The artist thinks the votes of 4 million members and millions more that own (and vote) guns have nothing to do with the support of politicians for the NRA agenda? And no politician supports the Bill of Rights without fear of being shot or encouraged by campaign donations?
And what point is the artist trying to make? The point I see him attempting to make is that gun owners are stupid or have some mental defect.
The truth is just the opposite.
And the artist thinks the police and military train with live human targets?
Or does the artist think my ability to hit steel targets with a shotgun would not translate well to a zombie (or illegal gang) attack?
I think the artist is just a bigot trying to mock gun owners–some of whom practice with cheap targets.
Ignoring the fact that guns don’t victimize anyone or anything the artist goes further and ignores the benefits of gun ownership. All the millions of instances each year where the use of a firearm prevented the loss or injury of innocent lives. All the food that has been put on the table using firearms. All the recreational use of firearms.
Nope. None of that is interesting to the artist. And if he is typical of the anti-gun people only the total number of deaths is interesting and furthermore it is implied that all deaths by firearms are to be considered a loss to society.
What a bigot.
The artist apparently has no connection with relevant facts. The 30K deaths by gun fire (ignoring his badly phrased “gun deaths per year” which to me means that many guns die each year) includes suicides, justified homicide, and praiseworthy homicide. Furthermore there is no evidence that fewer restrictions results in more criminal homicide or suicide.
He also fails to acknowledge the human rights issues involved.
But then, bigots don’t care about facts anyway.
Yeah, right.
If anything gun rights activists are more upset than those that dance in the blood of these tragic events. Nearly all mass shootings occur in victim disarmament zones. Much of the loss of life and injuries could have been prevented. We are constantly trying to prevent future tragedies and people like this artist are doing their best to hinder us.
And this is funny how? Humor has to have at least an element of truth to it to be funny. Where is the truth in random shooting while an oath of office is being administered?
When a small child manages to start and drive a car, falls into a swimming pool, or down the stairs you don’t hear people demanding cars, pools, and stairs be banned. And you don’t hear people say cars, pools, and stairs kill people. Why the obsession with firearms and accidents involving them? Since I have been keeping track accidental firearm deaths have fallen from about 1500 per year to 700 per year in the U.S. And that is with the total number of guns in the country increasing.
I agree there are some legitimate things to mock the NRA about. But the slogan “guns don’t kill people, people kill people” is not one of them.
The artist completely ignores all the issues of due process, inability to challenge your placement on the list, the criteria for being placed on the list, etc. It would appear the artist believes it’s “all about the profits of the gun industry” or some such thing.
As I said over in the comments at Sebastian’s place:
My model of his (and many other) claim of “gun lobby profits” and such things is that they can’t imagine individuals actually wanting a gun unless they are a criminal or they have been duped by the “evil corporations”. I could be wrong, but it seems to me a great number of them think in terms of “everything bad is due to capitalism” or even more general in that “freedom is the root of all evil”. Their vision of utopia is government planning and control of everything.
Because of this if they don’t get their way it cannot be “the fault” of the individuals. It has to be influence of the evil capitalists. Why do you think the “progressives” want to silence their opposition (most recently Fox News, in years past it was “Fairness Doctrine”)?
As one admitted Marxist told me, “I believe in the good of society over the good of the individual.” Society/Government/Intellectuals/The-Central-Committee should make the decisions. Capitalists with their influence are the only real threat to “Society” and they should always be suspect because their motives are money and not “the good of society”. Only those untainted by Capitalist urges can be trusted to be pure and good.
At least that is the way I see their delusions working.
The concepts of a “basic human right” and a “specific enumerated right” being denied by involuntary membership on secret lists somehow don’t make it past their filters.
I’ll admit there is some hostility toward the ATF by gun owners. But I have yet to meet anyone who advocates using the cartridge box at this point when we haven’t finished using the soap, ballot, and jury boxes. Yet this artist apparently thinks we are violent criminals just waiting for an opportunity to get in a shoot out with government employees.
My guess is the artist had no idea what a “Saturday Night Special” is. And I’m certain they didn’t know the origin of the phrase (“Ni**ertown Saturday Night Special”) and how the legal restrictions on them came about (to disarm poor blacks).
And what about the “School Day Shooters”? Did the artist really believe people advocate shooting school children? I think some pretty bad things of the anti-gun people but I am of the opinion that most of them actually have good intentions (reduction of criminal violence). But there are so many anti-gun people who seem to actually believe the pro-freedom people intend the destruction of innocent life. I suppose it’s possible they don’t actually believe their own rhetoric. They could be just telling the big lie again and again in hope others will believe it.
But I think the most likely explanation is that they haven’t put any thought into it. So many times when I have asked some anti-gun person just one or two questions they get this blank look on their face. It’s a “deer in the headlights” look. Or perhaps a better metaphor would be that it is as if they were the Emperor who just realized they were totally without clothes.
The NRA has never proposed any such thing.
The data shows the woman’s claim is wrong.
Guns don’t kill people. People with guns kill people.
30,000 is the approximate number of people who die of gunshot wounds every year. This includes suicides, justified, and even praiseworthy homicide as well as murders.
Except for the number of people murdered at VA Tech, everything expressed as fact in the cartoon is either false or extremely misleading.
But it’s not about data. Or as more accurately, as one anti-gun person once told me, “I don’t believe your facts.”
“What facts do you have that you do believe?”, I asked. His response of, “I just don’t believe yours” ended the conversation but not for the reason he probably believed. Had I only slightly less restraint I would have had a momentary pleasure but would have gotten myself talked about.
Is there any evidence the rate of first time criminal use of guns is any higher among NRA members than the general population? I know that for concealed carry permit holders the murder rate is lower than for the general population.
It would appear this is just more prejudice against the NRA.
“Access to guns” is a human right. And that is what they view as the problem. There is no common ground between the rapist, or any other rights violator, and their victims. They can either stop proposing to violate our rights or not.
The artist’s familiarity with the facts is, at best, tenuous.
First off all of the NRA-ILA P.R. people I have dealt with have been beautiful young women, not overweight men. Second, those people just as horrified as anyone else about the tragic deaths of innocent people. And third, nearly all mass shooting happen in “gun free” areas with attempted mass shootings being stopped in the areas where people were allowed to defend themselves.
If the NRA had it’s way there would be far fewer “gun free” areas and far fewer mass shootings.
Suppose the gun references were replaced with Jewish symbols and organizations. What would be the future of this artist then? The right to keep and bear arms is a specific enumerated right. Politicians who advocate the infringement of that right violate their oath of office and do not deserve to hold public office. They should be prosecuted under 18 USC 242. Being kicked out of office is being far too kind and sets a poor example.
And, yes, the ejection port is on the wrong side of the pistol.
You say that like it was a bad thing.
This is the last of the series on the NRA proposal to open a theme store in Times Square. At least it is the last one I have in my current collection.
I have a total 52 cartoons left in my collection but that doesn’t mean
I will be done in that many days. Three weeks ago another blogger asked
how many more I had because they wanted to link to the entire set. At that time I had 50 left. It seems each time I go looking there are lots more I hadn’t seen. If I get a chance I will go looking for more tonight with the specific intent to find all that are related to the NRA theme store proposal.
For some reason I find this funny even though I find it an offensive statement about gun ownership.
I suppose it might be because it appeals to my appreciation for understated and sick jokes (my collection is here).
Apparently the artist hasn’t spent any time at, or even looked at the crime rates, at gun ranges and stores. Facts are irrelevant to bigots.
