Pat Oliphant for December 19, 2012

Hmmm, amazing how many kill themselves while cleaning weapons, like looking up the barrel?

Care to prove him wrong on at least one?

^why not do both? fits with the republican “i got mine, i don’t care if you got yours” mentality – which goes hand in hand with their "there is no “I” in team, but there is a “ME” in aMErica".

Under Obama, the debt went up $5.5T, and the deficit has gone down since he started. W left us the biggest deficit since WWII. And almost all of the other debt was wracked up under Reagan and the Bushes.

the first part of the 2nd amendment that gun owners / NRA conveniently forget refers to a ’well-regulated militia"…. imho, meaning gun owners have a responsibility to be known to city, county and state law authorities

In a generation or so the US will have a Gini Coefficient (measure of income inequality) about the same as Mexico’s if nothing changes on its present economic course. Government could be by and for the one percent propped up by Homeland Security. An armed populace of rugged individualists could be one of the few bulwarks against this situation.

What? Read the constitution. The federal gov’t does not have the responsibility for paying for local law enforcment. Your local gov’t does—and if it isn’t cutting the mustard, vote the liberals out. However, it IS the responsibility of the feds to arrange and pay for the military so you don’t have to learn a new language.

When seconds count, the police are only minutes away….

That is a very interesting and true viewpoint, that the NRA and others would not want to use. During most of its history the US, unlike many of the world powers that we sometimes were at war with, never had a large standing army. This was particularly true during the fledgling years of our republic.

So the framers of those constitutional amendments wanted the ordinary citizen of this country to be always familiar with the use and care of firearms, so they could be called upon at any time to defend the republic itself.

The reason why firearms sales are going through the roof is not because of who is president, or even who is not.

The reason why firearms sales are spiking is because of the economy and that it has ushered in some unsafe times for all of us.

It started when the price of gasoline rose sky-high and people were afraid that others would try and rob them of what they had in their tanks, which meant that the sales of locking gas caps also rose to deter that kind of theft.

It was furthered along as more and more people lost their jobs and were thrown out of their homes that they could no longer afford, which meant that some of these people flocked to the shelters, or even places that would allow them to stay overnight like at some Wal-Mart parking lots.

As more and more people got desperate, they resorted to crime, like going into abandoned and foreclosed places, schools, churches and other buildings and stripping them of what they could take away and sell, from the appliances, cabinetry, porcelain and countertops to even the electrical work and plumbing, or taking out the placards, artwork and monuments at public parks and private spaces to see if the materials could be sold for scrap.

And then there was the rise in petty thefts and burglaries out there as some criminals resorted to robbery, mugging and theft, and not only for the money in the wallet, but the debit and credit cards, driver’s licenses and other means of identity so that they could either use it for their own gain or sell it off to somebody else.

And if they purloined cell phones with the latest features and other gadgets, they sold those off.

And all of this does not make the people feel safe, even in their own neighborhoods, and that is why firearms sales are increasing.

When I have to worry about the criminally desparate out there seeking refuge in the local church and what they could do to me and my property, it will make me wonder if I am safe around these places in my neighborhood and the longer it goes on, the more likely I will consider purchasing my own firearms for protection, as well as remember what I learned in Basic Training at Fort Jackson back in the 1980s when I was in the Army.

And it is people like me, who wonder about their safety these days, who may resort to purchasing firearms to ensure it and that the longer these hard times continue, the more often and the more likely I will resort to purchasing a firearm and incorporating it as a measure of my own personal safety.

And no restrictions on weapons purchases is gonna stop me—if I can find the means to get a weapon, including the money, there will always be somebody out there willing to sell me a weapon, both legally and illegally.

Yeah, we;; fuck you and the tea-bagging Supreme Court. Also, how dare you say that non-gun nuts do not care about the Constitution? You’d believe anything Fox News or Rush would say I guess.

