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From the very moment he was elected, right-wingers have been waiting, hoping, and watching anxiously for President Obama to take some kind of action -- any kind of action -- relating to guns. Just so they can start screaming, "He's trying to take away our guns!!!! Lock and load!!! Molon labe!!!"

Of course, he's done nothing. Nada. Zippo.

Which means they're now forced to just make stuff up.

This is never a problem for the paranoid, gun-toting right anyway. It's what they do.

Lou Dobbs was out leading the parade last night:

DOBBS: A record 1 million background checks on gun sales were completed by the FBI in the month of August alone. Those numbers show that gun owners are increasingly concerned that the Obama administration is on a mission to restrict Second Amendment rights in this country.

Supporters of those rights gathered in St. Louis over this weekend to fight attempts to strip Americans of their right to keep and to bear arms. Bill Tucker with our report.

And what exactly is the source of that fear? Um, well ...

TUCKER: Ask them why, and they recall the words of Attorney General Eric Holder on the need to ban assault weapons to help reduce drug violence in Mexico.

They point to the president's regulatory czar, Cass Sunstein, who personally is not just opposed to hunting, but said back in 2007 it should be banned. Or they will point to the president's consistent voting record for gun control, both in the Senate and back in Illinois.

Nor do these gun rights enthusiasts trust the newest Supreme Court justice, who in her only ruling on gun rights said the Second Amendment could only be applied to the federal government.

Hmmm. This sounds like almost exactly the same charges the NRA has been peddling since January, and yet the Obama administration has not acted on guns in any fashion.

The only new thing is the bit about Cass Sunstein, the demonization of whom began with Glenn Beck and has now spread to Dobbs' show. Dobbs and Tucker delve this in more detail:

TUCKER: All of them, of course, united under the banner of securing their Second Amendment right to keep and bear arms. For his part, the president does say he respects the constitutional right and promised that he will "protect the rights of hunters and other law- abiding Americans to purchase, own, and transport, and use guns."

But gun activists remain skeptical -- Lou?

DOBBS: I mean, the attorney general, Eric Holder, has said "They just want to do a few things with the Second Amendment." And the czar here, Cass Sunstein -- I mean, what's his deal?

TUCKER: He's a vegetarian, and he believes that hunting ought to be banned.

DOBBS: So, he's not big on hunting.

TUCKER: He's not big on hunting at all. But he has openly supported the right of animals to sue. He believes animals ought to have rights...

DOBBS: I'm sorry, repeat that again?

TUCKER: He believes animals should have rights, which would include the right to sue if they have been mistreated.

DOBBS: If they were hunted.

TUCKER: Or I guess hunted.

DOBBS: If they were hunted -- really?

TUCKER: I can't explain it, Lou, I'm just telling you.

DOBBS: I just think we should let this sort of percolate, because, presumably, the president knows this man, knows who he put there...

TUCKER: Yes.

DOBBS: ... as the regulatory czar over guns. That's truly, truly interesting.

Thank you very much, Bill Tucker.

TUCKER: You're welcome.

Cass Sunstein, the regulatory czar over guns? Not exactly. And by "not exactly," we mean, "not even remotely related to the truth."

Sunstein has been nominated to head up the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs, whose role it is to review draft regulations under Executive Order 12866; additionally, "OIRA reviews collections of information under the Paperwork Reduction Act, and also develops and oversees the implementation of government-wide policies in the areas of information technology, information policy, privacy, and statistical policy."

Guns are nowhere near this picture, except hypothetically (it would be possible, as a matter of conjecture, that Sunstein's office would review the efficacy of proposed gun regs coming out of the ATF). And that's it. That's the entire "connection" here.

But hey, don't worry, Lou. When the next Richard Poplawski kills three cops because he was afraid Obama was gonna take his guns away, we'll know who to thank.

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Isn't this special? Even Ed Henry was flustered by these people openly carrying assault rifles and other guns outside of an Obama rally in Phoenix, AZ. As Henry stated, this is legal, but at what point does the Secret Service get involved and say, you know what if you've got a weapon out in the open with these crowds, it's time for you to go?

