Facts.

Behold the power of this fully armed and operational propaganda machine. First, from the Bureau of Justice Statistics: Firearm-related homicides declined 39 percent and nonfatal firearm crimes declined 69 percent from 1993 to 2011, the Justice Department’s Bureau of Justice Statistics (BJS) announced today. Firearm-related homicides dropped from 18,253 homicides in 1993 to 11,101 in [...]

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Anarchy.

Via Twitchy, a milestone day: First Biden drops the J-word on the Tsarnaevs, now Harry Reid debunks one of the left’s evergreen smears against the tea party. Sort of: His point is that tea partiers don’t bomb public property like anarchists, they just sort of force it into disrepair by fighting spending tooth and nail. [...]

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Pressure.

The Senate will hold the first key procedural vote on a bill to curb gun violence Thursday as more than a half-dozen Republicans announced that they will join with Democrats to stop any attempt to block popular legislation drafted in response to a deadly shooting at a Connecticut elementary school… Senate procedural rules require Reid [...]

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This guy.

I am always amazed — amazed — when anyone has the gall to dismiss, even laugh off, the suggestion that the right to keep and bear arms is a smart and necessary provision for a free society. Human history (not to mention current events!) is too chock-full of examples of nefarious regimes violently abusing and [...]

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Trust.

The gun control debate has shown the president again to be hopelessly detached as a legislative mechanic and ineffectual as a shaper of public opinion. Before writing rhetorical checks that his own party’s majority leader in the Senate, Harry Reid, couldn’t cash, the president might have at least consulted with the wily old son-of-a-gun about [...]

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"Legislation alone is not going to solve this thing."

During his media event yesterday to roll out his “comprehensive” plan to address gun violence, Barack Obama didn’t mention the entertainment industry at all, despite hints from Joe Biden that films, television, and video games would all be on the table for discussion.  Instead, another Democrat has picked up that issue in the House.  Rep. [...]

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Barriers

As we saw on Friday morning, NRA Executive Vice President Wayne LaPierre didn’t throw the Second Amendment under the bus, which has led to more than a little controversy. While I can appreciate the fact that the NRA is loathe to rush into an ill considered gun grab as a solution to isolated incidents of [...]

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"The only way to stop a monster is to be personally involved."

The National Rifle Association gave their first press conference following the Newtown massacre on Friday, during which Executive Vice President Wayne LaPierre offered a number of solutions to prevent mass shootings, such as having armed guards in every school, as well as criticisms ranging from the culture of violence-as-entertainment and the media’s demonization of guns [...]

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Theirs?

The gun industry has come under tremendous political and media pressure after the Newtown massacre a week ago today, but they haven’t been entirely alone, either.  The entertainment industry has also come in for criticism for its glorification and personalization of violence.  Colorado governor John Hickenlooper blamed video games for increasing violence in our culture, [...]

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Tone.

Not so many moons ago, President Obama urged us all to “make sure that we are talking with each other in a way that heals, not a way that wounds.” He Who Heals advocated “a more civil and honest public discourse” in the wake of the January 2011 Tucson massacre. As usual, though, the White [...]

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Would Honey Badger care?

From the clever folks at ReasonTV, a succinct and artful commentary on the utter absurdity of anyone using a YouTube video as a justification for violence or an excuse to go soft on free speech. Hey, maybe if there was no YouTube, all the chaos and unrest in the Middle East would just go away?

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Unacceptable.

The events of the past couple of weeks have been deeply troubling, to say the least — and not merely because of the violent attacks and riots in the Middle East themselves, but also because of the ease with which administration officials have rushed to throw our cherished belief in the universality of the First [...]

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Choose words wisely.

As Ed already recounted, President Obama’s 60 Minutes interview that aired last night is causing a wee bit of headache for the White House — his comments about four American deaths in Libya being a “bump in the road” and about Israel’s concerns over Iran being just “noise,” as you might imagine, haven’t been playing [...]

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Never forget.

Driving into the office this morning and seeing all of the giant American flags unfurled over all of the tallest buildings, and revisiting all of the pictures, videos, and soundbites coming through my newsfeed today, I’m irresistibly and just as poignantly reminded of exactly how I felt on the terrible day of September 11th, 2001. [...]

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The odd coincidences of violence and media hysteria over the Tea Party.

That’s a very good question, and one that — so far — ABC News hasn’t answered. Brian Ross went to air within hours of the Aurora shooting to tell George Stephanopoulos and the Good Morning America audience on Friday morning that Ross had found something “significant” about the suspect. Stephanopoulos: I’m going to go to [...]

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Wow.

Coming from the president of a country that’s seen at least 55,000 drug-and-gang-related deaths during his tenure, the blithe audacity is enough to make your head spin. Mexican President Felipe Calderon condemned U.S. gun laws as “mistaken” and urged Washington to review them after a shooter killed 12 people and injured more than 50 others [...]

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Senseless.

An eager audience forgoing sleep to take in the midnight showing of “The Dark Knight Rises” instead were witnesses Friday to a bloody mass shooting at a suburban Denver movie theater. Police said a man clad in black threw a canister that spewed smoke before he opened fire. Witnesses said that at first, they thought [...]

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Yeah, I'm not really comfortable with that.

As we’ve seen time and again, the United Nations is little more than an ineffective, morally squishy, highly corrupted joke of an international bureaucracy that in the long run has done hardly anything productive in stabilizing global affairs or promoting lasting peace. Honestly, why do we contribute funding (and the lion’s share, at that!) to [...]

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"That's bollocks, that's not f***ing democracy".

Violence at an occupy camp? No bloomin’ way! Content warning, for language of course: Well you know what, when [unintelligible] said at camp, you can’t get any money because one guy blocked it. That’s bollocks, that’s not f–king democracy. You can’t have one guy block a democratic f–king vote. That’s not democracy… Or…or beat the [...]

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They're baaack!

The long-planned revival of the occupy movement is right around the corner, and we already have a new example of the violent rhetoric we’ve come to expect from the ‘mostly peaceful’ group. From where else but Occupy Portland. [Content warning for multiple f-bombs and other raw language] If I had a f–king AK right now… [...]

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