We need to start calling bullshit on these people.

Starting with bullshit like this:

There's Little We Can Do to Prevent Another Massacre

by Megan McArdle Dec 17, 2012 3:00 PM EST

That is a lie. There is a lot we could do. We could do what Australia did after the Port Arthur massacre. We could do what Britain does. There's lots we could do. There has just been very little that we have so far been willing to do.

And bullshit solutions, like the one that Ms McArdle suggests:

  I'd also like us to encourage people to gang rush shooters, rather than following their instincts to hide; if we drilled it into young people that the correct thing to do is for everyone to instantly run at the guy with the gun, these sorts of mass shootings would be less deadly, because even a guy with a very powerful weapon can be brought down by 8-12 unarmed bodies piling on him at once.

Holy shit! You want children rushing directly into the hail of gunfire? Because they're going to be able to somehow pile on top of him? Maybe this might work if he was firing some old-timey weapon that had to be  cocked and loaded between shots, but a Bushmaster AR-15 spits dozens of bullets in a matter of seconds. The kids would be mowed down like the beginning of Saving Private Ryan!

And we especially need to call bullshit on the NRA. And those politicians who support them. Like Joe Manchin:

Wed Dec 19, 2012 at 01:30 PM PST

Sen. Joe Manchin: 'I'm so proud of the NRA'

“These are my friends,” Manchin, who previously served as governor, said of the NRA. “They’re good people. They’re hurting. They’re in pain the same way as every American about what happened to these twenty little children. 

That is a lie. The NRA doesn't feel a goddamned thing about those dead children. If they did, they wouldn't have been fighting tirelessly to perpetuate the conditions that ensure that these sickening slaughters will happen again and again and again.

It's possible that the NRA may have at one time been a legitimate organization representing hunters and "sportsmen" who were concerned that guns might possibly be banned, but today they represent no one but weapons manufacturers and they care about nothing but those companies' profits.  They do not care how many innocents are killed. Check out this little chart from Think Progress. (link) Every time there's a gun massacre, the NRA responds by trying to increase the proliferation of guns.

You say they are "hurting?" Whenever there's a massacre like this, gun sales go through the roof. That's no coincidence. The NRA and their enablers exploit these tragedies to gin up more paranoia amongst the gun-toting community. Either you better get you some more guns so you can defend yourself against the maniacs, or you better get you some more guns before the evil guv'mint comes to take them away! Hurting? They're laughing all the way to the bank!

We need to stop pretending that the NRA is a legitimate advocacy group.  They don't even represent their own membership. About 3/4 of NRA members are in favor of closing the gun-show loophole, for instance. The NRA will fight tooth and nail to prevent this. Because all they care about is selling more guns. They Do Not Care how many people die as a result of their lunatic policies. They will turn this entire country into a Peckinpah film if it increases their profits.

We need to start treating NRA membership the same way we treat membership in the Klan. Any sane, decent person who is currently a member should be strongly encouraged to tear up their card, renounce their membership, and not give another red cent to these death mongers. We need to get to the point where NRA members are ashamed to admit it in decent company. We need to get to the point that an NRA bumper sticker is looked at with the same disgust and loathing as an Aryan Nations tattoo. We need to call bullshit on this entire gun culture. And it needs to start now.

Why Isn't This A Bigger Story?

A "Minuteman" leader is on trial for murdering a Mexican family. Why is this not front-page news? Maybe because there's no debate about whether this horrible evil woman is a member of the racist, nativist right-wing? There's no way for the right to plausibly distance themselves from her or claim that she is really a liberal?

"Minutemen" Member on Trial in Murder of Girl, 9

Shawna Forde, Leader of Fringe Militia Group, Accused of Killing Latino Man, Daughter in their Arizona Home

 

(CBS)  TUCSON - A woman went on trail Tuesday in Arizona accused of gunning down a 9-year-old girl and her father in their own home. The story was overshadowed by news of President Obama's big speech and by the other Arizona shooting which has gripped the nation, but it's no less shocking.  

Right, we can't be concerned with actual right-wing violence when there is violent rhetoric to be debated.

 

Here is what her brother has to say about her:

(from the Arizona Star)

Accused ringleader Shawna Forde told her family in recent months that she had begun recruiting members of the Aryan Nations and that she planned to begin robbing drug-cartel leaders, her brother Merrill Metzger said Monday in a telephone interview from Redding, Calif.

"She was talking about starting a revolution against the United States government," he said.

So why is this not a big story? Is it because the narrative has already been decided upon? The narrative that states that these "Minutemen" types, oh sure they may be a little eccentric, but basically, they're just a bunch of America-loving good-ole-boys who aren't hurting anyone, etc. etc. etc. Is that narrative so set in stone that to report on this racist murderer would just be more trouble than it's worth?