangs, robbery gangs, or extortion gangs? That is, if you intend to be the least bit honest. 

Feel the Smarm
LA DA Mike Feuer
(smartvoter.org)

" 'Our members will draw from our colleagues' most effective strategies and join forces to advance policies that can save lives,' said Los Angeles City Attorney Mike Feuer, the other co-chairman." Oh, man... that's some Extra Large Grade AA feldercarb right there. In a town (my town) with 450 acknowledged gangs, a justice legal system charitably described as "catch and release", a frightening amount of radically reduced plea bargained charges, a vicious inner city, and an out of control murder rate, this ex-city councilman, ex-state assemblyman, current political whore is holding himself out as the fount of all wisdom? With barely a year in office? Oh, this is rich. 

"Feuer says the group will be more than just slogans."  ....Stop it! You're killin' me! 

He Fights Your Freedom
(frontpagemag.com)
Click to Imbiginate

Look for lots of press releases with half-baked declarations, juicy quotes ...and slogans, lots and lots of slogans. There will be elaborately staged TV appearances, commercials, and fawning articles and "news reports" like Ms Alcindor's. Whomever paid for this goat rope (and I'll bet Miley Cyrus' modesty we all can guess who the Sugar Cola Daddy really is) will expect nothing less. As for "Why now?" I'll further bet that these Prosecutors, cloaked in the dignity of the office they are absent from, will figure prominently in attack ads in this coming November. Perhaps they'll support Bloomberg favorite John Hickenlooper, the hard-pressed, anti-gun light-weight, stooge and Colorado Governor.

Does anyone not feel the hairy, hidden hand of Michael Bloomberg, That Nasty Little Fascist? (Thank you, Michael Bane.) The obsessive focus on the guns themselves is a damn good indicator. After all, the agendas and conclusions came long before the Prosecutor's first meeting. Might it be, I don't know, a rush to judgement? (Feuer should be very familiar with that term.) Think the tried and untrue demonization of an object was a foregone conclusion? You betcha: It's the guuuuuns!

And I thought the depths of the human condition had already been plumbed.

Tom Gresham's Free Shaneen Billboard

Free Shaneen Billboard (GunTalk.com)

Tom Gresham, along with the Second Amendment Foundation and the New Jersey 2nd Amendment Society have supersized their objections to the Shaneen Allen case. For an honest mistake, Ms Allen now faces 10 years in prison for a "gun crime" without intent nor victim. The gun-rights orgs are attempting to shame the shameless New Jersey prosecutor for Atlantic County: Jim McClain. McClain is the same "tough on crime" prosecutor that excused Baltimore Raven running back Ray Rice for beating his fiancee unconscious in an elevator. 

Breaking News!

 

Guess who blinked?

Trial Postponed for Philly Mom Charged With Carrying Licensed Gun in Wrong State as Prosecutor Takes a Second Look at Her Case

Read more: http://www.nbcphiladelphia.com/news/local/Trial-Postponed-for-Philly-Mom-Charged-With-Carrying-Licensed-Gun-in-Wrong-State-as-Prosecutor-Takes-a-Second-Look-at-Her-Case-275239031.html#ixzz3DVSxarEq
Follow us: @nbcphiladelphia on Twitter | nbcphiladelphia on Facebook

HT: GunTalk.com

Ms Allen has already spent 40 some days in jail and has lost her job. I think it would be only fitting if Jim McClain, the Atlantic County Prosecutor, endured the same. 

Guns Blaimed For Ferguson

I realize it's the Huffington Post (I see orange rubber bullets) and UCLA (Westwood High, Social Justice Warrior campus); but even so, the level of inanity of this article is truly breathtaking. In his piece, Ferguson: With So Many Guns in America, Police Are Trained to Live in Fear, UCLA Law Professor Adam Winkler (any relation to the Fonz?) makes a few basic, unrelated observations, injects a racist assumption, comes to a unsupported conclusion, and voila!: It's The GUNS fault! Ayyyyyyyy!

To summarize Winkler's argument:

• There are a lot of guns in the United States
• Police have to train to extremes because there are a lot of guns
• Police are racist because of guns
• Police contacts with the populace are tainted by racism and guns
• The police are militarizing because of the amount of guns
• Ferguson...
• Because GUNS!!!
• Propose the same ineffective, un-Constitutional, "common sense" anti-gun laws

If you think Winkler's level of analysis is best suited to tony, up-town, elitist, cocktail party chit-chat after a couple/ three/ more Cosmopolitans, we're in complete agreement.

It is too fisk. Readers are invited to post their own comments. I'll enhance this post when/ if I get some time this busy weekend.

HT: Guns Save Lives