Hey Texas, Give This Guy All The Guns He Wants!

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Yahoo! Ride ’em cowboy! Shoot ’em up and get ‘er done! That’s what I say. Tell those namby pamyb libtards to stuff their gun control where the sun don’ shine.

You betcha, Texas, give this man all the guns he wants!

“The gunman who turned a Texas church into a shooting gallery had a turbulent past, including a court-martial from the Air Force for assaulting his first wife and child — and a habit of harassing ex-girlfriends.”

But, in Texas, of course you can have as many guns as you want! Who cares!

By the way, half the victims killed by Texas Gun Lover Devin Kelley were kids.

Those close to him were shocked and claim this is out of character, though one of his ex girlfriends was utterly unshocked. Also, I got a recommendation a few months ago for a contractor from for a very simple job, and the best he could do was 300% of the average cost. And, I’ve recently been to two business establishments with excellent reviews on Google and Yelp one of which was mediocre the other, basically, sucked. The lesson here is: recommendations, reviews, and opinions, by anybody of anything, are useless. Especially, it seems, about taco joints and gun nuts.

Texas Gun Nut Devin Kelley was court-martialed in the Air Force because of his violent behavior including against a child. Did I mention that he killed a dozen children in that Texas church? He was actually house-jailed in the military for a year for his behavior.

But hey, Texas, give the man all the guns he wants! Yahoo! Shoot ’em up!

Two of his ex girlfriends claim that Texas Gun Nut Devin Kelly is a stalker. One claims he tried to pay her to hang out with him, called her all the time, pranked her. She claims he would say things that were “very sick” and that she won’t repeat. And eventually, he assaulted her.

But seriously, Texas, you better give this stalky violent assaulter all the guns he wants! Yippe! Bang Bang!

When he was 18, he got himself a 13 year old girlfriend who now recalls being stalked by him after she broke off the relationship. She had to change her phone number over and over because he would not leave her alone.

This guy, Texas, needs a gun, don’t you think? Keep those 13 year old girls in line? And who doesn’t love the smell of gun metal and discharged powder, and the sound of expended shells clinking as they hit the ground until their sound shifts from ping ping to plop plop because they are now falling into pools of your victim’s blood! Yahoo!

He offered that same young girl, later on when he was married, a deal. I’ll take care of you, he said, if you move in with my wife and me, and all you have to do is remain topless. I suppose this helps explain this thing I may or may not have mentioned: He killed a dozen children in his shooting spree. Revenge, I suppose.

That’s the kind of guy I want to give all the guns he wants to! Yesireee! I should be a Texan, that idea feels so good.

It is still not clear if Kelly killed himself after his murder spree, or if he died of wounds inflicted by a Texas Good Old Boy with a Gun who happened on the scene.

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83 thoughts on “Hey Texas, Give This Guy All The Guns He Wants!

    1. A good guy with a gun occasionally does what is claimed. In this case, over 40 people were shot before any GGWAG effects happened, so I’m not impressed. There is evidence that GGWAG activity results in more injury rather than less, but mostly, to the actual GGWAG him/herself.

    2. I now see that the usual liars (daily caller, etc.) are saying that “a bystander with a gun stopped the church shooting” — completely misrepresenting the fact that this killer was heading from the church back to the car when the bystander appeared.

      Fake news from the right? What a surprise.

    3. There is evidence that GGWAG activity results in more injury rather than less, but mostly, to the actual GGWAG him/herself.

      Yes, but overwhelming amounts of data that show that aren’t important to the gun folks. The infinitesimal number of times the GGWAG (unwieldy abbreviation) actually occurs is all that matters.

  1. “This isn’t a guns situation,” Trump said, noting that a person in the crowd with a gun shot at the attacker and caused him to flee. “This is a mental health problem at the highest level. It’s a very, very sad event.”

    President Trump, after Sunday’s shooting, spouting ignorance (because that’s all he ever does).

    Feb 28, 2017: President Trump signs bill revoking checks on people with mental health issues buying guns.