These are not concealed weapons. They are being carried out in the open where maybe someone who doesn't have a permit or own the gun could take the gun away from the person carrying it and shoot people in the crowd. I would love for someone who knows something about what the conceal and carry laws are in Arizona to explain to me why this is legal? It just looks down right irresponsible to me to be carrying an unconcealed, loaded weapon in a crowd even if you do have a right to carry it.

And for the record, I'm not some anti-gun zealot. I have no problem with those that own and handle guns responsibly. My husband hunts and we've got a safe full of guns at our home. That said, if he brought one of them loaded into a crowd like these people did and had it right out in the open where anyone might take it away from him, I don't think we'd be married any more. I think it is completely irresponsible and if the gun laws in Arizona allow this, there's something wrong with their laws.

Transcript below the fold.

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As I was pleased to note last night in an update, pressure from the Netroots was instrumental in getting Sens. McCaskill (D-MO) and Specter (D-PA) to come out against the Thune Amendment, an assault on federalism, personal security and the proposition that Dems might actually stand up for something.

The vote is at noon. Keep your calls coming, as we are on the cusp of wining this one and saving countless lives, not to mention shutting down a key element of the right-wing machine in DC: The NRA.

Here are your numbers once again:

Those whose minds need to be changed

Bayh (D IN) 202-224-5623
Bennet (D CO) (202) 224-5852
Collins (R ME) (202) 224-2523
Conrad (D ND) (202) 224-2043
Feingold (D WI) 202/224-5323
Hagan (D NC) 202-224-6342
Landrieu (D LA) (202)224-5824
Lincoln (D AR) (202) 224-4843
McCain (R- AZ) (202) 224-2235
Pryor (D-AR) (202) 224-2353
Reid (D – NV) 202-224-3542
Snowe (R – ME) (202) 224-5344
Udall (D – NM) 202-224-6621
Udall (D – CO) 202-224-5941
Voinovich (R- OH) (202) 224-3353
Warner (D – VA) 202-224-2023
Webb (D –VA) 202-224-4024

Those we must hold:

Kohl (D – WI) (202) 224-5653
Klobuchar (D – MN) 202-224-3244
Nelson (D - FL) 202-224-5274

UPDATE: (Nicole) The Thune Amendment, which needed 60 votes to pass, went down 58-39) Thanks to all who called. Nice to see we can beat the NRA.

Full disclosure: I have been hired to work with Mayors Against Illegal Guns on this effort, and couldn't be happier or more passionate about it.

In spite of all that voluminous airspace on Fox News that was devoted to promoting and then reporting on the 'Tea Parties' on April 15, I'll be willing to wager that they won't ever include this in their reports:

Oklahoma Man Arrested for Twittering Tea Party Death Threats

In a series of tweets beginning April 11, CitizenQuasar vowed to start a “war” against the government on the steps of the Oklahoma City Capitol building, the site of that city’s version of the national “Tea Party” protests promoted by the conservative-leaning Fox News.

“START THE KILLING NOW! I am willing to be the FIRST DEATH!,” read a tweet at 8:01 PM that day. “After I am killed on the Capitol Steps, like a REAL man, the rest of you will REMEMBER ME!!!,” he added five minutes later. Then: “Send the cops around. I will cut their heads off the heads and throw the[m] on the State Capitol steps.”

Hayden’s MySpace page is a breathtaking gallery of right wing memes about the “New World Order,” gun control as Nazi fascism, and Barack Obama’s covert use of television hypnosis, among many others.

Here's a sampler of his tweets:

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Yesterday on MSNBC's Morning Joe, Pennsylvania Gov. Ed Rendell -- a longtime advocate of gun-control laws -- offered a straightforward assessment of the prospects for passing any new restrictions or reforms anytime soon.

The upshot:

-- No one is going to be tackling this issue for the foreseeable future -- not until we fix the economy, the health-care system, and our energy problems.

-- Eventually there will be a conversation about this, somewhere down the road.

