The PGH City Paper Online captures the scene at the Pittsburgh Interfaith Impact Network rally:
Before marching to the David L. Lawrence Convention Center, Downtown, where members of the NRA had gathered, protesters stood at Freedom Square to hear speakers discuss the need to stop gun violence and tighten gun restrictions.
"It's not about the Second Amendment," Pittsburgh Police Chief Nate Harper told demonstrators. "It's about common sense ... We're the best country in the world, but we don't act like it when it comes to guns." (CP Slag Heap, Daley & Young)
The P-G recently ran a piece against several controversial NRA policies:
The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms maintains a database which could provide a wide variety of valuable [illegal gun] trace information with just a few keystrokes. But the NRA's allies in Congress have successfully passed laws which limit the data that may be released to law enforcement agencies.
The catch is that each agency may receive information only about its own gun recoveries and traces. So, for instance, Pittsburgh police cannot view information on gun recoveries and traces in the many boroughs that surround the city. Since gun traffickers and other violators do not respect municipal or state borders, it is puzzling that the NRA would push for laws that serve only to hamper efforts at investigation and interagency intelligence gathering. (P-G Op-Ed, Pgh. Police Detective Joseph Bielevicz)
It goes up and down the line like this. America's culture is hampered not by any reverence for handguns nor worship of self-reliance -- but rather by a high-charged paranoia to guard the 2nd Amendment against every conceivable slight and treachery, a fanaticism employed with as much ill-faith as Birtherism.
(Photo cap: archival, PIIN.org)
How interesting the fact that when 70,000 gun toters show up in the city, they don't have to assign any police (ala Friday gridlock) and crime
ReplyDeleteplummets...Hmmm.
NRA-convention levels of gun totership cannot last sustainably. Sooner or later, somebody's going to see a thief and fire a weapon. And the thief might fire a warning shot back. On the plus side, all the bars will have piano players.
ReplyDeleteNRA-convention levels of gun totership cannot last sustainably.
ReplyDeleteMaybe somebody can figure out how to make a gun out of hemp.
There was a thief...did you see the deer antler heist? Seriously.
ReplyDeleteGuns won't be drawn for a theft. Think again.
ReplyDeleteThe heist was only after the convention was over. No one would have dared while it was in full swing!
ReplyDelete