DOWNLOADS: (134)

PLAYS: (877)

Embed

The chairman of Gun Appreciation Day may be taking "Django Unchained" a little too seriously.

Larry Ward on Friday told CNN that he created the first annual Gun Appreciation Day just days before President Barack Obama's inauguration and the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday to "honor the legacy of Dr. King" and that slavery may never have happened in the United States if African-Americans had owned guns.

In a press release earlier this week, Ward called on gun owners to turn out "en masse at gun stores, ranges, and shows from coast to coast" on January 19. And he explained to The Blaze that the event should “strike the fear of God in the gun-grabbing politicians."

United for Change USA founder Maria Roach, who created a petition opposing Gun Appreciation Day, confronted Ward during a Friday appearance on CNN over the timing of his event.

"There are common sense, sensible ways to exercise your Second Amendment rights, and then there's theater," she explained. "I think too much of the argument and the discussion and the discourse this week is focused on just theater, ways that organizations are looking to fund raise and build their membership."

"I'd like to address the Martin Luther King Day charge," Ward replied. "I believe that Gun Appreciation Day honors the legacy of Dr. King."

He added: "The truth is, I think Martin Luther King would agree with me if he were alive today that if African Americans had been given the right to keep and bear arms from day one of the country's founding, perhaps slavery might not have been a chapter in our history. And I believe wholeheartedly that's essential to liberty."

Roach pointed out that Ward's argument was ridiculous because "slavery means that you are a possession just like a gun."

"So to say that if slaves had been armed -- that's just theater," she remarked. "There is selfish, self-serving intent in a Gun Appreciation Day. I've spoken to thousands of people, they are outraged that you would plan your event two days before an American icon -- a day that we celebrate nationally -- who was murdered, he was slain by a rifle."

"I think we need to step back and really question, what is the intent of these Gun Appreciation Days? Why not appreciate victims? Why not appeciate the Second Amendment? But Gun Appreciation Day is really a power play."

DOWNLOADS: (94)

PLAYS: (214)

Embed

Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney warned voters on Wednesday that President Barack Obama might eventually curb the rights of gun owners since he is also requiring all health insurers to cover contraception for women.

A man at an event in Fargo, North Dakota asked the candidate how he would "protect our right to the Second Amendment and our right to bear arms."

"I like all the amendments," Romney replied. "And I like the Second Amendment. And I like the Constitution. It is my blueprint and I will protect the right to bear arms in this country for any lawful purpose -- self protection, hunting, what ever purpose people have. I have a couple of guns myself. Shotguns, that is."

"I know there will be an attack on the Second Amendment, just as there was recently attack on the First Amendment," the former Massachusetts governor asserted. "Obamacare is interpreted by this administration to say, for instance, to the Catholic Church that they have to provide to the employees -- let's say universities that are in the Catholic Church -- they have to provide to them sterilization treatment free, contraceptives and morning-after pills. And that violates the conscience of the church, the conscience of the individuals. And fortunately, there is an effort in Washington to stop that, to reverse that."

"But this is a president, I agree, who is attacking the principles of the Constitution: the First Amendment, the Second Amendment and there will be more. And by the way, the Tenth Amendment is the one most constantly under attack."

On Wednesday, Romney calmed the fears of one supporter in Ohio who worried that the candidate was going prevent gun owners from protecting themselves from a “tyrannical government.”

DOWNLOADS: (627)

PLAYS: (1997)

Embed

Rocker and gun nut Ted Nugent has found a new cause in the Tea Party. Nugent went on Fox News' Hannity Friday to defend the movement and launched an attack on President Barack Obama.

"Everybody I hang with, the ranchers, the farmers, the cops, the teachers, the plumbers, everybody I hang with," said Nugent. "They want to be a productive member of society and then they see an administration that is spitting on the US Constitution, the Bill of Rights, the Ten Commandments, the Golden Rule."

"So, we the Tea Partiers, we the people who are speaking up," he continued.

"I'm going to quote my hero, Dr. Martin Luther King. 'We who engage in non-violent direct action are not the cause of tension, but rather, bringing to the surface a tension that already exists,'" he said.

"That's the job of we the people to be watchdogs and whistleblowers. The government works for us. They are absolutely out of control."

"The Tea Party, what I stand for, what you stand for, Sean, one big A-word: accountability," Nugent told Hannity.

"You, Sean Hannity and Fox News, represent by word and deed the pulse of the most productive and conscientious members of this American dream across the board and I bring you a salute and a thank you," said Nugent.

The 61-year-old rocker is also an outspoken advocate of the Second Amendment. In a recent Washington Times column, Nugent blasted Obama and the four Supreme Court justices who dissented in a landmark case that overturned gun laws in cities like Chicago.

"With the Mao Zedong fan club in the White House, a clueless, rookie president hellbent on spending like a maniac as unprecedented debt piles up all around him, and every other imaginable indicator of an America turned upside-down, it comes as no surprise that this insane level of madness has metastasized into a Supreme Court where the Bill of Rights is being trashed by clueless, dangerously insulated old people intentionally disconnected from the real world, where the possession of a firearm often means the difference between life and death for good, innocent Americans every day of the year," wrote Nugent.

DOWNLOADS: (724)

PLAYS: (699)

Embed

MSNBC's Chris Jansing talks to the NRA's Wayne LaPierre about the decision by the Supreme Court today that the Second Amendment right "applies equally to the federal government and the states".