    It is scary how much stupidity this jack-wad carries with him: it is scarier that there are so many people who agree with him (whether because they are also stupid or because they simply agree that anything done by a non-white president was bad).

  2. It is always sad when a crazy person goes on a shooting spree.

    We don’t know if he obtained the weapons used legally or illegally (as far as I know).

    He should not have been able to pass a background check (from what I have read).

    He was denied a permit to carry in Texas.

    It will be interesting to see how he obtained his weapons (legally or illegally).

    There is just not much you can do to stop a suicidal person from killing lots of people – with guns or even vehicles.

    That is the world we live in.

    I have not been able to determine when the neighbor with the rifle engaged the crazy person (inside the church or when he came out). So that will be interesting to find out also.

    I feel very sorry for all the people and families involved.

    But it may or may not be premature to blame Texas for this – we will have to wait and see how he obtained the weapons he used.

    1. It’s not Texas. It’s all you 2ndA cretins that are to blame. All you righwing nutters being played apparently unwittingly (because you are *idiots*) by the US gun industry and its monstrous front group the NRA.

      So, nice one, guys. The pile of corpses just got bigger again. Pat yourselves on the backs and keep on obstructing absolutely any gun controls whatsoever while bleating about the fucking 2nd A.

    2. You haven’t determined because, more than likely, you haven’t read any reports. He was outside the church, heading to his car.

    3. Greg:

      Well there you go.

      Now you can blame the Federal government instead of Texas.

      Because the background check is Federal.

      Obviously something went wrong there – as from what I read he should not have passed the background check.

      The State of Texas denied him the right to carry.

      So now you can blame the USA and the gun manufacturers.

      Me – I blame the guy pulling the trigger.

    4. Me – I blame the guy pulling the trigger.

      I blame you. You and every other rightwing half-wit who unwittingly shills for the US gun industry.

      You (along with the NRA-bought politicians and judges) are collectively responsible for the US gun industry being able to place profit over public safety while hiding behind a deliberately perverted interpretation of the 2ndA.

      That ever-growing heap of corpses in whose shadow you stand – that’s on you every bit as much as on the nutters in whose hands you helped to place the guns.

  3. But it may or may not be premature to blame Texas for this…

    Oh the stupid it Burns. It is not just Texas at fault is it now? It is the rotten culture promoted by the NRA and don’t come the ol’ Second Amendment crap, laws can be changed and this one needs to be.

    So the gun nuts could revolt. Take them to a desert area and let them shoot it out with the military, military in tanks. There you go, tank guns are bigger than yours.

  4. GGWAG more likely to be hurt. Also true of going to a hospital. You are more likely to die than the general population that doesn’t go to the hospital. So by all means stay safe by staying away from hospitals.

    1. So by all means stay safe by staying away from hospitals.

      Yes, do what you like, little, worthless people, so long as it in no way reduces the profits of arms manufacturers.

    2. GGWAG more likely to be hurt. Also true of going to a hospital. You are more likely to die than the general population that doesn’t go to the hospital. So by all means stay safe by staying away from hospitals.

      I’d like to think you are able to understand why that is stupid.

      I’d like to think you can, but I’m beginning to believe you are as clueless as rickA.

    3. Do you need RickA to explain this too?

      There is nothing to explain. The gun/hospital comparison is baseless. It is as stupid as the old “argument” that says because professional race car drivers drive fast and very few die speed on public highways isn’t a problem.

  5. It is kind of sad how so many always blame the tool and not the person wielding the tool.

    I have a hard time understanding that type of thinking – it is so foreign to me.

    Who is worse – the guy who made the gun or the guy who pulled the trigger?

    1. You blame the manipulated idiots and corporate-owned rightwing politicians and judges who put the tools in the hands of the murderers.

      What I don’t understand is the mentality of the scum who defend the actions of corporate-owned rightwing politicians and judges instead of excoriating them.

    2. I have a hard time understanding that type of thinking

      As you’ve repeatedly demonstrated, you should have stopped your comment where I truncated it and you should have omitted the words in bold.

      The issue is the dismissal of reasonable checks and balances on purchases: this guy was able to lie and get away with it because background checks have been eliminated — everything was based on the assumption that he was telling the truth.

