By @BGinKC

I’ll get nicer when people get smarter. Also when I believe they have actually READ and, more importantly, UNDERSTOOD that Constitution they are always waving in the air and screaming about.

Seriously. Get smarter or I’m going to get a hell of a lot meaner. As in you ain’t ever seen me right pissed, and you don’t want to. But this issue? No, I’ve rolled my eyes and not pushed back, for far too long. As a responsible hunter and gun owner, the nutjobs frankly embarrass me and the shit they say and post makes me understand the sentiments of the gun grabbers, because they scare the shit out of me, too.

Believe it or not, you can simultaneously be in favor of controlling access to firearms and banning assault weapons and the Second Amendment. (Yes! You can be both! At the same time!) I’m considered the gun nut among my liberal friends. Being pro second-amendment doesn’t HAVE to mean you checked your brain and common sense at the door. It isn’t a zero-sum game unless the people in the wide middle, like me, who have some common sense, let it become one between the two extremes that NOBODY save the extremists themselves wants to see come about.

I am so sick of these sick fuckers and their martyr complex and their violent, persecuted imagery.

Here’s the thing about an assault rifle — it is made to kill people and it is worthless for hunting because the bullet tumbling would contaminate the meat with e coli. And frankly, if you have never seen a human being in front of you with their chest cracked while the trauma surgeon tries to find all the holes that bouncing bullet makes as it ricochets around inside a persons thoracic cavity, you need to shut the fuck up about the poor put-upon assault weapons that are being picked on for the way they look. That is bullshit. And don’t tell me that they can only fire as fast as you can pull the trigger. So fucking what? It’s the way the bullets do damage, the way there is no exit wound but a random path of destruction. Fuck these clowns. Nobody wants to take your hunting rifles, or your handguns. But assault rifles have no place in the civilian world. Oh — and the NRA doesn’t represent you, and hasn’t for over 20 years. They represent gun manufacturers, not hunters and sportsmen.

I get especially tickled when I read right-wing and second-amendment-absolutist sites. These morons actually see themselves fighting off the “gummint.”

I can see it now…Bubba and Jim-Bob, hunkered down behind the gaudy floral patio chaise and the barbecue pit, both of them wearing trucker caps and bib overalls that won’t button around their beer bellies. At least one of them is wearing Velcro sneakers.

All I can say to these folks is “Go for it, Dumbasses.” The American gene pool could use a good cleansing, and that’s what their uprising would amount to. If they get froggy and jump, it won’t last a week but some of them might look up in time to see the smartbomb or Hellfire missile that would take them out without risking a single Soldier or Marine.

For the record, the Republican party wasn’t always insane. They went off the rails when Nixon got pardoned by Ford, and they washed their hands and sealed their fate when Reagan revived Nixon’s Southern Strategy and uncorked the crazy by launching his campaign in Philadelphia, Mississippi and for dooming his party, he was rewarded with two terms.

In 1972, the Republican platform had a gun control plank:

Intensify efforts to prevent criminal access to all weapons, including special emphasis on cheap, readily-obtainable handguns, retaining primary responsibility at the State level, with such Federal law as necessary to enable the States to meet their responsibilities.

Safeguard the right of responsible citizens to collect, own and use firearms for legitimate purposes, including hunting, target shooting and self-defense. We will strongly support efforts of all law enforcement agencies to apprehend and prosecute to the limit of the law all those who use firearms in the commission of crimes.

But by 1980, the next time a Republican would be elected to the Presidency, it was gone, replaced with a plank proclaiming the sanctity of the Second Amendment:

We believe the right of citizens to keep and bear arms must be preserved. Accordingly, we oppose federal registration of firearms. Mandatory sentences for commission of armed felonies are the most effective means to deter abuse of this right. We therefore support Congressional initiatives to remove those provisions of the Gun Control Act of 1968 that do not significantly impact on crime but serve rather to restrain the law-abiding citizen in his legitimate use of firearms.

Last night, Wayne LaPierre delivered an unhinged screed against the President that came damned close to sedition. He, a lobbyist, “has news for” the President of the United States?

Bullshit. It is time for the rest of the country, especially responsible gun owners, to stand up and be counted. Let your congresscritter know — especially if you are a gun owner — that the NRA doesn’t speak for you, and demand sanity from your representatives in Washington, D.C. — especially if you are represented by a republican. When they act as courtesans to the NRA, they are pledging their troth to an organization that represents less than ten percent of the country. Remember the huge shadow/tiny creature device from film and teevee, especially animation.  That’s the NRA.  They are about 1.5% of the population of the U.S., and even gun owners are in favor of reasonable regulations. You know — the sort of regulations that would make sure that this guy isn’t able to legally amass an arsenal.

A Minnesota man who killed his mother with a shotgun and who has a history of mental illness managed to amass a personal arsenal in recent years, according to court documents.

In early January, police arrived at the home of Christian Philip Oberender to find the 32 year old in possession of 13 guns, including an AK-47, shotguns, and a Tommy gun, according to a complaint filed in Carver County’s 1st Judicial District Court on January 9.

Police say they also found a note from Oberender addressed to his deceased mother in his house, according to the court document.

“I feel the good part of me fade away. I don’t know how long I can hold it in for,” the note read, according to the court document. “The monster want out. I know what happens when he comes out. He only been out one time and someone die.”

Oberender had been adjudicated a delinquent in 1996 for killing his mother, according to the document. He was civilly committed as a “mentally ill and dangerous person” in 1998.

The Carver County Sheriff became interested in Oberender after receiving a tip that he had posted Facebook pictures of himself toting assault weapons and expressed sympathy for the shooters at Columbine High School and in Newtown, Conn., according to the document.

I don’t know about you, but I would prefer to live in a sane country that boasts two sensible political parties in its two-party system. I don’t want one-party rule. Before Dubya I wasn’t a yellow-dog Democrat. I was the sort of Democrat who voted for Nancy Kassebaum twice and may even have voted for Bob Dole once, when I couldn’t bring myself to vote for the Democrats’ sacrificial lamb.  I want balance in my government because too far in either direction is scary.

I remember when Republicans used to feel the same way and didn’t drive people away with purity tests and absolutist positions.

I miss those days.