Last updated on 2019-02-22
The Senate voted 20-13 yesterday for Senate Bill 115, Senator Jim Stalzer’s chickenly proposal to let 4,800 special permit holders carry guns in the Capitol, our sacred temple of democracy.
As I try to figure out what those 20 Senators are afraid of (other than losing their NRA endorsements), I think back on my own activities as a public figure to incidents when I have been physically threatened.
Twenty years ago, a parent confronted me at school after hours. I’m pretty sure I was the only staff member in the building. The parent questioned a grade I’d given the parent’s child. I explained the grade and why it was warranted. The parent rejected that explanation, put a finger under my chin and a belly against mine, and invited me to step outside. I followed the parent outside, reiterating my explanation. The parent left without taking the swing implied by the invitation.
At no point during that encounter or after did I think, “Boy, that would have gone better if I’d had a gun.”
In 2016, while I was running for Legislature, I attended the first of too many hate rallies hosted in Aberdeen by out-of-state conspiracy theorist Ron Branstner. When I rose to correct Branstner’s misrepresentation of news reported on my blog, several of my neighbors crowded around me, swore at me, and physically threatened me. No one threw punches, but no one went home happy.
At no point during that encounter or after did I think, “I should have brought a gun.”
Al Novstrup, the guy who beat me in that 2016 election and in last year’s, apparently enjoys more popularity and respect around the community than I do. The things he says publicly seem less likely to generate angry responses in Aberdeen, in Pierre, or anywhere else in South Dakota than the things I say. Evidence suggests that I have more reason to fear for my physical safety as an outspoken liberal atheist than he does as a generally mild-spoken conservative man of God.
Yet Senator Novstrup, whose Christ and Savior tells him, “Fear not!” appears to think, “Man, things would go better in the Capitol if I could get a permit and carry a gun in here.”
No one has ever been shot in the South Dakota Capitol. One gunman has been apprehended in the Capitol, back in the 1970s, in the off-season, when almost no one was in the building.
By the evidence of my own experience, I should be more afraid when I go out in public than Al Novstrup or pretty much any legislator. Yet I have never thought, “Gee, I wish my employer would let more gunmen into the building.”
And I have never thought that when stepping into a public school or the State Capitol. Both are sacred spaces, where we declare and promote our greatest values, our commitment to solving problems with reason rather than force.
Senate Bill 115 betrays more than the unaccountable fear and trembling among many of our legislators. It betrays our confidence in our values and democratic institutions.
I would offer the hope that the House would show more faith and wisdom… but they’re so fearfully wacky, I know better. Alas.
There are things worth our fear. Perhaps the greatest thing we have to fear is a Legislature ruled by fear itself. But even in my encounter with a Legislature filled with fear, I have never thought and will never think, “Gee, we could make this situation better if we all brought guns.”
What till old gomer, the Lt. Gov., pulls another shenanigan to instigate a shootout. The members members will be poo’ng their pants trying to pull their smoke wagons. The smell of crap will linger in the people’s house like a state park outhouse for days. Nothing like a good old fashioned heart attack to drive home this new nonsense.
If Mr. jerry is correct, I see somebody provoking Mr. Rhoden to the point he has to deliver a gut-punch, and nobody can withstand a Rhoden gut-punch. Just the thought of gut-punchery is enough to protect everybody in the Capitol building. Plus, people forget about the red button under the Senate President’s podium to summon the Rhoden Rhangers, who would swing in like a squad of Batmans from the chandeliers.
They are neither cowards nor heroes. They are slugs who got elected by projecting a purer image, and by registering “R.” Registering “R” endows you with mid-level purity; you have to out-“pro-life” your somewhat pure opponents to achieve high-purity status. Clearing that hurdle, you have to also claim to believe that everyone has a god-given right to pack. I don’t have much problem with that; anyone intent on doing harm with a gun can get close to a lot of fairly-prominent people, regardless of the law.