    3. Poor Rickety, so condescending. Doesn’t get that being willfully obtuse is key to spreading motivated reasoning and faulty analogies amongst the suckers– i.e., those who confuse their destructive lifestyle with innate “values.”

      Or maybe he’s just indulging his inner troll. Again.

  6. “It is kind of sad how so many always blame the tool and not the person wielding the tool”

    What an utterly vacuous remark. If the tools weren’t so freely available as they are in the United States, then the persons responsible would be unable to carry out such random acts of carnage. I live in the Netherlands where said tools are extremely hard to obtain, and surprise! surprise!… mass killings like this are virtually unknown. I am sure that there are just as many potentially deranged people per capita here as in the US, but they are forced to use other weapons that do not leave a pile of victims in their wake.

    The NRA is the biggest domestic terrorist organisation in the US. When are those dumb 2ndA nutters going to wake up to that simple fact? Until they do, expect many, many more mass killings to occur.

  7. GL, when you get on the abortion abolition train, you can use the kids fatalities as some type of reasoning …

    When are we going to recognize that in order to be FREE, we will need to be armed?

    All the State’s Laws, and all the State’s men… couldn’t save these people. The State cannot keep you safe, and they’re increasingly uninterested in the task.When a man is driven to inflict pain on others, the State is no impediment. One must be prepared to defend oneself and the innocent who cannot defend themselves (see K Spacey).

    Churches, schools, hospitals, concerts, seriously soft targets and often made so by legislative language (yea, even the vaunted backstabbing NRA)

  8. I have no idea why you folks in the USA choose to live like this. The American solution (I suppose) is for everyone to bring a gun to church. In the rest of the first world this is not something you need to consider. Possibly in Sudan or Honduras they live like this, but you folks in the USA don’t really have to. This is something you’ve decided you want.

    From the outside looking in, it’s really hard to understand why.

    1. Layzej:

      It is no different than living in a country where anyone can drive an automobile into groups of people, to murder as many people as possible.

      The only difference is that guns cannot be banned because of the 2nd amendment in our constitution.

      But like automobiles – nobody would seriously propose banning them anyway.

      That is just something some people propose because of their psychology.

      In America we do not ban legal products – even when they kill.

      We do not ban tobacco, we do not ban alcohol (although we tried that), we do not ban cars, we do not ban knives, we do not ban bats, we do not ban golf clubs – even though all of these have been involved in deaths.

      Why is this?

      Because people want to buy them and have a legitimate need for these products.

      Moreover – guns are special in that the government cannot infringe the right of the people to keep and bear them.

      I do not see the government banning alcohol again – despite drunk driving.
      I do not see the government banning cars (or trucks) – despite drunk driving and/or the fact that some people
      use them as weapons of mass murder.

      And that is even though there is no constitution prohibition against banning these products (just common sense).

      But guns have even more protection than any other legal good in the USA and that is why we cannot ban guns without changing the constitution.

    2. The American solution (I suppose) is for everyone to bring a gun to church.

      Yes, some losers are suggesting exactly this — Texas’ Attorney General among them.

      In my hometown we have a pastor in an African American church pushing for more black men to carry guns for safety. Can’t imagine how wrong that will go with the tone America’s right has at the moment.

      What you’ll see is is people immediately jumping to the false argument that people upset by this push as the only solution “banning guns”, which is simply a bald faced lie by the right. They’ll also lie about the need for better checks on purchasing guns because — well, because they don’t have a logical argument.

    3. RickA: We do not ban tobacco, we do not ban alcohol (although we tried that), we do not ban cars,

      In the USA you have to be 21 (21!) to purchase alcohol. In 30 states, a child can legally own a gun. You have to be 18 to purchase tobacco, but a child can own a gun. You have to be 16 to drive, and you need a license as well. In many states no license is required to purchase, own, or carry a gun.

      You don’t need to ban guns. No country bans guns. Just apply some sensible level of oversight. Maybe approaching the oversight given to driving, drinking, and tobacco.

