I am generally of the opinion that someone who can graduate from law school and become a state attorney general would have to be someone pretty smart. Hence, if they say a bunch of stuff that is totally wrong one must either conclude they aren’t that smart, they are lying or they are out of touch with reality.
I have yet to meet a lawyer I considered really stupid. Incompetent, yeah, I saw a public defender I wouldn’t want defending a dead dog. But he wasn’t really stupid.
Lawyers aren’t supposed to lie to the court. Supposedly they can get in trouble for that. But I’ve seen lawyers do it. Flat out, bald-faced lies to the judge. He had been given the facts just a few hours earlier and lied–big fat juice lies. My lawyers was flabbergasted and because he wasn’t expecting it was unable to present any evidence to the contrary or even put up a coherent argument about it. Other people that saw and heard it and a bunch of other actions he engaged in concluded he was a sociopath. Apparently you can make a lot of money as a sociopathic lawyer.
Another explanation for presenting false evidence is they are just out of touch with reality. They live in some sort of imaginary world that only occasionally intersects with reality–like a few times a day for water and food intake and semi-solid elimination.
I’m not sure if J. Joseph Curran Jr. is a sociopathic liar or is just out of touch with reality. But here is one of his semi-solid elimination deposits:
I further proposed that while hunting and other recreational uses of firearms should remain unfettered, our long-term goal should be an end to unrestricted handgun ownership. Sportsmen do not typically use handguns, and studies on self-defense make clear that people in households with handguns are more likely to be victims of gun violence than those in homes without them. I argued that handguns exact too high a price.
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Legislation to close the gun show loophole nationally is pending in Congress. Childproofing handguns so only owners and authorized users can fire them would save many lives. The notion that guns in our national parks will make vacationing families safer should not carry the day. And surely we can agree that civilian ownership of military-style assault weapons, which make mass slaughters possible, serves no positive purpose.
Guns have killed 300,000 and maimed another 700,000 in the past decade – a million victims since Columbine. Had we done more 10 years ago, how many of those million might we have saved? Ten years from now, do we want to be asking ourselves the same question?
“Sportsmen” do use handguns. Both for hunting and numerous other sports such as USPSA, Steel Challenge, bowling pin shoots, IPDA, cowboy action shooting, and bullseye pistol just for starters. It’s not at all uncommon for some sportsmen to shoot 10K to 100K rounds through their handguns in a single year. This makes the use of handguns in the shooting sports much, much more common that rifle hunting. Is his statement a lie or is he out of touch with reality? He probably really doesn’t know what handguns are used for. So, I’m saying he is out of touch with reality on this one.
In his reference to “studies on self-defense” he apparently is referring to the discredited Kellerman study. That study was so bad that when congress held hearing on it (it was paid for by the government and questions were being asked about it being shoddy science as well as being written for a preordained political conclusions) Kellermen and others that approved of the study didn’t even bother to show up for the hearing to defend themselves. That hearing was in the mid to late 90s. One would think a college graduate with an interest in gun politics would know his pet piece of “evidence” had been completely and totally trashed in a very public forum. Unless, that is, he was intent on lying or he was out of touch with reality. I really can’t decide which it is.
There is no gun show loophole. The same laws that apply to gun shops apply to dealers at gun shows. Is he lying about this or is he out of touch with reality? He is a lawyer. He should know. He claims to know of the existence of laws in states that “closed their gun-show loopholes”. I say he’s lying on this one.
“Childproof handguns” do not exist. I used to work with biometrics (the type of technology proposed for use in making guns only usable by their owners) and I have my doubts the technology will ever be capable of delivering this dream. Let alone passing some law (like New Jersey did some years ago) and having biometrically equipped guns magically appear on the shelves. He must be out of touch with reality on this one.
The “notion that guns in our national parks will make vacationing families safer should not carry the day” implies he does not care about the facts. He apparently only cares that people believe as he does. He’s definitely out of touch with reality with this one–and he wants the rest of the world to join him.
“Surely we can agree”? No. We can’t agree. He implies “assault weapons” have no positive purpose. But he doesn’t come right out and say it. He is using weasel words to bias people’s thinking. I suspect he knows the “assault weapons” he wants to ban include millions of guns owned by everyday Americans. Most of the guns I own, rifles and pistols, qualify as “assault weapons” under one or more “assault weapon” bans in the various states. I call this a lie on his part.
Guns have killed or injured a million victims in the last ten years? No. Completely false. People using guns have killed or injured a million people, not necessarily victims. He doesn’t use any weasel words here. He flat out says guns killed people. And he calls all those people “victims”. About half of the deaths were suicide. Suicides are not caused by guns. There are many factors but gun ownership is not one of them. He completely ignores the justified and praiseworthy deaths and injuries of violent criminals by innocent victims using guns to defend themselves. He must be out of touch with reality to be unaware of these facts. Had he been lying I think he would have tried to use some weasel words to defend against the obvious flaws in his statement.
Final score:
| Statement | Lie | Reality impaired |
| Sportsman and handguns | 0 | 1 |
| Studies on self-defense | 0.5 | 0.5 |
| Gun show loophole | 1 | 0 |
| Childproof handguns | 0 | 1 |
| Notion on guns in national parks | 0 | 1 |
| Surely we can agree on assault weapons | 1 | 0 |
| Guns killed or injured a million people in the last 10 years | 0 | 1 |
Total: | 2.5 | 4.5 |
I have to conclude that he is out of touch with reality. It’s time to send him to the funny farm and give him some meds.
This was the AG of MD for decades. He is finally gone. Now you know what MD faced with an AG actively hostile. Thankfully he was unsucessful due to the rural leglistatures in Md most of which were and are Democrats.
Microstamping failed last year and this year. They do have the requirement that any gun sold new has a ballistic bullet fired. That has been expensive and no conviction or use of that information. There is a committee that dictate what is considered banned Saturdsay Night Special that has not been functional or 10 years.
Being a State AG and highly educated doesn’t prevent someone from being blinded by their own prejudices. Sadly I know this all too well from personal experience.
Honestly, the whole “sporting use” line of argument really irks me. Whether my arms have a “sporting use” or not is irrelevant, unless by sporting use he means keeping petty government tyrants in their place.
As to the closing of the so-called gun show loophole in some states, it could be said that California (and probably others as well) has done that. All sales at a gun show (or any other place) must go through an FFL with the whole background check and waiting period and all that. There are very few exceptions, such as transfers between certain family members.
Otherwise, yeah, he might not be totally loonie-fruity on that one example.
Not that it matters much given how many other areas in which his moon-battiness is showing.
Sociopath and liar. Pretty much redundant.
This is the same moron who when confronted by the state elections board asking him to investigate voter fraud in Baltimore after the Glendenning / Sauerbrey gubernatorial election chose to instead fire the entire State Board of Elections. His daughter is the wife of our governor, Martin O’Moron and a judge in Baltimore. ( Wonder how she got that job, especially since she doesn’t live in Baltimore which is a statuatory requirement for the job ? )
I think you’re being pretty generous here. I don’t accept the insanity defense on this one.
Lying or out of touch with reality? I say “corrupt”.