I am, however, fascinated by the SoDak legislature’s preoccupation with religious domination issues: guns, sex, sex, and sex.
Tipping my hand on the title of this coming weekend’s Breakfast Rant, Bob, I’ll let you in on the title. “Guns, god, gonads green grudznick’s gills”
It’s gonna be a doozey. Don’t miss it, we’ll comp your breakfast again.
CIRD seems to have dialed the right number, these guys in Pierre are indeed slugs.
This is the one venue in the state where pressures and tensions can run extremely high when the legislature is in session and there is no good reason for a gun to be within anybody’s reach.
Grudznick, you have descended into self-parody of nothingness.
You mean I “seem” to. Come to Dales and listen to the Breakfast Rant again. Nobody will ridicule you.
So, legislators apparently watched this scene a few too many times.
I want to vent about how guns have become talismans, but I am going to have start surfing with the surrealism and laughing at the absurdity. If I don’t, I’ll stroke out before I get to enjoy retirement with my wife
I’ve heard the breakfast rant. We all have. If your goal has been to become a crotch-cricket, you have achieved it. Back off; you won’t do better.
I shall proceed to the inflation of certain inflatable recreational devices.
“Perhaps the greatest thing we have to fear is a Legislature ruled by fear itself.”
Cory hit the nail on the head. CIRD, Roger, Jerry and Kal drove it the rest of the way in. Shameless SDGOP political grandstanding.
The US Constitutional Republic was built on guns.
You have a higher chance to die from an automobile.
Why don’t you want your law makers to protect themselves?
You can’t hide behind children in this thread so let’s hear it.
CIRD
Why is it necessary for grudznick/Jeremiah to disrupt this thread with childish comments?
Jason, ALL states are built on guns. We’re trying to influence a state to consider reasonable dialogue as an alternative to plugging one’s opponent,
Carrying a gun for protection has nothing to do with plugging one’s opponent.
CRID, I’ve always wondered about the safety of the inflatable devices you seem to use a lot at bedtime. Do we need legislation to ensure the health and safety of those who use those devices? It would be terrible if, for example, the device developed a sudden and unexpected release, causing a catastrophic loss of pressure which then results in a slipped disks, etc., of the person who is riding the device. Maybe Grudz could give you some lobbying assistance on that.
If republicans want to pack heat in the capitol and decide to have a shootout, why should I care?
What do we put on their tombstones?
Roger C.
Why do you disrupt some threads with the spelling/grammar police bs and not others?
Roger C.
Democrats are the party of violence and gun violence.
Remember Scalise?
Jason
Remember MAGA cap wearing teen that killed 17 people at Douglas Stoneman School in Parkland, FL just one year ago?
He was a republican.
Donald Pay: My inflatable devices are Underwriters Laboratory certified. Maybe the Novstrups’ iflatable devices are, as well. I salute them for bringing certain inflatable recreational devices to statewide notice and acclamation.
Roger,
Why are you being a coward about the spelling police question?
As for the Democrat violence, I can list way more than you.
Just let me know if you want to go down that road and I will block off a whole day to list the links.
Jason
Why do I disrupt some threads with spelling/grammar police bs and not others? The simple answer is because I can, nothing cowardly about it.
I refuse to get in a pissing match with you over which party has the most mass killers where I know your links will be questionable and most likely lack credibility.
Go down that road, Jace. We could use some enlightenment. lock off a day in your busy life.
Thank you for admitting the ethical and human standards you don’t have Roger.
Here’s one from today CIRD.
https://hotair.com/archives/2019/02/21/conservative-attacked-uc-berkeley/
http://www.dailycal.org/2019/02/20/man-tabling-for-right-wing-group-assaulted-on-uc-berkeley-campus/
On Thursday, The College Fix published additional footage filmed by the conservative activist that includes the assaulter threatening, “I’ll shoot your a**!”
https://www.thecollegefix.com/video-conservative-student-punched-in-face-over-this-is-maga-country-poster-at-uc-berkeley/
The Democrats have a violence problem.