      Instead you’ve chosen a country where you need to scope out the exits and watch your back when you enter a public space. No thanks.

  9. Apparently the USAF failed to properly record his DD, allowing him to buy guns illegally without getting as easily caught.

    How did that happen? Favor? Incompetence? Bad database system?

  10. Pretty much everyone in the civilized world, so of late that does not include the USA, thinks Americans are absolutely bonkers, fucking insane as it were, for your gun fetish (also for electing Trump but that’s another matter)

    Apparently this sad, confused, mentally disturbed, guy was an atheist and got into lots of arguments over it. So naturally the religiously retarded are claiming that’s the reason he did this.

    Heard on the news on my way home that his in-laws go to that church and that he was having a fight with them. Don’t know, but imagine, they are among the victims.

  11. A new report on Monday shows that Texas gunman Devin Patrick Kelley was never added to a database that would have prevented him from purchasing a firearm.

    According to the Huffington Post, “The Air Force failed to record the Texas church shooter’s domestic violence conviction in a federal database that would have kept him from buying a gun.”

    http://www.politicususa.com/2017/11/06/air-force-mistake-allowed-texas-gunman-buy-weapon-kill-26-people.html

    There’s your answer on how he was able to buy a gun. Of course he could have just gone to an out of state gun show where background checks are not required and bought one. or bought one from an owner selling privately.,

  12. “While handgun licenses are a regulated part of Texas law, you do not need a license to carry a long gun, the gun that Kelley fired into the church. Moreover, there is no provision in the Texas Penal Code that prohibits carrying a long gun in public”

    It’s also worth noting that people have been trying to make some type of point by saying “but he was turned down for a license to carry a handgun in Texas”. Texas law states that even if you’ve bee turned down for a carry license you can still purchase handguns, and they don’t need to be licensed or registered. He had two in is car.

    The latest news is that his discharge was not a dishonest able discharge but some other category between honorable and dishonorable, and it would not have kept him from purchasing a gun the way a dishonorable discharge would (should) have.

    1. “Texas law states that even if you’ve bee turned down for a carry license you can still purchase handguns, and they don’t need to be licensed or registered. He had two in is car.”

      Thats friggen insane.
      Off topic. I did an induction yesterday with an Italian turbine commissioning bloke, whos last assignment was in the state of Texas and he reckoned Australian pollution
      controls for the hydrocarbon industry are way stronger here. Said he seen all kinds of uncontained muck.
      Get stuffed with that shit. We only get one biosphere.
      Fuck off yanks pissing in the pool. Arseholes.
      Really, its time to be adults now isnt it?

  13. >You have to be 18 to purchase tobacco, but a child can own a gun.

    I’ll be taking my boy to a store to ask, “Where is your children’s gun section?”

  14. There is a federal (I believe) age limit on purchasing guns, but no uniformity on age for owning guns.
    It also tend to be the case that laws restricting open carry of pistols exist but laws restricting open carry of long guns do not.

    1. Not so, at least here in Vermont. Long guns may not be loaded within 500 feet of any road or municipality.

  15. And the latest update from Michigan: two bills being pushed hard from our Republican politicians

    — Elimination of the requirement for concealed carry owners to have any training
    — Allowing anyone with a concealed carry license to have them in schools

    Just what is needed: more ignorant people who think crime is rampant carrying guns they don’t know how to use.

    1. Just what is needed: more ignorant people who think crime is rampant carrying guns they don’t know how to use.

      No, no, no, dean. You’re seeing it from the wrong perspective. Look at it as a matter of clearing away obstacles to future growth in the US arms industry. Then it all makes perfect sense. These concerns about training and what-have-you just aren’t core-relevant to making America great again.

    2. You could be correct BBD. After all, Michigan is the home of the governor who claims to have had no knowledge of the lead problems in Flint even though released emails from his office to state officials in Flint state they should not drink the water because of lead contamination. At the same time the state was shipping them (state employees) bottled water. At the same the were telling employees for the DEQ to test water at Flint households and throw away the samples with highest levels of contamination in order to keep the numbers down. And then had them sample from houses in areas of Flint where no problems had been reported (which, if the samples were to be kept separated and used for comparisons would have been fine0 and then use those samples in with the samples from troubled areas to keep the numbers down (which was not fine).

