Michigan lawmakers want to ban toy guns

If you wanted another example of the increasing absurdity of U.S. gun laws (especially those passed by Republican-controlled legislatures), just take a look at Michigan, where a new bill would try to crack down on hoodlums using toy guns with their orange tips cut off to make them look like real guns by … criminalizing toy guns:

Michigan legislators are moving to make possession of toy guns a crime. The legislation by members is based on the growing practice of criminals cutting off the orange tips and using the toy guns in crime. This way, presumably, they will go and get real guns for their crimes?

The legislation was proposed by State Senator Republican Rick Jones — and his colleague Burgermeister Meisterburger. Jones says “People are taking imitation firearms that look real, cutting off the orange end and then threatening people.” He points to a recent case where a gang member was killed by an officer after pointing a toy gun at a police officer.

While I have no sympathy for any idiots who get shot when trying to threaten cops with fake guns, the real problem arises when officers mistake these toys for real weapons when in the hands of their rightful owners. More than one kid has been wrongfully shot because police thought their plastic toy was a real weapon.

But nonetheless, lawmakers are going about it characteristically backwards. You’d think that the solution to fake guns being mistaken for real guns would be to strengthen laws making it easier for police to differentiate between the two, and that if something were to be banned, it would be the actual weapons, not the imitation playthings.

In other words: Actual firearms = fine an’ dandy. Toy guns = DANGEROUS, SHOULD BE ILLEGAL.

“Republicans” should be the new “sigh”.

(via The Agitator)

Tags: Michigan • Republicans • toy guns • firearms • Rick Jones • toys

Daily Blend: Monday, January 23, 2012

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• Colorado Republicans push bills to allow guns in K-12 schools and eliminate state-level background checks.

• Tennessee Tea Party “demands” that textbooks pretend the Founding Fathers were absolutely holy and pure and perfect.
  (via Joe. My. God.)

• Republican Party: ♪ We’re on the highway to hell ♫
  (via The Agitator)

• Not entirely accurate, but still a very interesting point: The Pirate Bay is the new Hollywood. ^[pictured]

• I just can’t get enough of him: Vox Day now manages to turn a grievous case of anti-atheist discrimination in Indonesia into an attack on atheists.

If you have any story suggestions, feel free to leave them in the comments or send them in.

Tags: gun nuts • Republicans • Colorado • background checks • schools • Tea Party • Tea Partiers • Tennessee Tea Party • US Founding Fathers • Indians • Native-Americans • US history • Newt Gingrich • Republican Party • GOP • Barack Obama • Mitt Romney • The Pirate Bay • Hollywood • Stop Online Piracy Act • SOPA • Vox Day • atheists • Christianity • Indonesia • Alexander Aan

Daily Blend: Wednesday, December 11, 2011 – Playing catch-up

Purse with embroidered revolver

• Shorter police article: “Why bother with vet care or humane euthanasia for unwanted or injured animals when you can just shoot ’em instead?”
  (via @radleybalko)

• Media: 1/5 of teens engage in “sexting”! Researchers: Bullshit.

• New on TSA’s Forbidden Items list: Purses with embroidered gun pictures ^[pictured].
  (via @AmandaMarcotte)

• North Carolina dog-lovers defeat proposed breed-specific legislation. Again: No bad breeds, only bad owners.
  (via @PersonalFailure)

• Large shopping center chain officially bans in-mall pet stores nationwide.
  (via @PersonalFailure)

• Kudos: Google valiantly thumbing their nose at U.S. government’s warrantless search policy regarding emails.
  (via @csoghoian)

• PZ Myers destroys David Barton’s idiocy about abortion and homosexuality being “aberration[s]” of nature and “against evolutionary law”.

• MythBusters goes loose cannon: Cannonball misses target, flies into nearby suburb, blasts through house and crashes into minivan. Only injuries are PR team’s sudden headache.
  (via @thinkgeek)

If you have any story suggestions, feel free to leave them in the comments or send them in.

Tags: PoliceOne.com • sexting • TSA • purses • guns • Cumberland County, NC • pit bulls • Rottweilers • dogs • dog breeds • Macerich company • shopping centers • malls • pet stores • puppy mills • Google • email • warrants • warrantless searches • Gmail • PZ Myers • David Barton • homosexuality • natural law • naturalistic fallacy • MythBusters • cannons • Tassajara Creek • Alameda County Sherrif's Department

Daily Blend: Monday, October 03, 2011

U.S. Hater-in-Chief

• Glenn Greenwald: If there’s so much evidence they’re terrorists, why not prove it?

• Man faces year in prison and $50,000 fines for killing grizzly bear that wandered into yard where his children were playing.
  (via The Agitator)

• ATF dictates that medicinal marijuana users have no Second Amendment rights. I agree that pot and guns are a troublesome mix, but I’d advocate for regulations, not an outright ban.

• National Cancer Institute further debunks “abortions cause breast cancer” bullshit.
  (via @PeriodPiece)

• President Obama ^[pictured] says there’s still room for improvement in the U.S. Cue characteristically inane right-wing ragefest.

If you have any story suggestions, feel free to leave them in the comments or send them in.

Tags: terrorists • FISA • Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act • Anwar al-Awlaki • bears • grizzly bears • Jeremy Hill • Coeur D'Alene, ID • Endangered Species Act • ATF • medicinal marijuana • medical marijuana • Second Amendment • National Cancer Institute • NCI • cancer • breast cancer • Barack Obama • USA • United States • conservatives

Media bullshit: Violent 4-year-old edition

There truly are two sides to every story: the truth, and the bullshit. (Hey, no-one said they had to be equally valid sides.) Here’s a perfect example: Watch how a story about gun violence is reported by a CBS affiliate … and then what really happened. (Hint: No, the 4-year-old boy did not want to grow up to be a gang-banger.)