Cird,
Here is one from today.
https://hotair.com/archives/2019/02/21/conservative-attacked-uc-berkeley/
On Thursday, The College Fix published additional footage filmed by the conservative activist that includes the assaulter threatening, “I’ll shoot your a**!”
https://www.thecollegefix.com/video-conservative-student-punched-in-face-over-this-is-maga-country-poster-at-uc-berkeley/
The Democrats have a violence problem.
The Daily Californian was the first outlet to report the incident, which the student-run paper says took place on the Upper Sproul Plaza.
http://www.dailycal.org/2019/02/20/man-tabling-for-right-wing-group-assaulted-on-uc-berkeley-campus/
Jason,
Where do you get this stuff?
I made no admission of any kind to you.
For others that post here, be sure you follow-up on Jason’s links to to ensure they are credible.
You afraid to read links Roger?
This is why you are ignorant.
I don’t feel like it.
So Roger C is CIRD?
Interesting……
How many other posters have multiple names on here?
Jason, Jason, Jason. Simmer down boy. You’re getting yourself all upset! Sounds like you want to fight everybody here. Did you bring your gun? 😆😆😆😆😆
Okay, so we’re talking about guns in the state capital and why it’s such a bad idea. The fact is that the more people with the more guns gathered in one place, the more people die. Maybe the SDGOP has a death wish? I’m sure they’re not ammosexuals. Never!
Roger, I was thinking about who the biggest terrorists are in US history from 1602, or whenever the Mayflower landed, to 2019. Why, what a shock! It’s white males. Now before that it likely was American Indians, since white males with their guns hadn’t arrived yet. But those white males have been making up for lost time ever since.
This bill will help keep their terrorizing ways going, thanks to the SDGOP.
(Roger, here comes whataboutism from Jason.)🙄😏
Debbo wrote:
The fact is that the more people with the more guns gathered in one place, the more people die.
Please link me to evidence of this “fact” of yours.
BTW,
I am asking about the USA.
Debbo
I don’t read Jason’s links simply because they are usually from rightwing propaganda sites.
And you are correct about white males being the biggest threat to the safety of all Americans. There is no doubt about it, history proves it.
For instance, we haven’t heard much about the Coast Guard Lt. that was arrested las week for his mass killing plans. The self proclaimed white nationalists had plans to kill Democratic politicians and CNN reporters.
Even the mass killers of the past few years have been predominately white males whether they be republicans or Democrats.
Roger C. aka CIRD,
I linked to a liberal college campus newspaper.
Keep digging the hole please.
Ignorant one
NO, CIRD and I are not one in the same, I admire gullibility.
Most people commenting here know the identity of CIRD and respect his privacy.
One more time, I don’t follow your links for the reasons I have repeatedly stated.
Like Stace has a clear conscience if a mass shooting occurs on campus, what are legislators expecting? While Kristi is speaking at a SOTS address and some criminal assassin jumps up shooting, are 20 legislators going to save her, shooting up the house, killing spectators, pages, cops and each other? Defending themselves are they gonna shoot the shooters and those around them? We just had several cops wounded trying to take out a shooter. Stupidest set of legislation ever Introduced. Daugaard was smart enough to veto the last such efforts.
Courthouses and airports screen out guns. But these few idiots want to jeopardize the lives of every South Dakotan so they can concealed or open carry in the state capital? Fools. Vote them out. Change the law. Rrestrict guns.
No CIRD and Roger are not the same people and Roger, I’m with you on Jason’s links. 99%+ are garbage, so now he wants a pat on the back because one might not be? Silly.
On spelling: I apologize for misspelling “democracy” in my original headline. Such misspellings spoil otherwise interesting reading. I have corrected the error pointed out by Jason.
So Jason, do you really think Republicans in Pierre are afraid that Democrats will come shoot them?
Do you really think Democrats in South Dakota are more likely to commit violence against their political opponents than Republicans?