      This stuff is all in line with the usual crap our state puts up with.

    3. My earlier idea was to force every citizen to buy a gun (using the mandate idea used to mandate the purchase of health care). Then combine that with mandatory six weeks of basic training to teach everybody gun safety, how to shoot as safely as possible in a crowd (reactive fire), first aid and so forth.

      Sounds similar to the Michigan bill – going the other way.

    4. Sounds similar to the Michigan bill – going the other way

      No, it is even more asinine than what the Michigan bills would do, because at least the Michigan bills let sane people decide whether to buy or not, and doesn’t legalize ownership for those who shouldn’t be allowed to own guns.

      Are you really so stupid that you can’t realize having insurance is always a good thing but having guns is not always a good thing? And so stupid you think mandating any amount of gun safety for civilians would ever get by the right and the NRA?

    5. Dean asks “And so stupid you think mandating any amount of gun safety for civilians would ever get by the right and the NRA?”

      I was not aware that the right or the NRA were against gun safety.

  16. RickA makes another of his vacuous statements:

    It is kind of sad how so many always blame the tool and not the person wielding the tool.

    No RickA that is not the point being made as a careful read of the posts above would reveal, at least to a logical, balanced mind. It is the system which allows the proliferation of these weapons aided by poor regulatory frameworks based on a ‘stone age’ like legal decision made by those who never envisaged weapons with the power of those now available. Neither did these legislators envisage the ways in which society would become so fractured thus leading to mental instabilities and irresponsible actions.

    I have a hard time understanding that type of thinking – it is so foreign to me.

    Clearly. I have a hard time understanding how somebody with such poor logic skills and disabled moral thinking could practice as a lawyer. But then it is the ‘win’ which counts with some rather than the truth.

    1. It read to me like Greg was blaming Texas.

      I read BBD and Dean as blaming the NRA and gun manufacturers and anybody who supports the 2nd amendment.

      I blame the shooter. I don’t blame Texas, the gun manufacturers or 2nd amendment supporters.

      But we are all entitled to our opinion.

    2. Yes OA – we are all responsible for our own reading skills, memory, and social comprehension.

      I do like engaging with people outside my own bubble. I find it entertaining.

      Why do you post here? Do you not enjoy it?

      I think you should look to your own fault – namely your compulsive need to insult other people who have opinions which differ from your own. In your world, anybody who disagrees with you or your worldview has to be torn down, insulted, name called and denigrated. If you could push a button and hurt me, you would be pushing the button all the time. I find your behavior just as odd as you find mine.

      But at least I am polite!

    3. But at least I am polite!

      Ah, passive agressive tone-trolling. That smell…

      No amount of ‘politeness’ excuses the positions you take or your endless intellectual dishonesty. What’s more, I suspect you know how offensive you are to most people here and get a nasty little kick out of trolling them. That’s not polite either.

      So fuck off with your hypocrisy.

    4. I read BBD and Dean as blaming the NRA and gun manufacturers and anybody who supports the 2nd amendment.

      You do that because your first intent is (and always has been) to make statements designed to take focus off the issues. It’s the libertarian lack of integrity and honesty — which you’ve mastered.

  17. And RickA follows up with another vacuous statement, or is it?

    My earlier idea was to force every citizen to buy a gun (using the mandate idea used to mandate the purchase of health care). Then combine that with mandatory six weeks of basic training to teach everybody…

    That is really going to help keep guns out of the hands of people who decide they have a beef with another (group). Maybe those who cannot afford to buy a gun would have such a beef and borrow one to wreak havoc. Your idea has so many flaws I find it hard to understand how a supposedly intelligent person could come up with such tripe.

    Can you not see the lack of logic there RickA.

    Maybe this really is a case of your income being part reliant at least on sales from arms dealers and an alliance with the NRA. How else to explain your sales pitch, hence my, ‘or is it’?

    1. Lionel A:

      Yes – my proposal is a bit tongue in cheek.

