Monday, August 17, 2009

Arizona Assholes with Guns

by Pa Rock
Cultural Observer

At least twelve morons with inadequate penis issues showed up in downtown Phoenix today to protest the appearance of President Obama at the VFW convention. Each of the twelve was exercising his Constitutional "right" to bear arms. Each was also basking in memories of his glory days as a school yard bully. One particularly oafish individual was packing a holstered pistol and carrying a semi-automatic assault rifle. When a newsman asked him why, his response was, "Because I can."

And yes, in Arizona, he can. Our legislators have been going at it for months trying to pass a budget, and the state is teetering on the brink of bankruptcy - but when legislators can come up with any way to arm more people, they never hesitate. It is now legal to carry a concealed weapon into a bar in Arizona! How's that for stupid?

Last week there was a Children's March in downtown Phoenix to call attention to all of the families that our local sheriff has broken up through his gleeful enforcement of immigration laws - often catching legal residents who happen to be brown in his roundups. The kids marched from one of the local jails to the high rise building where the sheriff has his offices. It was a peaceful exercise of their First Amendment Rights, and not a threat to anyone. The only hitch in the whole program was a group of armed thugs showed up to harass the children - undoubtedly many of the same butt wipes that were strutting their stuff today outside of the VFW convention.

Remember what happened after John Kennedy was gunned down? America was shocked and ashamed - and Lyndon Johnson, an old political arm-twister, was able to play on the popular President's death and his own political abilities do something that Kennedy could have never accomplished. It was called The Great Society and contained such goodies as Medicare, Medicaid, and Head Start - not to mention the Civil Rights of 1964. I wonder what President Biden, also an old political arm-twister, could accomplish under similar circumstances?

Hey, boneheads, be careful what you wish for!

4 comments:

molly. said...

Scott & I were just talking about the concealed weapons law here. He said that they want guns to be concealed for fear of scaring people? Personally I'd rather be aware that someone has a gun. I'd like to know that the drunk guy stumbling out of the bar with his friends is armed when he walks a little too closely to my son. I'd like to know that the angry protester I just pissed off by not giving him the signature he needs on his petition (they are everywhere here) has a gun in his belt. Good god. Guns should never be allowed in bars, that's just insanity. You might as well hand out guns to the liquored up teenagers arguing over a football game too. Why not.

Bruce Arnold said...

Wow. How incredibly short-sighted and narrow-minded you've become, Rocky.

But I shall waste no more time trying to teach a pig to sing, as it merely wastes my time, and just annoys the hell out of the pig.

Enjoy life in your liberal socialist wonderland!

Xobekim said...

Rights, Constitutional Rights, seldom come unfettered from reason and responsibility.

Second Amendment law is scarce. The question tending to be raised today is whether the Second Amendment provides for a personal right to bear arms or a societal right to raise militias.

I find that question absurd because a society which may raise independent and well regulated militias must have citizens who bear arms to fill the ranks of those fighting units.

I disagree that our National Guard units qualify since they are extensions of the Federal Government and though they are well regulated they are not independent of Washington.

The question Rocky raises is really whether appearing along Presidential motorcade routes and in front of venues where the President is appearing is a proper exercise of the Second Amendment.

From my perspective it is not. These gun toting persons are not engaged in freely exercising the liberty assured by the Second Amendment. They are being licentious.

A fine line exists between the exercise of freedom and being licentious. Here the individuals with loaded weapons have gone beyond the customary and proper limits by displaying themselves with their weapons.

The First Amendment, which is the sacred cow of all Constitutional Amendments, does not go unfettered. Writing for a unanimous Court in Schenck v. United States Justice Holmes said the country could restrict anti draft literature under the “clear and present danger doctrine.” That was the “crying fire in a crowded theater” case.

Schenck was later narrowed by the Court in Brandenburg v. Ohio, where the justices said the ruling had to be more closely tailored to the “imminent lawless action” standard.

For the moment the First, not the Second, Amendment protects the rights of these persons to protest Presidential appearance while armed to the teeth.

These protestors do little to further their cause or a more rational understanding of the Second Amendment.

When people are injured by these armed protestors Congress will restrict, under Brandenburg and the “imminent lawless action” standard, future armed demagoguery.

Molly should not suspect everyone is packing heat and all our children and grandchildren need to grow up enjoying liberty not cowering because certain zealots don't understand how civil society works.

I support Second Amendment rights not wholsale stupidity!

Pa Rock said...

Nicely stated, Mike. Thanks for your thoughtful response.