-- It would be nice to have a rational conversation about this.

Well, fat chance of that. But there's no doubt Rendell's proposals make a lot of common sense -- especially when, as Rendell notes, our police are outgunned by drug-running thugs using AK-47s. They're limited in scope (no confiscations, for example) and targeted to sensible approaches to real problems.

But try telling that to the Richard Poplawskis of the world.

E.J. Dionne has some further thoughts.

President Obama said he's still for the "assault weapons" ban, but he knows it will be difficult to get passed. Well, duh? I know the freak-show teabaggers will get armed if you make this a priority, but some things that are difficult must be acted upon.

Listen, I want him to get universal health care first and foremost, but he has a chance to move the ball forward here. He should tread carefully, because every police officer is a bit nervous right now, but don't wimp out altogether.

Q Thank you, Mr. President. Thank you, Mr. President, as well. President Obama, as a candidate for your office, you said that you wanted to see the assault ban weapon -- the ban on assault weapons reinstated. Your attorney general has spoken in favor of this. Mexican officials have also spoken in favor of it. But we haven't heard you say that since you took office. Do you plan to keep your promise? And if not, how do you explain that to the American people?

And, President Calderón -- I'm sorry, if I may -- would you like to see this ban reinstated? And have you raised that today with President Obama? Thank you.

PRESIDENT OBAMA: Well, first of all, we did discuss this extensively in our meetings. I have not backed off at all from my belief that the gun -- the assault weapons ban made sense.

And I continue to believe that we can respect and honor the 2nd Amendment rights in our Constitution, the rights of sportsmen and hunters and homeowners who want to keep their families safe to lawfully bear arms, while dealing with assault weapons that, as we now know, here in Mexico, are helping to fuel extraordinary violence -- violence in our own country, as well.

Now, having said that, I think none of us are under any illusion that reinstating that ban would be easy. And so, what we've focused on is how we can improve our enforcement of existing laws, because even under current law, trafficking illegal firearms, sending them across a border, is illegal. That's something that we can stop.

And so our focus is to work with Secretary Napolitano, Atty. Gen. Holder, our entire Homeland Security team, ATF, border security, everybody who is involved in this, to coordinate with our counterparts in Mexico to significantly ramp up our enforcement of existing laws.

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From 60 Minutes April 12, 2009 Sen. Dianne Feinstein on support for the renewal of the assault weapons ban.

"You have lots and lots of Democrats who got support from the NRA this time, and so they agree with the NRA. They'll vote with the NRA," Stahl told Feinstein.

"I'm not going to disagree with that at all," the senator replied.

She admits she's facing daunting opposition. "The National Rifle Association essentially has a stranglehold on the Congress."

Asked if anybody from the Democratic Senate leadership or from the administration has asked her to back off, Feinstein said, "No. Nobody said a word to me."

And what about President Obama, who NRA supporters like to call the great "gun grabber"?

His Web site says he wants to make "the expired federal assault weapons ban permanent," but the White House doesn't seem to be interested in bringing it up - any time soon.

"There's some sense that the president has so many crisis issues on his plate right now that the idea of bringing up guns - which is considered part of the Culture Wars - would be such a diversion," Stahl told Feinstein.

"I agree with you. I wouldn't bring it up now," she replied.

Feinstein said she's going to hold off, for now, but vowed she would eventually push the issue. "I'll pick the time and the place, no question about that," she told Stahl.

You can watch the rest of the segment here: Gun Sales: Will The "Loophole" Close? From the article:

Just in the last four weeks, there have been at least eight separate deadly shooting sprees all across the country. Some of this can be linked to the recession since several of the gunmen had lost their jobs.

The recession is having an effect in another surprising way: in past downturns, people stocked up on things like canned soups. But this time, it's guns.

Even as the stock market has plummeted, shares in Smith & Wesson have nearly quadrupled since November, and sales of guns are going through the roof.

Here's a memo to FOX News and all those afraid President Obama will take away their guns: It ain't happening. Watch AG Eric Holder be as evasive as he can as he responds to questions by Couric on the CBS Evening News over putting a tighter clamp on guns being sold through gun shows and assault weapons.