      I made this proposal when we were arguing about the mandate on another thread. Liberals love the mandate – but I wanted to point out the danger of allowing the government to mandate what we have to buy. If the government can force you to buy health insurance they can force you to buy a gun.

      The government already has the power to draft people – so I use government force to solve the training problem.

      The scary thing is that the government could actually do this.

      In real life I am opposed to government mandates (both for healthcare and for gun buying).

      I make no money off the sale of guns (that I am aware of – maybe a mutual fund owns some gun company) and I am not a member of the NRA.

      My sales pitch is to get you to think – what if!

    2. “In real life I am opposed to government mandates (both for healthcare and for gun buying).”

      Well no, you aren’t, because a while back you explicitly supported government intervention forcing prices on renewable energy to be higher than fossil fuel energy prices — mandating people pay more.

    3. dean:

      I don’t remember that. Perhaps you could refresh my memory.

      Prices are higher for renewable because it costs more – not because the government is forcing the price higher.

      Not sure what you are even talking about.

  18. Here RickA try arguing against the numbers, all of them:

    Weapons are more powerful – and shoot faster

    The shooters have increasingly been using guns with high-capacity magazines, allowing them to fire off dozens of rounds without having to reload.

    “There are more people being shot in a shorter amount of time – with more bullets in them,” explained Harvard School of Public Health’s David Hemenway.

    Why are US mass shootings getting more deadly?

    1. Progress is a double edged sword.

      There are more traffic deaths than the horse and buggy days of yore.

      Why – because of greater kinetic energy!

      Progress. You have to take the good with the bad.

    2. Yet again, you defend the right of ordinary citizens to arm themselves with paramilitary weapons which are the key driver in the ever-increasing mortality rates per mass shooting.

      I would *love* to see you make this argument to the families of the bereaved. Really and truly I would.

    3. dean:

      I already did (assuming they read this blog).

      All I am saying is that to ban paramilitary guns (semi-automatic) you need to amend the 2nd amendment.

      Without amending the constitution, and law banning semi-automatic guns would be struck down.

    4. I already did (assuming they read this blog).

      What a vile, lying piece of shit you are.

      I do not assume that the families of the bereaved read this blog. And I meant face to face. You are a big mouth online, but I very much doubt you’d open it in front of the victims’ families because you know how that would go down.

  19. The rights of individuals to own and use guns for their personal protection has never been stronger and more specifically enumerated in the entire history of the United States. The only way to change that is to repeal the 2nd Amendment. That is not going to happen in the next twenty or even the next fifty years.

    Meanwhile, back in the ballot box, Republicans continue their stranglehold on American politics. If you want to keep electing more Republicans, keep up the self-righteous and ultimately self-defeating rhetoric about taking guns away from people. Karl Rove thanks you profusely – he get a little ejaculation every time another liberal dismisses the 2nd Amendment as irrelevant.

    “God, guns, and gays” has been one of the most successful Republican strategies. There has never been a worse time to hand them more elections on a platter. Never have I seen such selfish nihilistic stupidity. Grow the f**k up, people.

    Yes, mass shootings are horrible. But the vast amount of non-suicide gun violence in the states is drug and gang related. These mass shootings kill a few hundred people a year. Global warming is going to kill billions. We have a decade or two to avoid that. And to accomplish that, we need Democrats in office, not more Republicans. So, please, consider shutting the f**k up for a while. Keep your powder dry.

    1. Good advice Roger.

      I would also point out that many many gun deaths are suicides. I cannot remember the exact percentage, but I think it is over 1/2.

      Good points.

      On climate change – are you pro nuclear power?

    2. keep up the self-righteous and ultimately self-defeating rhetoric about taking guns away from people.

      Ah, a rightwing meme. Nobody’s talking about ‘taking away’ guns. Only about making the vetting process actually work. And yes, banning paramilitary assault rifles with high capacity magazines which have no civilian applications whatsoever.

    3. “no civilian applications whatsoever”, except the most recent one, BBD

      Okay, mass murder – there is that.