Justices extend gun owner rights nationwide:

The Supreme Court held Monday that Americans have the right to own a gun for self-defense anywhere they live, advancing a recent trend by the John Roberts-led bench to embrace gun rights.

By a 5-4 vote, the justices cast doubt on handgun bans in the Chicago area, but signaled that some limitations on the Constitution's "right to keep and bear arms" could survive legal challenges.

Justice Samuel Alito, writing for the court, said that the Second Amendment right "applies equally to the federal government and the states."

The court was split along familiar ideological lines, with five conservative-moderate justices in favor of gun rights and four liberals opposed. Chief Justice Roberts voted with the majority.

...The ruling seemed unlikely to resolve questions and ongoing legal challenges about precisely what sort of gun control laws are permissible.

...Wayne LaPierre, executive vice president of the National Rifle Association, said his politically powerful group "will continue to work at every level to insure that defiant city councils and cynical politicians do not transform this constitutional victory into a practical defeat through Byzantine regulations and restrictions."

Of course LaPierre doesn't want any restrictions on gun ownership at all and compared anyone who does to someone wanting to restrict "the individual right of religion, or speech or the right to vote, or any other great fundamental core freedom we have as American citizens." I hate to break it to LaPierre but there are restrictions on our other Constitutional rights, but heaven forbid that might get in the way of his demagoguery.

DOWNLOADS: (789)

PLAYS: (2203)

Embed

Digby got this one right. "The total intellectual incoherence is what's unnerving."

Tyranny For Dummies:

Next time someone in a tri-corner hat starts waving the constitution in your face, ask them about today's Senate Homeland Security hearings, where the conservatives had a complete fit at Mayor Michael Bloomberg's complaint that people on the terrorist watch list can buy any gun they like and there's nothing anyone can do about it --- while at the same time they all thoughtfully pondered whether or not we should strip them of their citizenship. I'm not kidding.

Read on...

These people are destroying our country and the media's ready to help them right along as usual.

DOWNLOADS: (2478)

PLAYS: (4337)

Embed

Chris Matthews allows 2nd Amendment protesters Larry Pratt and Skip Coryell to dig their own hole while trying to get them to explain what freedoms are being taken away from them and what right the 2nd Amendment protects. The one thing that's obvious from watching them is that their irrational fears and blind hatred for the President has little to do with anyone taking away their guns.

For a reminder on who these guys are, here's what David Neiwert shared with us on Pratt back in August of 2009.

But then, that shouldn't be terribly surprising. As hate-group expert Brian Levin, the second guest, tries to explain, the GOA has a long history of right-wing extremism, dating back to the days in the 1980s when it was part of Willis Carto's white-nationalist operation. The main figure in all this was GOA's longtime and current leader, Larry Pratt.

Moreover, as the ADL explains, Pratt actually played a critical role in the formation of the militia movement in the 1990s:

In 1992, Larry Pratt, leader of a radical gun- rights group [the GOA] and an advocate of the formation of militias, issued a statement in the wake of the Rodney King riots urging the Los Angeles Police Department to "take advantage of what the Founding Fathers called the unorganized militia" in order to forestall further unrest. Many people initially joined the fledgling militia movement largely as a way to protect more aggressively their right to bear arms; even today, gun-related issues dominate many of the newsletters published by militia groups.

The SPLC has more on Pratt.

David Corn has this on Skip Coryell:

On April 19, an assortment of gun-rights groups will mount the Second Amendment March at the grounds of the Washington Monument. On the Web site for the march, its founder, Skip Coryell, calls it a "peaceful" event. But these folks, as the Violence Policy Center points out in a new report, are pushing a virulent strain of anti-government extremism that certainly could drive a body to take violent action.

Last month in an article for Human Events, a conservative magazine, Coryell noted that one aim of the march is to imply the threat of violence:

My question to everyone reading this article is this: "For you, as an individual, when do you draw your saber? When do you say "Yes, I am willing to rise up and overthrow an oppressive, totalitarian government?"

Is it when the government takes away your private business?

Is it when the government rigs elections?

Is it when the government imposes martial law?

Is it when the government takes away your firearms?

Now, don't get me wrong. I'm not advocating the immediate use of force against the government. It isn't time, and hopefully that time will never come. But one thing is certain: "Now is the time to rattle your sabers." If not now, then when?

... I understand that sounds harsh, but these are harsh times. ...

I hear the clank of metal on metal getting closer, but that's not enough. The politicians have to hear it too. They have to hear it, and they have to believe it.

Come and support me at the Second Amendment March on April 19th on the Washington Monument grounds. Let's rattle some sabers and show the government we're still here.

Notice that Coryell says he's not advocating the immediate use of force against the government. That sure makes it sound like he's revving up the gun-rights troops for possible rebellion down the road.

Transcript below the fold.

Continue reading »

From The Daily Show:

Wyatt Cenac exercises his constitutional rights to vote, drink and bring his gun to a health care reform rally.

DOWNLOADS: (143)

PLAYS: (488)

Embed

Chris Matthews asks Congressmen Jim Cooper and Phil Gingrey about the people bringing the guns to the town hall meetings and at least Cooper says he would discourage people from bringing them to the town hall meetings. Gingrey on the other hand defended it and says he feels perfectly safe at his town hall meetings and has no fear of anyone there with a gun. Well tough guy, if you were getting called Hitler and screamed at instead of applauded, maybe you'd feel a little differently about that.