Check the detail on those parts – PO knows his guns. Hmmm

Once again, for the ill-knowing, from spiffy ol’ z-facts:

What about Obama? Notice how the debt accelerated during Bush’s last two budget years. Obama’s debt is a continuation of that trend and neither Bush nor Obama are directly responsible for that acceleration. It happened because of the recession. Bush set the all-time record by increasing the debt by $1.1 trillion in 100 days between July 30 and Nov 9, 2008—but that had little to do with his choices.

Recessions cut tax revenues—in this case, dramatically. That accounts for nearly half of the deficit. So blaming Obama for the full deficit is like blaming him for not raising the tax rate to keep tax revenues up. Most of the increased spending is automatic increases in unemployment benefits, food stamps, and social security payments for early retirement. Very little of it is from stimulus spending, and that’s over.

The REAL issue is still not being addressed here, it’s not about just banning the sale of guns, it’s about WHO they’re selling them to. It’s about mental/emotional unstable people getting them from their families. It’s about how these guys are obsessed with games and movies that GLORIFY violence against the innocent.

We’ve already crossed that line of killing anybody, it’s just going to get worse before it ever gets better…

“The final decision, from the U.S. Supreme Court, clearly stated that banning ownership, and confiscating, as applied to private citizens was UN-CONSTITUTIONAL.”The Supreme Court has been known to reverse it’s own decisions.

I’ve been asserting that banning automatic weapons will reduce the death counts in mass shootings. I saw a link from another poster showing that there are fewer deaths when a shooter is stopped by civilians than when police stop the shooting. This is true, but most of the shooters were stopped by unarmed civilians! I used the data provided & analyzed it to see what the average death toll is by weapon type is. Weapon Average Deaths Per IncidentAutomatic Rifle 9.5Automatic Pistol 9.8Rifle or Shotgun 3Revolver/Non Auto Handgun 1.8Anecdotally, there were several cases where armed civilians either failed to subdue the shooter or shot bystanders. In most of the cases where civilians armed or unarmed were successful in subduing the shooter, the shooter was not armed with an automatic weapon, or the gun jammed. I think it’s obvious that the lack of automatic weapons gives a greater opportunity for civilians to intervene or flee.

We’ll keep blaming Bush because actions have consequences, i.e. two wars being paid for by “supplemental appropriations”, which means they were not part of the budget, which made the shrub’s figures look all hunky-dory. Obama did what should have been done in the first place: put the warts ON BUDGET, so we could see how costly they really were. THAT is the main reason the “official” budget has skyrocketed. As for Food Stamps, when shrub’s policies started the recession, and people lost their jobs, the main brunt of this fell as Obama was taking office, and programs had to be expanded to help those people. But I suppose your response would have been let them eat cake?

Bush put a lot “on the card,” meaning the payments actually are higher now than when he was in office. He also put a lot of things “on the sleeve,” and as Obama has found these off-budget items, they’ve been reported and added to the figures. Thus, we are paying more than ever for Bush’s enthusiasms, unfortunately.

Seriously? You describe allowing any sub-literate yahoo capable of walking into a swap meet to buy any armament he desires as “the only SANE AND SENSIBLE position”? I weep for the future of this country with right wing yahoos like yourself packing the voting booths.

“the real reason people are buying guns is because O it threatening to take them away.”People are buying guns out of paranoia. Better have them committed before they hurt somebody.

@cwsprague said, about 14 hours ago

“Didn’t get your Obama phone and are unhappy? Or just don’t like the concept of working to EARN what you want?”

you don’t know what work is. I employ 75 people and their families and have worked up to that over the last 27 years. I work 60-80 hours per week and there have been times where in spite of the uncertainty and reckless giveaways caused by the republicans, i have reached into my pocket, my retirement account and my home equity to make payroll and keep my skilled workers working AND their families without much worry.i AM a job creator, i AM NOT one of the one percenters, or even two percenters. thank you for asking.

It appears cartoonists are just as dumb as politicians. The cause was mental illness, Asperger’s Syndrome, and a severe lack of professional help for parents or sufferers. We have an autism spectrum epidemic that needs public attention.