  20. Here’s a bit of history showing how common, even mandated, it was for people to bring arms to church: http://www.tulprpc.org/attachments/File/Colonial_Firearms_regulation.pdf

    The laws regulating firearms ownership adopted by the American colonies bear a strong resemblance to
    each other. This is not surprising, since by 1740, every colony bore allegiance to the English crown, and the
    laws reflected the shared heritage. The similarity in laws is especially noticeable with respect to the English duty of nearly all adult men to serve in the militia, and to bear arms in defense of the realm.
    A. Connecticut
    Among the Colonial militia statutes, Connecticut’s 1650 code contains one of the clearest expressions of
    the duty to own a gun: “That all persons that are above the age of sixteene yeares, except magistrates and
    church officers, shall beare arms…; and every male person with this jurisdiction, above the said age, shall have
    in continuall readines, a good muskitt or other gunn, fitt for service, and allowed by the clark of the band….”
    iv
    A less elaborate form of the law appeared in 1636, with reiterations in 1637, 1665, 1673, 1696, and 1741.
    v
    Fines varied between two and ten shillings for lacking firearms or for failure to appear with firearms
    “compleat and well fixt upon the days of training….”vi
    B. Virgina
    Virginia provides another example of a militia statute obligating all free men to own a gun. A 1684 statute
    required free Virginians to “provide and furnish themselves with a sword, musquet and other furniture fitt for
    a soldier… two pounds of powder, and eight pounds of shott….”
    vii
    A similar 1705 statute required every foot soldier to arm himself “with a firelock, muskett, or
    fusee well fixed” and gave him eighteen months to comply with the law before he would subject to fine.
    viii
    There are minor modifications to the statute in 1738 that still required all members of the militia to appear at musters with the same list of gun choices, but reduced the ammunition requirement to one pound of powder and four pounds of lead balls.
    ix
    A 1748 revision is also clear that militiamen were obligated to provide themselves with “arms and ammunition.”
    x
    The 1748 statute, however, did acknowledge that all freemen might not be wealthy enough to arm themselves, and provided for issuance of arms “out of his majesty?s magazine.”
    xi
    By 1755, all cavalry officers were obligated to provide
    themselves with “holsters and pistols well fixed….”
    xii
    C. New York
    Another typical colonial militia statute is the Duke of York?s law for New York (adopted shortly after the
    colony?s transfer from the Dutch), that provided, “Besides the Generall stock of each Town[,] Every Male
    wi
    thin this government from Sixteen to Sixty years of age, or not freed by public Allowance, shall[,] if
    freeholders[,] at their own, if sons or Servants[,] at their Parents and Masters Charge and Cost, be furnished
    from time to time and so Continue well furnished with Arms and other Suitable Provition hereafter
    mentioned: under the penalty of five Shillings for the least default therein[:] Namely a good Serviceable Gun,
    allowed Sufficient by his Military Officer to be kept in Constant fitness for present Service” along with all the
    other equipment required in the field.
    xiii

    1. Citiziens militias are a thing of the past, which is why the 2nd A is nothing more today than a useful tool for the US arms industry to ensure future profits. Irrespective of the human cost. Useful in the sense that rightwing idiots like you can be encouraged to write crap like the above as if it had some merit.

    2. Why did you avoid the views Jefferson and Madison had concerning students and guns on the (at the time new) University of Virginia?

      Oh, they don’t meet your fantastical view of history or today’s world. I should have known.

  21. ron, you are truly a moron. Are you really trying to argue today’s society is the same as it was 300-400+ years ago?
    Christ.

  22. Dean, you truly are obtuse. Do you really not understand that American society in years past has required parishioners to attend church while armed? Yes, America has strayed from its philosophical foundations, and neither side of this argument enjoys the results, do they?
    Of course society is not the same. Divorce rates are astronomical. Abortion wasn’t even a consideration. People of various hues are under the weight of gun control. What does it benefit a nation to gain the whole world, and lose it’s soul?
    Christ instructed people to sell garments in order to obtain weapons, as they traveled from city to city upsetting the Swamp-people of the day….but we’re going back a few years more than 400.