Just wait till you go out to the parking lot and find a goose on the roof of your car, Leaving a dump.
Then you’ll think “gee, I wish I had a gun.”
Jason, you Republicans have a gun obsession problem, which is why we have termed it Ammosexualism.
And Cory, Jason really does think that Democrats are going to come and shoot him. This is the way South Dakotans think, this is how fearful republicans are. I can’t explain it, must be the 2nd Amendment indoctrination.
collegefix is a right wing outlet while there is no proof Daily Californian is anything but independent as they state in their about section.
Hot air is full of hot air. The alleged victim claims he was tabling and two guys approached him. There are no tables anywhere in the video. It also conveniently starts at the appropriate moment to capture the narrative lying right wingers want you to see.
Hot air is an extreme right wing site.
Cory,
Did Scalise think a Democrat would shoot him on a baseball field?
As for spelling, there is no need for you to apologize. Everyone makes mistakes.
Like I said in the email to you, I only brought it up to expose the hypocrisy of Roger, Leslie, RJ, and a few others.
Everyone has a right to defend themselves how they see fit anywhere they are.
Access to guns should be more restricted everywhere, for the same reasons some of you are suggesting they should be restricted in schools, courthouses, and temples of democracy.
People sometimes argue that good guys need unrestricted access to guns because bad guys all have guns, but that is circular reasoning. So many bad guys have guns because “good guys” buy guns to take instagram pictures and then leave guns on the seats of their unlocked pickups and bad guys steal them. Bad guys wouldn’t have guns if they weren’t available in every american city for next to nothing.
As for white men being the “biggest terrorists,” I wonder if there is a real definition being used for these words or if that was just another unfounded accusation. If the taking of human lives is terrorism, the 50 million or so abortions in this country in the last 60 years dwarfs all other homicides by all races and genders. Conversely, if loss of life isn’t the main element of terrorism – if we want to focus just on violent homicides – I would suggest, and statistics show, that white males are actually under-represented per capita.
It’s trendy right now to hate white men and blame them for everything, but we should all strive for unification of our diverse population rather than division. Spreading false information and trying to pit one group of people against another is moving our country in the opposite direction we should be moving.
Anne, you know as well as anyone else that you don’t need a gun for a goose at the capital. Just grab it by the neck and rub its squawking beak in the the poo cylinder. That’ll teach it.
If this becomes law somebody’s gonna get the Darwin Award. It’s just a matter of time.
this has got to be the dumbest of the dumb. these imbeciles belong in elementary school to learn what responsibility is because it’s apparent their folks did not pass on smarts!maybe we should let them pack weapons made of wood & painted black, maybe that will help them fell more grown up than than they deserve.maybe we should have these nuts pack their weapons to church!!!!!
Carrying a gun for protection has nothing to do with plugging one’s opponent.
I’m going waaaaaay out on a limb as suggest it is much easier to plug yer opponent if you have the wherewithal to do so.
I believe a recent study done in Texas-no liberal shrinking violet of gun fearing humans- determined mental health has less effect on gun violence as does the availability of guns.
I can see the Troll arguing with himself in a mirror screaming you commie liberals. You wouldn’t talk like that with a gun shoved up yer nose, would ya? Wouldn’t have that nasal, Nanny Fine twang going either.
Never ceases to amaze me how the narrative switches from I carry a gun to protect my bloviated ego personage from ne’er do wells, to I carry to protect the public from goons with guns.
As for goose goo, peacock poo is harder on paint. My neighbor could tell you stories about his new pick up back in 2003, except his memory is pretty much gone.
Guns escalate violence. Cory’s two examples wonderfully show that the absence of guns limits the threshold of potential violence. Neither situation would have been made safer or de-escalated if Cory had drawn a weapon. We had a local tragedy not too long ago; a young man went to his neighbor’s to complain about the noise from that neighbors home. He brought his gun with him. There was no reason to have that gun to have a discussion about noise. He ended up shooting that neighbor after arguing about the noise. The presence of that gun escalated the violence of that situation.