KATIE COURIC: What about reinstating the assault weapons ban and closing the gun show loophole? Do you think that will stop the flow of weapons to the U.S?

ERIC HOLDER: Well, I think the thing we need to do is come up with those things we can do right away. And we're gonna be moving 100 ATF agents to the border. About 26 DEA agents to the border. And that will happen over the next 30 days or so. And I think that will have a pretty dramatic impact on reducing the flow of weapons into Mexico.

(TRACK) But the guns being purchased and used in the US has also become front and center, given that a recent series of mass shootings from southern Alabama sound up to upstate New York have killed 57 people. While The Attorney General said he supported reinstating the assault weapons ban during his confirmation hearing, he's been silent on the subject since.

KATIE COURIC: Did someone tell you to back off?

ERIC HOLDER: No one's told me to back off. I understand the Second Amendment. I respect the Second Amendment.

KATIE COURIC: It's been reported that Democrats on Capitol Hill are getting increasingly chummy with the NRA and receiving more campaign contributions from that organization than in previous years. And nobody wants to get the NRA riled up. Has this become political at all?

ERIC HOLDER: No, I don't think it has. In fact, I look forward to working with the NRA to come up with ways in which we can use common-sense approaches to reduce the level of violence that we see…in our streets and make the American people as safe as they can possibly be.

KATIE COURIC: What about gun shows? In over 30 states, people can simply walk into gun shows and buy a gun, sometimes, from unlicensed dealers without a background check. Would you support closing the gun show loophole?

ERIC HOLDER: Well, again, these are issues that we'll have to discuss. The president will be the one who will ultimately set policy. Things that are politically saleable and things that will ultimately be effective.

KATIE COURIC: Does the closing the gun show loophole fall into those categories?

ERIC HOLDER: Well, that'll be one of the things I'll talk about with the president.

Riiiight, the NRA will work with the president and the AG to figure out new ways to slow down gun sales in America and help this country battle a very pressing problem. Did they already legalize marijuana and I missed it? Yes, if he said he was going to shut down the gun shows, then the NRA would flip out and so would potentially thousands of militia members, so maybe this was the best we could hope for. But mainstream America doesn't even know that you can buy a gun at a show without a background check. How about educating Americans a little better on this subject?

Here's a famous Rolling Stone article from 1999 called:

How They Got the Guns:

The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms, which issues Federal Firearms Licenses, is forbidden from inspecting the 104,000 licensed gun dealers more than once a year. Notorious gun-law violators, known as dirty dealers, are well-protected by this rule. The ATF is also specifically prohibited from compiling a registry of gun owners or gun data. Congress, under pressure from the gun lobby, annually reminds the beleaguered agency in the appropriations bill that it cannot keep detailed records. Lack of manpower further hampers the bureau's investigations. "The ATF is smaller than a lot of municipal police departments — it desperately needs more personnel," says David Kennedy, a senior researcher at the Harvard University John F. Kennedy School of Government.

Meanwhile, licensed dealers conduct only sixty percent of all gun transfers in their stores (gun sales total $2 billion to $3 billioÈ a year). Most private transfers occur through inheritance or take place in the wild kingdom known as gun shows, where Branch Davidian leader David Koresh, Oklahoma City bomber Timothy McVeigh and serial killer Thomas Lee Dillon all felt at home, where swastika flags may not raise an eyebrow and where all of the guns used in the Littleton massacre were purchased...read on

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We're gathering more information about Richard Polawski, the 23-year-old man who decided to kill three Pittsburgh police officers and wound three others because it appears he was afraid they -- at the behest of the Obama administration -- were going to take his guns away. (Dude, they definitely are now.)

Seems he was laying in wait in a carefully planned ambush:

Richard Poplawski, 23, met officers at the doorway and shot two of them in the head immediately, Harper said. An officer who tried to help the two also was killed.