  23. RickA says:

    “My earlier idea was to force every citizen to buy a gun (using the mandate idea used to mandate the purchase of health care).”

    Because, you know, guns are just like Linus of Peanuts fame’s security blanket.

    That’s why I usually skim over everything RickA says. That has to be the stupidest idea of any kind I’ve ever read on any web forum since the web existed. I can’t even say that “words fail me” here, because I didn’t think it was possible to be that stupid. Why you folks even give this grade A arsehole the time of day is beyond me.

    1. Why you folks even give this grade A arsehole the time of day is beyond me.

      Because he never goes away. Either you punch back, or you get pushed out of the ring. You know how it works.

    2. RickA says:

      “If the government can force you to buy health insurance they can force you to buy a gun.”

      Was that tongue-in-cheek too? I rest my case.

  24. Further to that, I just want to say that I grew up in NJ, but left the States in 1979 when I was 22 to pursue a career in Europe. The last time I was in Texas was in 1996 for a month on business. I never saw one citizen carrying a gun during that whole month. Not that I can recall, anyway. I would have noticed.

    If my company asked me to go on a business trip to Texas today, I would flat out refuse. No way am I going to be able to relax for even one second with gun-toting arseholes walking the streets or sitting in the same restaurant I’m in. The US has completely *lost the plot*. The inmates are running the asylum.

  25. ” And yes, banning paramilitary assault rifles with high capacity magazines which have no civilian applications whatsoever.”

    Two probs with that:

    1) Millions of “assault” rifles are now owned by U.S. citizens. None of them are actual paramilitary assault riles, which are fully automatic weapons. They are all semi-automatic. Ugly, but popular, and modular for customization. AFAIK tell, their popularity is a direct blowback against efforts to ban guns.

    2) The very fact that they are popular increases their Constitutional protection, ironically, as (at least) one of the three recent Supreme Court cases reaffirming individual ownership rights speaks of popular weapons as being more protected than rarely used ones.

    1. Roger

      Two probs with that:

      1) Millions of “assault” rifles are now owned by U.S. citizens. None of them are actual paramilitary assault riles, which are fully automatic weapons.

      They are paramilitary. The military kit does 3 shot burst and full auto.

      They are murder weapons, plain and simple. They have no civilian application and could reasonably be banned in the interests of public safety as the combination of high rate of fire (~60 rpm unmodified), high magazine capacities (30 – 40 round) and modification potential make the the perfect choice for mass murderers. As we have seen, repeatedly.

      1) Millions of “assault” rifles are now owned by U.S. citizens.

      Because the US gun industry has bought enough politicians and judges to open up this market. But this class of rifle has been banned before and could – if the corruption of democracy were addressed a teeny bit more robustly – be banned again. But only when the lives of US citizens are set above profits in the weapons industry.

  26. ” Divorce rates are astronomical. ”

    No, they are not. almost record lows.

    “Abortion wasn’t even a consideration. ”

    No, abortion has always been available, but historically available only to the well off. Your knowledge of history is abysmally bad (or you simply choose to pick and choose and lie about things, which I judge to be more likely).

    “Under the weight of gun control”? We don’t have gun control. That is the point. I’m not sure how you have the audacity to spout crap like that.

    Locales in the “old west” had gun restrictions on citizens far more stringent than we have today, with no problems.

    State militias were required at a time when there was no standing army — they were explicitly for local and national defense. Travelers required protection for a variety of reasons having to do with wilderness and the times.

    Finally, your knowledge of Scripture is as pathetically bad as your general knowledge. The stories have Jesus making the instructions to buy swords at the Last Supper:

    He said to them, “But now if you have a purse, take it, and also a bag; and if you don’t have a sword, sell your cloak and buy one.”

    (from Luke). Nowhere else does he instruct follower to purchase weapons (and he says (essentially) “he who lives by the sword will die by the sword”, from the time of his betrayal). More importantly, the interpretation of the “sword quote” is generally taken to be an advisement to his followers that because they were about to depart on a journey without him and they would need an instrument to prepare food, cut wood, and possibly for protection.

    Have you always had these problems with reading comprehension and understanding?

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