Democrats behaving badly: Gun-slinger edition

Existing as we do, at the moment, in a news cycle dedicated to demonizing every one of the millions of normal, law-abiding Americans who so much as belong to a voluntary organization designed to defend their Second Amendment rights, it’s helpful to take a look at the actions of the side that demonizes them. If the actions of the following politicians had been perpetrated by Republicans, they would immediately have become emblematic of the inherent imbalance of right-wing gun advocates, illustrative of the danger your very neighbors pose, even if they have never shown any inclination to violence. As it is, they are just isolated incidents, you see, in which the party of protecting you from violence is allowed a free pass in the national press for perpetrating it.

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First up, we have a row between two Democratic state assembly members in Nevada:

Assemblyman Steven Brooks was arrested Saturday night on a charge of threatening Nevada Assembly Speaker Marilyn Kirkpatrick.

State Sen. Kelvin Atkinson said Sunday he informed Kirkpatrick of Brooks’ threat against her. Atkinson said Brooks had been telling people Kirkpatrick’s “first day as speaker would be her last.”

North Las Vegas police said Brooks, 40, was booked about 6 p.m. at the Las Vegas City Jail on a felony charge of intimidating a public officer by threat of physical violence. Jail records show Brooks was in custody Sunday evening.

Brooks is a Democrat serving Nevada Assembly District 17 in northern Clark County.

Police said they responded to a home in North Las Vegas at about 3:45 p.m. Saturday in response to reported threats to an elected official, though authorities would not say who Brooks reportedly threatened.

He was arrested in a traffic stop and a gun was found in his car (the article doesn’t suggest it was anything but legally owned), and Kirkpatrick is “being watched until it is deemed not necessary.” Brooks apparently thought he was entitled to a certain leadership position he had not been given, and the bickering escalated beyond Brooks’ mere attempted organizing of a political coup as he reportedly became erratic and agitated in meetings. I’m glad Kirkpatrick has proper protection from possible threats, and hope the rest of us can retain the right to provide it for ourselves when we don’t have professional protection at our disposal.

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Then, there’s this guy, a Democratic member of the Virginia Assembly, irresponsibly brandishing an AK-47 in the state house to show how dangerous they are in the hands of responsible gun owners, or something. Gun-control advocates should really learn trigger discipline before grandstanding with such weapons. The NRA has classes for that. Open the action, booger hook off the bang switch, etc. Joseph Morrissey, pictured below, had to be interrupted by a responsible member of the House of Delegates, who asked him to get his finger off the trigger:

trigger

But there’s more. David Martosko of the Daily Caller enlightens us as to Morrissey’s pristine past when it comes to preventing violence:

But while Morrissey introduced a gun-control bill Thursday aimed at reducing criminal violence in Virginia, he has a history that involves physical violence of another kind.

Morrissey paid a man $500,000 in 2007 to settle a 2002 court judgment against him, related to a 1999 physical assault.

According to legal brief filed by the victim’s attorneys, Morrissey shouted, “I’m going to kill you. I’m going to beat your head in,” before beating the victim and “smash[ing] his head into the corner of a brick wall.”

The 2003 revocation of Morrissey’s law license followed that courtroom reckoning, but by then his disciplinary record in the legal profession was already a lengthy one.

After he applied for the reinstatement of his law license, the Virginia State Bar listed a litany of Morrissey’s misdeeds when it published his petition.

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Morrissey has also had formal complaints against him in his handling of a rape case and a felony drunk driving case. But as long as he’s from the party of gun-control and women’s rights, everything is fine. And, that’s the ultimate end of all this posturing, isn’t it? A total disconnect between personal actions and political stances, with political stances acting as a stand-in and a get-out-of-jail-free card for real-life conduct? It doesn’t matter that Mitt Romney had a 50-percent female cabinet in Massachusetts or that President Obama routinely pays women less in his administration and on his campaigns. The grandstanding is what matters, the votes for bills whose results are never again considered—shallow symbolism’s triumph over much more elusive actual results. As Obama himself put it so eloquently last week, “budgets are difficult.” Good thing blaming the party that’s tried repeatedly to pass them is so darn easy.

And, who can forget this classic? They’re out there keeping you safe. Be very afraid.

Feinstein trigger

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