Poplawski, armed with an assault rifle and two other guns, then held police at bay for four hours as the fallen officers were left bleeding nearby, their colleagues unable to reach them, according to police and witnesses. More than 100 rounds were fired by the SWAT teams and Poplawski, Harper said.

And he was paranoid about the Obama administration taking people's guns away -- even though, of course, there have been no indications of any such plans beyond NRA rantings:

Poplawski feared "the Obama gun ban that's on the way" and "didn't like our rights being infringed upon," said Edward Perkovic, his best friend.

Perkovic, 22, said he got a call at work from him in which he said, "Eddie, I am going to die today. ... Tell your family I love them and I love you."

Perkovic said: "I heard gunshots and he hung up. ... He sounded like he was in pain, like he got shot."

Poplawski had once tried to join the Marines, but was kicked out of boot camp after throwing a food tray at a drill sergeant, Perkovic said.

Dennis Roddy at the Post-Gazette has more:

Friends described a Richard Poplawski far different from the 22-year-old man accused of gunning down three police officers today -- a partier sometimes, a guy in search of an understanding of politics, even a walking comedian.

He was also convinced that the government wanted to take away his guns and his freedom.

There are bits about him out on the Internet. There are the MySpace photos, like the one above. He also seems to have co-created an "Insane Ownage" video for You Tube.

Perhaps just as interesting are the views of Poplowski's much-quoted "best friend," Edd Perkovic, whose MySpace page, as Troll Report notices, is rich anti-Semitic hate talk like this:

DOCUMENTS I RECCOMEND YOU READ BY GOOGLE: "Civil War II" by Tom Chittum "The Protocols of the Elders of Zion" "The Turner Diaries" by Dr. William Pierce "Jewish Supremacy" by Dr. David Duke It Has Even Been Documented In The Communist Manifesto: "“We must realize that our party’s most powerful weapon is racial tension. "By propounding into the consciousness of the dark races that for centuries they have been oppressed by the whites, we can mold them to the program of the Communist Party. "In America we will aim for subtle victory. While inflaming the Negro minority against the whites, we will endeavour to instill in the whites a guilt complex for their exploitation of the Negros. "We will aid the Negros to rise to prominence in every walk of life, in the professions, and in the world of sports and entertainment.

Meanwhile, Fox also interviewed Tom Moffit, who was a neighbor of Poplawski's. He apparently believed that Poplawski was acting out of gun paranoia as well.

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Watch Glenn Beck much and you're going to get whiplash.

Like his show yesterday on Fox News: Shortly after appealing to the public not to get all hysterical and overwrought about the AIG Bonus Scandal, Glenn Beck got all hysterical and overwrought with Wayne LaPierre of the National Rifle Association about Obama's evil plot to take away our guns.

Of course, this back-and-forth tone shift comes on the heels of Beck's overtly populist appeals to torches and pitchforks that have largely characterized his first couple of months working the audiences at Fox -- alongside the apocalyptic shrieking, weeping, and teeth-gnashing.

But the gun-grabbing segment yesterday was also a big about-face for Beck: Beck and LaPierre worked themselves into a fine frenzy over President Obama's eeeeevil plans for taking away Americans' guns -- no doubt just the first steps that will eventually lead to eradicating the Second Amendment, rounding up gun owners and placing them in FEMA camps, and installing a blue-helmeted United Nations dictatorship in America.

What's inspiring the recent gun moves? Drug-gang violence on the Mexican border. Yet for much of the past month, Glenn Beck has been bugging his eyes out and flecking his camera lenses with spittle, warning Americans about the doom about to descend on them because of the violence on that border. So when the government pays attention to the problem and tries to find practical solutions, Beck attacks that.

A Fox News piece outlines the issue, as the wingnuts see it:

Continue reading »

Before Election Day, the NRA was doing what it always does: Raising the specter of the liberal bogeyman -- you know, the Incipient Dictator Who Wants To Take Your Guns Away -- in the person of Barack Obama. See, for instance, this ad.

So it shouldn't really be a big surprise that, after the election, one of the only segments of the retail economy that did well was in guns:

Weapons dealers in much of the United States are reporting sharply higher sales since Barack Obama won the presidency a week ago.

