Venting some annoyance

[pasithea]

Okay, I'm really sick of hearing "WAAAH SECOND AMENDMENT" with regard to these bozos who have been showing up at town hall meetings with guns.

Second amendment doesn't have a fucking goddamned thing to do with it. They are attempting to violate the First amendment rights of people.

These guys are NO DIFFERENT from the assholes in Afghanistan that threaten to kill women if they vote. Would it be okay if they stood outside polling place when you went to vote, maybe looked over your shoulder?

They aren't standing up to a corrupt government, they're trying to threaten THE PEOPLE OF THE UNITED STATES who are trying to participate in their government. They're attempting to capitalize on the right-wing spree killings of the past few months to scare people away from listening to rational debate. In fact, rational debate is the last thing they want.

Did we see the left running around with guns trying to override the legal process when Bush was appointed by the court, or did you see us put faith in the system and work harder to organize and get rid of the asshole by getting people's eyes open to the bullshit that was going on.

Hey guys, you lost! You lost bad because guess what, the system still works! We the people said: "We're sick of this shit." We didn't throw temper tantrums like a three year old and run around making the implied threat that we might physically harm you for not agreeing with us. You guys even had hundreds of huge multinational corporations on your side, but we beat you even in your rigged contest.

Now stop your fucking whining and quit trying to kick over the chess board. Try acting like a grown-up. If you don't like how things are being handled, how about presenting some intelligent arguments instead of screaming as loud as you can while plugging your ears and stamping your feet or trying to bully people.

Or hey, I remember the slogan you guys used, "If you don't like it, leave it." You could go to the virtual utopia for your kind that Boss Bush created over in Afghanistan. Your infantile behavior would fit in perfectly with the corrupt political system left in the wake of the mindset you support.

Now me on the other hand? I don't need a gun to beat you and I'm not afraid of you. I'm not thrilled with the government we have right now either but I'll work within the rules to bring people to my view. If your ideas were any good, do you really think you'd have to intimidate people to make them agree with you?

Comments

[idragosani.livejournal.com]

When I see someone wearing an NRA button and saying they are a proud NRA member and that they believe in the Constitution, in my head that translates to "I believe in the Second Amendment". It's the only one that seems to matter.

[tracerj.livejournal.com]

On that note....

I don't know anyone who said, "I just read the Constitution and I feel I should uphold every aspect of it, so I'd better go buy and learn how to use a gun."

I know lots of folks who gained a fascination with firearms and then later justified it with a small part of the Constitution they memorised the words to.

You know... just sayin'. *shrug*

[maradydd.livejournal.com]

Well, I read the Constitution straight through for the first time when I was about 13, and I grew up in a home without guns. (Not an anti-gun home, just a home that didn't have any; nobody was particularly interested in them.) My favourite amendment has always been, and will always be, the First. I go out of my way to support the right of every person to say things I find admirable, things I find completely reprehensible, and everything in between. I donate money to the EFF and other pro-1A organisations, I work on software that helps people to speak anonymously and with less fear of surveillance, I buy books that school districts have banned, I stand up and say "that's harmful" when I hear people advocating laws that would restrict speech. The only amendment I am completely unwilling to compromise about is the First, because freedom of speech is the fundamental cornerstone of a free society.

Second favourite's probably a toss-up between the Fourth and the Fifth, and I have a soft spot for the Ninth even though the courts have pretty much always seen it as a platitude.

I became interested in guns when I was in my twenties, and yes, I'm a proud 2A supporter. But that came about long after I'd already become passionate about the whole Constitution and the body of law surrounding it.

You know ... just sayin'.

[dv-girl.livejournal.com]

Yeah. You'd be one of the saner people I know on the subject.
Paka likes firearms as well but is about as far from foaming lunatic as possible.
And believe it or not, my parents are even somewhat sane on the matter (compared with their friends and our neighbors when I was a child at least)

But the exceptions don't prove the rule. The vast majority of people I've ever gone shooting/hunting with or talked with about guns have been screaming paranoid nutjobs with poor communication skills.

OTOH, I suppose there's a likelihood that, since I'm not against gun ownership, none of the more intelligent people have deemed it necessary to talk with me about it. Could easily be like 'good christians' where the ones who are making all the noise are allegedly not the majority. (Though given the passage of Prop 8, I'm a little skeptical of this supposed majority)

Anyhow. Work!

[dv-girl.livejournal.com]

To me it says "severe feelings of inadequacy". I owned guns when I was younger. I actually went hunting quite a bit and did competition shooting and I've known lots of people who owned guns who weren't complete nut bags but I've also run into a lot of the Gun Queens and... I just wouldn't want to be associated with them in any way shape or form if I could avoid it. Everyone one that I've met has read as incredibly insecure to me.

[rigelkitty.livejournal.com]

I find these guys who show up with guns and crying out how their rights are being suppressed like never before kinda funny.

