It took less than a day for the DC Council to link the tragic shooting at the Holocaust Museum to that pesky Ensign Amendment. From an article in The Hill:“Today’s event should be a wake-up call for why we must work to fend off the controversial gun amendment that was most recently attached to the DC…Voting Rights Act, and will certainly resurface as part of future legislation,” said D.C. Councilman Michael Brown. “Loosening the District's gun laws is a deadly proposition.”Yes, because the hidden text buried deep within the Ensign Amendment makes it legal to go on armed rampages in support of the agenda of radical domestic terrorist organizations. I'm sure glad that the Hatch Amendment of 2000, which would have legalized crashing airplanes into buildings was never passed.
No, it gets better. Phil Mendelson decides to chime in with this piece of amazing logic:
“Congress needs no more evidence than today’s tragedy, which occurred blocks from the White House, for the justification of the District’s strict gun laws, which protect the President, Members of Congress, D.C, residents, and millions of tourists who travel to Washington, DC each year to visit monuments and other sites like the Holocaust Museum,” said D.C. Councilman Phil Mendelson in a statement.Oh man. I sure hope the mayor holds a commemoration ceremony for the anti-gun laws that took down the shooter at the Museum. While were at it, maybe we can stop wasting money on all of these All Hands On Deck weekends, because hey, we've got all these laws that make crimes like murder and robbery illegal. And hey, who needs the Secret Service, it's our gun laws that keep the President safe.
I mean, really, can't we at least wait until the body of the murdered guard is cold to start using him as a spokesperson for why Guns Are Bad(TM). The reality of this situation is that a cold blooded killer (from Maryland) came to DC with a gun and was intent on using it. No gun law was going to prevent him from committing that crime. Whether or not a DC resident has an easier time legally purchasing a weapon has nothing to do with whether terrorists will shoot people. I mean, the obvious lesson here is that we should not expect more out of politicians (not that we did).
Sadly, I don't think anyone in DC will be surprised to hear this.
Whether pro or anti-gun control, I hope most people have enough sense to realize that this tragedy has nothing to do with gun laws.
Agreed, but people will always use tragic events like this to justify their own agenda.
ReplyDeleteIt's no secret, either.
obviously. nothing in america is ever off-limits, not even for a day.
ReplyDeletei overheard that some insiders in the dc council are very concerned about this recent shooting and its link to jumbo slice pizza in adams morgan.
ReplyDeletelol@anon
ReplyDeleteTo be sure, there's no link between the district's gun laws and the crime, and to the limits of reason, there's no alternate laws that could have been enacted that would have prevented the tragedy.
But, if you could ask the shooter, he'd probably have a lot to say about gun laws across the board. I base that prediction on the pattern of nuttery emerging lately. Keith Luke, Dannie Baker, Richard Popalowski, Joshua Cartwright, Stephen Morgan, Scott Roeder...apparently, many folks are concerned that the black helicopters are coming to take away their precious constitutionally-protected proud-white-way-of-life-defending assault rifles.
We are going to get posts on how being a prime target for domestic terrorism makes us hate the city even more, right?
People need to just band together and amend the constitution so that there's no more "well wtf did they mean when they wrote the 2nd amendment."
ReplyDeleteBut a politicized amendment will never pass, especially not in today's political world. If the ERA couldn't get passed, there's no way a gun control amendment would get passed.
There's no point in posting about how we hate the city because we're a target of terrorism. Most people (especially bloggers these days) probably don't remember the sniper attacks... but those sorts of things generally give us that whole "band together and not hate the place" sort of warm-fuzzies. Unless you're zigzagging.
THANK YOU. Some of my friends, people I consider otherwise intelligent (well, other than having me as a friend) immediately reacted to this by saying "this is why we need stronger gun laws!" Uh, no, that wouldn't help situations like this. >:/
ReplyDeleteDC's gun control laws suck. Law abiding citizens should have every right the blow the head off of some idiotic thug mugger. Kill a few of 'em and see if they keep coming at you.
ReplyDeleteThat was a great report but you forgot to mention the Metro system. Wasn't it late today? Wasn't it crowded? Doesn't it suck? Were the operators stupid?
ReplyDeleteYeah...well these same gun law debates resurfaced after VT and other such shootings, so its not unique to DC. So yet again, this blog simply affirms the idea of "confirmation bias."
ReplyDeleteA case of blowing one comment out of proportion and seeing what you want to see and looking for any reason to hate DC.
Congrats Dave, you're pretty much on the same level as M@.
@Anon,
ReplyDeleteThe difference here is that surprisingly the outrage was not led by the public, or even by any sort of pro-gun control lobbying group. After the VT shooting there was some nationwide discussion of the need to close loopholes that let crazy people buy guns, and that was probably a fair discussion.
The thing about this is, DC politicians aren't even good at grandstanding on a 'cause.' In this case they just look like idiots because the proposed Ensign amendment would have absolutely no impact on crazy people from outside DC buying guns and bringing them to DC to shoot at people. And also, there's been little or no 'outrage' by citizens in DC saying "look, this is why we need more gun control." Because it doesn't make any sense.
mat is bitter. how surprising.
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
ReplyDeleteA. DC's municipal politicians are ingrats.
ReplyDeleteB. DC's gun control laws are idiotic.
C. Didn't the guy use a long gun? You know, the kind of gun that has always been LEGAL IN DC ANYWAY (provided you keep it unloaded and locked in a separate case from the ammo just in case it decides to jump up by itself and start shooting).
You said "ingrats."
ReplyDeleteYou deserve to be governed by them.
Glad to see comment deletion is now practised on Matt but never the anon idiots that left offensive comments here, way to go that douchebag Dave!
ReplyDelete