When Jason says, “Carrying a gun for protection has nothing to do with plugging one’s opponent,” he is wrong. A gun is NOT a defensive weapon; it is not a shield; it does not deflect bullets from an attackers gun.
Ha ha, Anne. I actually wouldn’t think that in that situation, either. The poop’s already on my car; why compound that scrubbable unsightliness with a harder-to-remedy set of buckshot marks?
I’ve also never seen a goose sitting on a car to do its business, or for any other reason. Do geese sit on cars at the Capitol? (If they do, do they target legislators or officials of one party more than another? Maybe geese know something we don’t.)
Furthermore, if I had a gun to blast a pooping goose, I’d then have to take 20 minutes to clean the goose.
Plus, if I’m carrying a gun around just to deal with bird poop, I’m incurring a great expense in attention and ammo cost that will detract from the rest of my say in such a way to render the minor gain of avenging mere poop insignificant.
You don’t want to eat a wild goose, Cory. Especially a giant Canada goose. They’re not called “sky carp” for nothing. On the savory food scale, wild goose is right next to Dakota Dunes slime burger.
Jason: “Everyone has a right to defend themselves how they see fit anywhere they are.”
Ridiculous on face.
Let’s run through the current 2020 SD Democrat campaign slogans.
1. Late term abortions are ok.
2. Infanticide is ok.
3. We will decide what your children are taught.
4. You don’t have a right to defend yourself.
Have I missed any?
Let’s run through the current 2020 sdgop campaign slogans.
1. We’ll make women’s medical decisions for them.
2. We’ll let you and your children die due to inability to afford medical care.
3. We’ll decide what your children are taught.
4. Anyone may have a gun and decide to shoot you at any time.
5. We own the government and make the decisions, not you.
6. The less you know the better.
7. An ignorant populace is a malleable populace.
8. A CAFO in every backyard.
9. We’ll decide who is acceptable in SD.
10. American Indians are not people.
11. Sharia law per our rightwing, distortion of Christianity.
12. Women are semi-people.
Have I missed any? Gentlemen?
#4. Harvard studies show guns=escalation, per o above. Lots of studies. HARVARD. Self defense my eye.
Ban Jason for abuse clearly demonstrated in this thread.
What happened to Old Sarge Jason?
oldsarg is busy with the legislative session. he’ll be back in force when it’s over.
Rors
Watch for an Old Sarge comeback under the alias “Old Spec 5”.
This comes from today’s Strib, research by Stanford University. https://goo.gl/kYL4hR
“The Stanford researchers used a grading system for state gun laws in effect at the end of 2014, measuring from least rigorous to most rigorous, and specifically noted whether states had child access prevention laws in place to impose liability on adults when a child gains unsupervised access to their guns. In the quartile of states with the least stringent laws, youth firearm-related mortality was roughly twice that in the quartile of states with the most stringent laws, holding other things constant.”
“More stringent laws are associated with lower mortality among children and teens. Likewise, firearm suicide rates were significantly lower in states that had child access prevention laws than in states without them. What’s true of gun laws and youth mortality is true of gun laws and mortality more generally. The states with the weakest laws have higher rates of gun deaths than states with stronger laws.”
Maine, Vermont and New Hampshire are 3 exceptions among the 51 and Stanford plans on studying those 3 outliers further.
“But the weight of evidence on gun violence increasingly confirms the common-sense conclusion: More guns plus less regulation equals more needless deaths.”
This study is not an outlier. It’s one of the large majority. It appears the SDGOP is ready and willing to risk SD’s children.
Now the gun debate becomes a mirror of the climate debate: scientific fact is set aside by the right for political belief. When fact is inserted into the discussion, is is dismissed by unsubstantiated – even false – belief.
Here are the “campaign slogans” in a nutshell: Democrats: using science and fact to drive policy; GOP: using policy to drive denial of science and fact.