Buyers and sellers attribute the surge to worries that Obama and a Democratic-controlled Congress will move to restrict firearm ownership, despite the insistence of campaign aides that the president-elect supports gun rights and considers the issue a low priority. Video Watch shoppers snap up guns of all types »

According to FBI figures for the week of November 3 to 9, the bureau received more than 374,000 requests for background checks on gun purchasers -- a nearly 49 percent increase over the same period in 2007. Conatser said his store, Virginia Arms Company, has run out of some models -- such as the AR-15 rifle, the civilian version of the military's M-16 -- and is running low on others.

Such assault weapons are among the firearms that gun dealers and customers say they fear Obama will hit with new restrictions, or even take off the market.

There is also a racial component to these fears, which surfaces in attitudes like those voiced in this NYT piece about the decline of the South's political influence:

"I am concerned," Gail McDaniel, who owns a cosmetics business, said in the parking lot of the Shop and Save. "The abortion thing bothers me. Same-sex marriage."

"I think there are going to be outbreaks from blacks," she added. "From where I'm from, this is going to give them the right to be more aggressive."

But mostly, this is paranoia about gun ownership whipped up by the NRA:

Continue reading »

AP via YahooNews: 

The Supreme Court says Americans have a right to own guns for self-defense and hunting, the justices' first major pronouncement on gun rights in U.S. history.

The court's 5-4 ruling strikes down the District of Columbia's 32-year-old ban on handguns as incompatible with gun rights under the Second Amendment. The decision goes further than even the Bush administration wanted, but probably leaves most firearms laws intact.[..]

The basic issue for the justices was whether the amendment protects an individual's right to own guns no matter what, or whether that right is somehow tied to service in a state militia.

Justice Antonin Scalia, writing for four colleagues, (.pdf) said the Constitution does not permit "the absolute prohibition of handguns held and used for self-defense in the home."

In dissent, Justice John Paul Stevens wrote that the majority "would have us believe that over 200 years ago, the Framers made a choice to limit the tools available to elected officials wishing to regulate civilian uses of weapons."

He said such evidence "is nowhere to be found."

This week has been filled with news of shootings. We had nine people killed in the Nebraska shopping mall, seven people killed in two separate shootings at Colorado religious establishments, and even a fight breaking out that turned into a shooting match at a Columbus mall. Not very festive news for the most festive time of the year.

All this has had me thinking about the FISA debate when proponents of the warrantless wiretapping were quick to argue it was necessary to give up freedoms for security. Would these same people apply that argument to the second amendment instead of the fourth? I think we all know the answer on that. Perhaps the next time a Republican Senator says that we should give up freedoms for security when it comes to listening in on phone calls, then he should be asked about giving up the right to bear arms as a way to protect us in church or at the local mall. Let's see how quickly the subject changes then.

By NICHOLAS D. KRISTOF

ERIDIAN, Idaho — If you've been longing for your very own assault rifle and 30-round magazine for the next holiday season, you're in luck.

President Bush, sidestepping a promise, is allowing the ban on assault rifles and oversized clips to expire on Sept. 14. So at a gun store here in Meridian, a bit west of Boise, the counter has a display promising "2 FREE HIGH-CAPACITY MAGAZINES."

All you have to do is purchase a new Beretta 9-millimeter handgun and you'll receive two high-capacity magazines - on the condition, the fine print states, that the federal ban expires on schedule.

President Bush promised in the last presidential campaign to support an extension of the ban, which was put in place in 1994 for 10 years. "It makes no sense for assault weapons to be around our society," Mr. Bush observed at the time.

These days Mr. Bush still says that he'll sign an extension of the ban if it happens to reach his desk. But he knows that the only way the ban can be extended on time is if he actually urges its passage, and he refuses to do that. So his promise to support an extension rings hollow - it's not exactly a lie, but it's not the full truth, either.

Mr. Bush's flip-flop is surprising because he has generally had the courage of his convictions. Apparently he's hiding from this issue because it's so politically charged.