My transcript: (click the [+/-] to expand/collapse →)

[−]

Relevant excerpts:

CBS REPORTER: And kids on the street as young as four were there to see it all [the gun violence] unfold and had disturbing reactions.

[START VIDEO: Interview with 4-year-old boy]

BOY: I’m not scared of nothing.

[cut]

REPORTER: When you get older, you gonna stay away from all these guns?

BOY: No.

REPORTER: No?

BOY: No.

REPORTER: What do you wanna do when you get older?

BOY: I’m gonna have me a gun.

[CUT]

FEMALE WITNESS: Because I live right here and I don’t want none of my family members to get shot.

[END VIDEO]

ANCHOR 1: That is very scary indeed.

[…]

[START VIDEO: Unedited interview with 4-year-old boy]

REPORTER: […] When you get older, you gonna stay away from all these guns?

BOY: No.

REPORTER: No?

BOY: No.

REPORTER: What do you wanna do when you get older?

BOY: I’m gonna have me a gun.

REPORTER: You are? Why you wanna do that?

BOY: I’m gonna be the police.

REPORTER: Okay, well, then, you can have one.

[END VIDEO]

Journalism, eh?

(via Political Irony)

Tags: CBS • guns

Arizona also wants to adopt an official state gun

Last March, Utah became the first state to designate an official state gun, choosing the Browning M1911 pistol to represent its … well, its gun nuts, really. But, not to be outdone by anyone else in redneck craziness, the state of Arizona is now also on its way to adopting a firearm as a symbol:

The Arizona House early Wednesday narrowly approved the Colt Single Action Army Revolver as the state's official gun. The bill had been rejected earlier in an all-night session, the AP reports, but it eventually won approval by a 32-25 vote.

It’s a little ironic that they should choose the very gun that allowed their ancestors to settle in Arizona in the first place … if only by widespread slaughter of the Native-Americans who once dwelt there.

(via Joe. My. God.)

Daily Blend: Tuesday, March 29, 2011

Bill Sammon

If you like me and you know it, clap your hands … and then fill out the simple, anonymous Preliator Survey 2011 while you can! (Pretty please?)

• Fox Leaks: Top executive Bill Sammon caught (again) admitting he’d having knowingly lied on the air about then-Candidate Obama’s alleged “socialism”.

• BioWare’s David Gaider pwns the crap out of a homophobic, privilege-wallowing “straight male gamer”. Glorious.
  (via @KyellGold)

• Pathetically obsequious Fox News report on Sarah Palin’s latest “no more whining about the media” declaration.

• 5 Ridiculous Gun Myths Everyone Believes (Thanks to Movies). I was surprised at just how overrated silencers/suppressors^* are.

If you have any story suggestions, feel free to leave them in the comments or send them in.

* Pro tip: Silencers remove much of the discharge noise, whilst suppressors serve to conceal the muzzle flash with only minimal noise reduction. They’re similar, but different.

Daily Blend: Tuesday, February 15, 2011

Pictured: Bigger risk to yourself than others

• Sad factoid from PolitiFact: The most common form of shooting deaths are suicides by a margin of over 25%.

• Sarah Palin should take this opportunity to learn not to trust any information gleaned from Glenn Beck’s website. The details provide even further lulz.
  (via @todayspolitics)

• Interesting article, but I would suggest the reason why these films (or Hereafter, at least, having not yet seen The Lovely Bones, myself) failed was because of pacing and/or plot issues, not uncomfortable themes.
  (via Project Reason)

• The 8 Most Successful Politicians (Who Weren't Human). Oh, the puns that come to mind.

If you have any story suggestions, feel free to leave them in the comments or send them in.

Utah lawmakers propose official state gun

Pictured: Utah representative

From the files of immunity to common sense and irony:

The Utah House passed a bill by a 51-19 vote Wednesday designating the Browning pistol as the official state gun.

Around the country, this story has been stirring up a lot of attention during the last 24 hours. The New York Times, for example, ran an op-ed piece Wednesday wherein Gail Collins poked fun at Utah for its firearms predilection. (Note: the Collins piece ran in anticipation of but before the legislation passed the House on Wednesday.)

On Monday, the Utah State Capitol celebrated Browning Day, honoring John Moses Browning, native son and maker of the nominee for Official State Firearm. There were speeches, a proclamation, a flyover by a National Guard helicopter, and, of course, a rotunda full of guns. "We recognize his efforts to preserve the Constitution," Gov. Gary Herbert said, in keeping with what appears to be a new Republican regulation requiring all party members to mention the Constitution at least once in every three sentences.

Rep. Carl Wimmer, R-Herriman, sponsored the Official State Firearm legislation, HB219. This is the same Carl Wimmer, by the way, who believes that Utahns should be allowed to carry concealed weapons without a permit and who owns a tremendous mustache.

Because having a state flag, bird and flower obviously weren’t enough. (Or, those are sissy, hippie things.) Not to mention that gun nuts apparently think the best way to dispel the notion that they’re, well, ‘gun nuts’, is to have the state declare its appreciation for the same type of weapon used in the Tucson, Virginia Tech and Fort Hood massacres, among others.

But hey, if it’s gonna be that way, then I call dibs on the RCP-120 FN P90 for Québec. If we’re gonna be symbolized by killing machines, might as well do so with style.

(via Political Irony)