I am the owner of many guns. They live in locked gun safes, and aside from hunting seasons they rarely get used. Some are years old and still new in the box. Though I have a concealed carry permit, I have never felt unsafe being unarmed so I don’t carry. I own some of the guns for hunting and some just because I can. I have the concealed carry permit just because I can.
I understand why Jason is such a gun nut. He’s a scared little chihuahua. But I doubt he can afford a gun. Once again Jason, my earlier offer remains open if you have a gun you want to show me.
But I don’t understand why so many GOPs want to act like scared little chihuahuas and carry guns for protection. It must be tough to live in such fear.
grudznick
September 30, 2017 at 5:14 pm
It is interesting to find out that Mr. H is using pernicious internet tricks to post here as OldSarge.
VNOE
Don’t sign anything.
Push the barbarians back!
From DWC
Ror, I honestly don’t think it’s fear. I think it is hope.
When I was little, the first time my dad took me to a military surplus store, I fell in love. They used to be everywhere. You could buy full sets of any kind of cammo you wanted, you could buy real military knives, and shovels, and rucksacks, and cots, and waterproof matches, and compasses, and c-rations, and all sorts of things that are super cool to young kids who grew up watching GI Joe and Rambo and things like that.
A lot of young men, like me, were also part of the Boy Scouts. In Boy Scouts, we learned how to safely handle knives and axes, how to safely make a camp fire and how to cook on it. We learned how to build shelter in the woods and learned how to orient ourselves through landmarks and the sun and stars. Most people who were in Boy Scouts never needed to use the skills we learned, but learning them was cool anyway. Being prepared for the unlikely is cool. Being prepared when somebody else is not prepared, and saving the day, now that is even cooler. Who doesn’t want to be a hero?
So, long story short, I would guess that very few people who want to carry guns 24/7 are afraid of being attacked. They are hopeful that they will one day get to use their preparation and their weapon to save the day and be a hero.
Interesting point, Ryan, but it does lead to another question, what is a true hero?
Ryan’s last line, “They are hopeful that they will one day get to use their preparation and their weapon to save the day and be a hero.” has not been sitting well with me. First, I do not disagree with Ryan or his sentiment; I do find it uneasy to think that there are people that hope to shoot another person — even a “bad guy” — even to save the day. The very notion of hoping to shoot at another person (even as the “good guy with a gun” scenario) should be horrible shouldn’t it?
Midwin Charles is an outstanding attorney and sometimes guest 9n political talk shows. She tweeted this:
Anyone asking if arrest of Christopher Hasson – U.S coast guard plotting carnage against Dems, left-leaning media & had arsenal in his home – set white men back the way they’re asking if Jussie’s arrest set Black gay men back?
Just curious 💅🏽
“on” political talk shows, dammit.
How often does a “good guy” with a gun become a “bad guy” with a gun? It probably takes a split second decision to go from good to bad.
“He was such a nice man” says the neighbor about the serial killer that was arrested recently. How often have you heard that?
Cory said, “No one has ever been shot in the South Dakota Capitol.” That’s why I support SB 115. There are a lot of deserving folks there who should be subject to natural selection.
Ryan’s on the right psychological path. A giant majority of “gun huggers” were never courageous enough to join the military. They just sit around in their underwear, drink beer and caress their military style, replica guns and imagine they’ll be able to protect people in an emergency (mostly women, who actually find them repulsive). Truth is they’d choke if a situation ever did arise. They massage their cold steel, phallus substitutes and fantasize themselves into hero scenarios. It’s called a “protection erection”. It’s deviant, perverted and pornographic. Hug them guns, you little perverts.
Ryan says” They are hopeful that they will one day get to use their preparation and their weapon to save the day and be a hero.’
That is nothing more than a couch potato fantasy that is an extension of playing video games or shooting paper targets that don’t shoot back. Join the Army or Marines and get a reality check.