I don't recall any prior president in modern history, much less a Republican one, allowing American citizens to freely tote guns around events featuring important (and extremely vulnerable) politicians.

If you ask me, they're exercising their Second Amendment rights more fully and freely under Obama than under any prior president's term they were alive during - all while whining piteously about how their Second Amendment right is being restricted.

[salia-chan.livejournal.com]

I just watched a video called 'never get busted'. at the end of one, the guy responsible was getting interviewed by fox news. I was amused to note that instead of letting him talk and answer questions, they would jump in, midsentance and start screaming about what a horrible person he was and the evils of drugs and how he was making america...something.

It wasn't all that clear.

Rather rude and seemed all they know how to do is encite hysteria and call names.

They couldn't even manage to keep calm for more than a few moments it seemed.

That's the kind of person they preach too also...someone whos behavior seems to be outgrown in most people by the time they hit a bit after puberty.

Ah, I can still remember the 'i shoot you with my lasers!' 'nuhuh, I have laserproof sheilds which make YOU get shot with lasers! you are dead and I'm the winner of everything! BRAIN ARE THE GREETEST!'.

so hard to get across to that type cause they like, are really paranoid and so insecure about their beliefs that they refuse to listen to ANY evidence which might disprove their point of view. Which they see as confidence cause they 'don't need to listen cause I know I'm right!' to quote my mother. _-_

Anyhow, mewmew~

...mew?

[maradydd.livejournal.com]

I can't watch news interview programs anymore. It's not just Fox, it's MSNBC too. Rachel Maddow and Keith Olbermann are good talking heads, but the "interviews" drive me nuts -- they're a cruel sham, a bully pulpit dressed up in an unconvincing "dialogue" costume.

I wouldn't force 'em off the air, but I don't have to watch 'em either.

[dv-girl.livejournal.com]

I agree with this. I distill what news I can via reading articles from google news but that misses a lot of stuff plus there are always links to some of the worse offenders like FOX.

I really should get around to writing myself some kind of filter to automatically kill any links to FOX affiliates in my web browser. Would save me a lot of time and bile.

[salia-chan.livejournal.com]

Also, when I was younger, I thought the second ammendment stated that militia were allowed to keep and bear arms. Though I do like the idea that everyone is entitled to keep a set of bear arms on their wall.

Kinda like hulk hands, but more fuzzy and clawtastic.

[dv-girl.livejournal.com]

No, sorry. It was 'bare arms'. They are constitutionally allowed to wear sleeveless shirts and really I think more people should do so.

Punk is patriotic.

[paka.livejournal.com]

A variant on your post;

I feel like people should not show up armed in front of the President, period; I don't care if you're right or left, or what the President is like - I know enough left-wing Second Amendment rights types that I don't automatically assume anyone who shows up with a gun is a right-winger. But, that just says oh, we've given up on discussing things, we feel like it is neccessary to show our capacity for force. And I feel like showing up armed hampers the job of the Secret Service in trying to protect the President; even if the President is crap like Bush or Reagan, he deserves to be protected as best as humanly possible because of what his job is and what he technically stands for, and that to me includes private citizens' co-operation. The whole thing bothers me on a civics level.

I feel like the Second Amendment is important, but I don't like how most of the supporters tend to talk about it.

[dv-girl.livejournal.com]

.. but I don't like how most of the supporters tend to talk about it.


Totally agree. Especially since their attitude tends to feed back into that sort of negative mental space where gun=penis substitute because they seriously act like you're talking about slamming their junk in a car door or something.

I try to have respect for people who have different opinions from my own and honestly, I have nothing at all against gun ownership. Personally, I think they're unnecessary for 90% of the world's population but so is TV and Pizza. If they want to buy junk, that's their business.

However, the way these people present themselves and the infantile behavior they display hits some contempt and disgust buttons pretty hard.

[paka.livejournal.com]

It's just; you're never going to successfully launch an armed revolt or whatever, so the whole "I'm protecting my freedoms" is total bullshit - even more so when the gun owner in question is right wing and obviously doesn't seem to care a damn about any other freedoms. Most of the time guns are totally useless against small scale crime too - so the whole line to me about "well if someone had a gun, the situation would never have gotten out of control" seems like bullshit to me, too. It always seems to me like there's a huge chance for misfires and accidentally shooting other people in panicky situations - I think in a lot of them if someone had been armed it'd make the situation worse. Politicians shy away from anything that seems like gun control because it makes abortion look like a topic everyone agrees on, so the whole "evil democrats are going to take mah guns!" attitude is just total bullshit.

So if you want to own a gun because you like hunting, or because gun collections are cool, or because going to the range and popping off several rounds is fun, all of these are just great by me. I actually kinda want to own stuff, eventually. But I hate this idea of defending fun hobbies by conflating them to this messianic great rebellious whatever thing, you know?