Chicago Mayor Richard Daley has given new ammunition to gun rights advocates with his astonishing suggestion that the Fort Hood massacre was made possible because “America loves guns.”
Daley had been touring a school project on Monday of this week that expands the city’s Arabic language program when reporters asked whether the thought the Fort Hood incident would spark a backlash against Muslims. His reaction, captured on video, has been raising eyebrows since it flashed across the Internet, and it reaffirms what Mark Twain once observed: “It is better to keep your mouth closed and let people think you are a fool than to open it and remove all doubt.”
“Everyday in society,” Daley said, “somebody is being killed. Unfortunately, America loves guns. We love guns to a point where that, uh, we see devastation on a daily basis. You don’t blame a group. You don’t blame a society, an immigrant community because of actions of one group...one individual. You cannot say that.”
It is better to keep your mouth closed and let people think you are a fool than to open it and remove all doubt.—Mark Twain
So Daley, a perennial gun prohibitionist, instead blames firearms. His remarks stunned Alan Gottlieb, chairman of the Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms, who had just last week taken to task the president of Washington CeaseFire for trying to exploit the murder of a Seattle police officer in order to push a gun ban agenda in the Evergreen State.
Gottlieb was raked over the coals for that by Seattle Weekly columnist Nina Shapiro, whose colleague, veteran reporter Rick Anderson, authored a lengthy and unflattering piece about the veteran gun rights advocate in the current issue of the Seattle Weekly. I wrote about the Shapiro piece here, and she has gotten a considerably negative reader response on her Daily Weekly blog.
The attacks have not deterred Gottlieb, who seems to enjoy mixing it up with gun control proponents.
“Daley has an agenda,” he said in a press release, “that he shares with other anti-gun extremists. They will exploit any tragedy to pursue their goal of public disarmament and destruction of the Second Amendment. Whether it is the assassination of a Seattle police officer, the murder of 13 people at Fort Hood, or the horrible body count of crime victims that has piled up in Chicago under Daley’s regime, they will dance through the blood toward the nearest sympathetic microphone to push their cause.”
Would Daley blame cars for the highway carnage created by drunk drivers? -- Alan Gottlieb
Gottlieb accused the Chicago mayor of “moral bankruptcy.” In the press release he alluded to a lawsuit that has just been filed against the Daley administration by Chicago’s own inspector general, alleging that the Daley regime has been interfering with an investigation about possible wrongdoing by city employees, past and present.
Daley, and perhaps Shapiro and Anderson, might have an issue with the Washington Times. In Wednesday morning’s edition, the Times editorialized that a ban on firearms possession by soldiers on military bases was instituted under Bill Clinton when he had only been in office two months back in March 1993. The revelation caught many by surprise, and the newspaper went for the political jugular:
“Thirteen dead bodies in a Texas morgue are the ultimate fruit of gun-control illogic - in which guns are so feared that government regulation even tries to keep them out of the hands of trained soldiers.”
It is hard to believe that we don't trust soldiers with guns on an Army base when we trust these very same men in Iraq and Afghanistan. Mr. Clinton's deadly rules even disarmed officers, the most trusted members of the military charged with leading enlisted soldiers in combat. Six of the dead and wounded had commissions.- Washington Times
One might argue that the Washington Times, and perhaps even Gottlieb, are also trying to exploit the killings to push an agenda of “re-armament,” except that neither of them started this exploitation.
For the Seattle Weekly, it may be that the newspaper views Gottlieb as a symbol of a pro-gun lifestyle it finds distasteful and would like to marginalize.
For Daley, the Fort Hood massacre presents an opportunity to demonize a civil right he would like to abolish.
More from Gun Rights Examiners
Atlanta: Ed Stone | Austin: Howard Nemerov | Boston: Ron Bokleman | Charlotte: Paul Valone | Cheyenne: Anthony Bouchard | Chicago: Don Gwinn | Cleveland: Daniel White | DC: Mike Stollenwerk | Denver: Dan Bidstrup | Grand Rapids: Skip Coryel | Los Angeles: John Longenecker | Minneapolis: John Pierce | National: David Codrea | Phoenix: Douglas Little | Seattle: Dave Workman | St. Louis: Kurt Hofmann | Wisconsin: Gene German
And Don’t forget to visit:
For more info: Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms. Seattle Weekly.
Comments
Looks like fear and ignorance on the part of the anti-gun people is still alive and well. They like holding onto that rock for some reason. To bad it is tied to a rope around their neck.