Not that many years ago, I would have agreed with the idea that cowardice is not driving the current gun fetishism. But then I recall that so many (not all) in the group of individuals who want no gun regulation seem to be in the same group that has been convinced by modern money seeking hate mongering propaganda to feel scared silly of men, women and children from south of the border, or of different religions, such as Islam, or of different complexions, such as black lives matter protestors.
Their Trump, Hannity, Limbaugh, et al, inspired mantra seems to be that these bogey people will rape and kill them, force their kids to take drugs, steal their jobs, steal their public welfare, vote for hated liberals, and generally endanger them. That often expressed irrational fear seems a more logical connector to someone’s irrational desire to be secretly armed in public and free from any meaningful gun regulation.
They are told to be scared every day of their lives. They seek to relieve this constantly stoked anxiety with guns, instead of simply turning off the TV, hate radio, you tube videos, web propaganda, etc. Too many have bought into this brainwashing tripe, and have begun to live their lives in constant fear of the repeatedly demonized “other.” Unrestrained access to guns is their tranquilizer.
O, yes it’s terrible that some people want to shoot other people, but it’s traceable all the way back to the caves when we killed each other with rocks and clubs. Even the military is catching on and actively marketing warmongering to get the attention of these adolescents who grew up wanting to save the day by force rather than diplomacy.
Cibvet, yes it’s a sad and silly fantasy.
Porter, I dont think its sexual for most people. It’s the desire to be important. To have a purpose and do something people will remember.
Bcb, I think the media sends a lot of fear out through the airwaves, but I think it’s all show. They (media or viewers) aren’t actually afraid… but if you say you’re fearful of something, it makes your otherwise ridiculous decisions look slightly more palatable. So it becomes “we aren’t carrying guns because we want to, but because we have to. Look what you made us do.”
But I don’t think it’s genuine, I think it’s the only justification that has even a tiny bit of plausibility, so they have to latch on.
Has anyone here reading these comments ever been in a position where you felt it necessary to arm yourself against a threat, excluding the military?
Ryan, I agree with your assessment of fear mongering media entities. I suspect they have discovered a huge money making marketing mechanism and are exploiting it to the best of their abilities, with no regard to the potential for causing human suffering.
As for their audience, that may well be another matter. If the audience didn’t buy into the propaganda demonizing identified groups, then it would seem the money would dry up. Belief in the pejorative labels and lies is the only identifiable hook I see that might keep viewers coming back, which results in increased revenue to the purveyors of hate.
Otherwise, why would so many folks seek an excuse they believe to be fake to help themselves and others to do something they know is both unjustified and downright dangerous? While a small element of our population would likely engage in unnecessary danger for the thrill of it, this would seem out of character for most people.
Am I missing something? Can it be that a significant portion of our population desires to harm innocent people based on what they know to be lies, just so they have an excuse to play with guns?
Donald Pay @ 16:44
Fuuunnnnyyyyy…!!!!! 😈 😈 😈
I think you are right, Ryan. Everyone wants to be the hero. This bill will probably pass, and the Capitol building will be flooded with would-be heroes. If some deranged person ever pulls a gun in the House or Senate gallery it will instantly become a shooting gallery with lead flying in every direction.
I think that rather than allow more guns into the capitol it would be better to direct capitol traffic entirely through the back door and install metal detectors to keep weapons out – like at courthouses. Someone ought to hoghouse this bill to say that.
Actually on a serious note.
Maybe state issued Nerf guns to these clowns at the door would be the solution. With unlimited foam ammo. We could sell the videos to Netflix… SD Nerf wars!
My money is on Schoenbeck and Red Dawn. His clear eyed vision is deadly to those republinuts and Red Dawn is a master tactician.
Leave those 2 standing to do our business and this state would become the great place it should be/once was.
Roger, Just thinking about a majority of folks on the streets being armed with permitless concealed weapons makes me paranoid. But I’m fighting it the best I can. To be armed myself I don’t consider a solution. Otherwise, No, in answer to your question.