This country won't survive it's own stupidity. One group of people think its a venal unfair place where you can't succeed and the other group is hoping Jesus will return at Kansas City.
So what country are we gonna invade next cause we lose our collective s*@t over arabic amaericans. The idea that political correctness killed those brave troops is just the height of stupidity
Why can't some people just accept that a tragedy is a tragedy and that there might be steps and measures we can take to prevent or minimize (righties you can't ever be 100 percent safe sorry) this happening again no foreign policy is going to correct this. The nut was espousing religious psychobabble and further just shows that people are better off far away from religion as possible or just KEEP IT TO YOURSELF.
How do you A) define PC or a PC society B) How did PC kill a group of people and sholud I start fearing atheists putting up signs on buses? C) Can you people prove you have literate functioning brains cause I am at a loss sometimes?
Psst political correctness= I miss the good ol days when we could be ignorant and racist as f@&k and why doesn't everyone think like we do cause were blessed
hey daley,whats wrong i thougth you wanted only miltary to have guns
Samual Johnson made the comment about keeping your mouth shut, not Mark Twain. (wrong Sam)
Washington Times & its Moonie owners are full of crap. we were not allowed to carry personal weapons on base in the 1970s or 1980s, either.
No jackass from NY like Bloomberg, or Giuliani piped in? What a shocker. Guess most feel no need for more gun control when the gov't will be able to control it thru their new HC program.
What do people expect when the state run media won't even call this a terrorist attack. Wouldn't want to hurt Obama's presidency now would we?
While you're being so righteous, don't you think you should tell readers that Gottlieb signs your paychecks?
Richard Folson, you really should keep the quote in mind before you spew your ridiculous statements. PC was the invention of Mao, you know, the communist mass murderer? You are the one who seems to be missing grey matter. PC kills people because it keeps the Army, in this case, from getting rid of undesireables who happen to be of a certain religion or skin color. Why don't you turn off the TV, put down the newspaper and do a little research on your own? If you do that, maybe you won't come across as an uneducated moron.
As for Robo, who cares? And, who is being so righteous anyway? A man standing up for his rights, or some megalomaniac who wants to strip those rights away? Comments like that prove you bring nothing to the conversation and have a hard time with reading English for comprehension. Please go back to the 6th grade.
Daley says "America loves guns"... Then, in the next breath, he says "you can't blame society for the actions...of one individual". He's talking out of both sides of his mouth, again, blaming guns and the individual.
Daley, if Hasan had unleashed sarin nerve gas, would you feel any better?
outlaw cars because of drunk drivers ! outlaw matches because of arson ! if all of the soldiers at fort hood would have been armed do you think he would have the balls to atempt it ? if so he may have only shot 3-4 before his terrorist act would have been stop by some of the brave soldiers he killed ! GOD BLESS THE USA !!!!
No jackass from NY like Bloomberg, or Giuliani piped in? What a shocker. Guess most feel no need for more gun control when the gov't will be able to control it thru their new HC program.
I wish that people would ask our leaders and those in this gun activist one question: Point Blank; lay a gun on a table and ask them while they are looking at the gun to ask the gun to kill someone. Then ask them if the gun was able to kill someone? Then if they answer the question then ask them why is it the person behind the gun pulling the trigger to kill another individual. This is how gus are used to kill innocent people whether military or civilian!! It takes another individual to pull the trigger and that is who takes the life instead of the gun. How stupid people can get when they have too much education and no commmon sense. Plus!! Have stupid rich people from other nations force their beliefs in our nation through bribery and false truths!!! Stalin is correct that America will never be defeated by being attacked on it own soil but through being infiltrated with other nations lies and immigration from other nations that believe in no guns! The media is bias and likes lies!
Those who believe lies because they put money first will have to reap what they sow! It's a shame that Americans lost the True meaning about "In God We Trust!"
I would point out that Daley loves guns. Yes, he does. But only those guns in his service, from his bodyguards to his criminal gang, er, uh Chicago Police Department.
He absolutely adores guns, he just doesn't want anybody else to have them. Criminals never do.
Daley your full of commist crap, but the hard cold fact remains ,that if that base had bin armed , the sob would have ate lead sooner, but with you ,you think that hitler in world war 2 had the right to disarm the jews ,and kill them, you think you can push your anti-gun sh-- on us, you that would step on all that died for your freedom,your time is short, we will vote your commist a-s out, but you will never win ,or disarm us,and we will never give you ,the right to do so, bank on it,,
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