Anne, you’re going to shoot a goose on top of you
Anne, you’re going to shoot at a good who’s befouling the top of your car with feces? Isn’t that going to ruin your car as much as the goose? and maybe somebody else? I know you’re kidding, but some of these people seem to be afflicted with the idea that we should react with excessive force to anything that offends us. That’s part of the problem.
Everyone has a gun does not make anyone safer.
South Dakotans should be afraid, be very afraid.
“The CDC statistics cover 2011 through 2015, the most recent five years for which data are available, and encompass 2,962 counties and 99% of the U.S. population.
“According to the data, rates of homicides, gun killings and illicit-drug fatalities are highest in counties where nine in 10 residents are white and where President Trump won in the 2016 election.”
Oh, and one more thing, also from the CDC:
“White Americans who are safest from such deaths are those who live in racially diverse areas such as Los Angeles, New York and Chicago, where two-thirds of residents are nonwhite, where millions of immigrants live, and where voters favored Hillary Clinton in 2016. Nonwhites also are safer in these areas overall, though rates vary by location.”
Debbo, that seems to be the heart of any civilized discussion: what policies and philosophies really are the best for the citizens? Could you post a link to that CDC source for me?
O, I got the CDC stats from an opinion piece in the LA Times. https://goo.gl/NM6EfE
What are the bed wetters gonna do when these things are flying around?
“ABU DHABI — The Russian company that gave the world the iconic AK-47 assault rifle has unveiled a suicide drone that may similarly revolutionize war by making sophisticated drone warfare technology widely and cheaply available.
The Kalashnikov Group put a model of its miniature exploding drone on display this week at a major defense exhibition in Abu Dhabi, the capital of the United Arab Emirates, where the world’s arms companies gather every two years to show off and market their latest wares.” https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=38&v=fwAiKJEhtWo
LMAO The bed wetters are gonna have to buy more ammo. Here is a solution, practice civility. Remember what your mom said, “you catch more flies with honey than with vinegar”.
Carrying a gun openly puts more people in danger than it protects. It’s just as likely that a crazy guy, who can’t own a gun legally, could see your pistol, freak out, sneak up behind you in a crowd, hit you over the head with a blunt trauma instrument, steal the gun from your unconscious body and commit a mass shooting as it is that you could witness a mass shooting and somehow be able to protect someone. That’s what you’re doing. You’re fantasizing being a hero. More chance you’re putting people in danger than the chance you’d ever help anyone.
So the idea for carrying the gun in the statehouse is because of a failure to legislate. If you cannot argue your position, pull that smokewagon to make your point. That is a very powerful message to send to the kids of the state.
If the idea is to prevent government overreach then that widdle pistol ain’t gonna do much against an armed drone. So there you have it, South Dakota legislators are a clear and present danger to a democratic society.
They’re baaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaack-
https://talkingpointsmemo.com/news/nra-magazine-uses-target-practice-headline-next-to-image-of-pelosi-giffords
Just a sad reminder the dying continues long after the senseless murders stop-
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/parkland-shooting-survivor-sydney-aiello-takes-her-own-life/
Survivor’s guilt became too much to bear. One massacre was all it took for New Zealand pols to act on gun control. Wingnuts are such thick heads and scaredy ass of Russia NRA’s clout.
Indiana schools participating in active shooter drills, the teachers were shot with plastic pellets that stung and drew blood. Nice.
http://juanitajean.com/fun-with-guns-they-didnt-use-spitwads-edition/
https://www.the-immoral-minority.com/indiana-teachers-lined-and-shot-execution-style-with-pellet-guns-to-add-to-realism-during-school-shooter-drills/
Link speaks for itself.
A second Parkland school shooting survivor committed suicide Saturday evening. This one was a juvenile. No further news available, yet. The dying continues long after the senseless murders stop!
I read just today that nearly as many Columbine students killed themselves after the massacre as died because of it. Sobering, indeed.
And Chinless Wonder McTurtle and his cronies in the GOP dont even notice. I hate those bastards for the havoc they wreak on innocent lives.