The Stupid - It Burns!

Now I don't have a problem with properly trained people owning firearms. Here in Canada there is a requirement to pass a safety test before one can even get a license. This would tend to keep the mindlessly stupid from owning a firearm. It wouldn't be proof against this, of course since allegedly the people here in Calgary I share the road with also passed a safety test, but you wouldn't know it to see them drive. However I digress, if state senator Lori Klein had taken a safety course, perhaps she would have known better (allegedly she's been around firearms since she was a child, apparently she didn't learn any safety in that time).

Now I'm looking at this as a retired reserve force officer, one who was qualified to teach firearms safety and was qualified as a Range Safety Officer. The very first rule of firearms safety is this: TREAT EVERY FIREARM AS IF IT WERE LOADED. Simple and to the point. For the senator though, she knew it was loaded and still pointed it at someone. Herein lies the second rule NEVER POINT A FIREARM AT ANYTHING YOU DON'T WANT TO SHOOT. That's right, you never point a firearm, loaded or otherwise, at any thing or any one you don't want to put a bullet in. Epic fail on the part of Sen. Klein. Now if you're thinking these are just mamby-pamby Canadian military rules, check out the NRA safety guidelines which state basically the same thing. So if even the American gun lobby's own safety rules say that the senator is in the wrong, makes you wonder about the senator and her supporters.

Now I have two points to make with this. First is that it would seem that the Senator and her supporters don't think that she's done anything wrong, after all it's her right in Arizona to walk around with a fully loaded pistol in her purse (sans safety so that anything could set it off, by the way). It would also seem they think it's her right to point it at anyone she chooses. Since the senator has yet to be charged with anything, I suspect that in Arizona, that is truly the case, making me re-think any plans I have about seeing the Grand Canyon any time soon. It makes me wonder what would happen if one of the Neanderthals that sit in the Alberta provincial PC party back benches (or their Wildrose counterparts) or their Federal cousins did the same thing. Would they get charged? This is an important question because if they did the same thing, they would be breaking several sections of the criminal code, illegal use of a firearm, unsafe storage of a firearm, illegal transport of a firearm, uttering threats (pointing a firearm at someone is a threatening act, regardless of the intent). Would they actually get charged? Or would Dear Leader step in to protect a loyal supporter and the "right" to carry concealed firearms? Given the pertinacity of Canadian conservatives (both small and big "C") to idolize their USian brethren I can see them supporting such a right.

The second point is that despite the fact that Senator Klein pointed a loaded pistol at a reporter, in the foyer of the state assembly house, she was not immediately taken down by security or police. Had it been the other way around, with the reporter pointing the firearm at the Senator, I'm sure there'd be nothing left but the reporter's family grieving at the grave side as the reporter would likely get gunned down in a heartbeat. Quite the double standard law enforcement in Arizona has there don't you think? Again, makes one question any vacation plans one has for the Grand Canyon State given the probably issues one would have with local law enforcement.

So really all it points to is that even in the US, conservative voters will vote for whatever cow pie happens to have a Conservative or Republican sticker on it. Showing that tThe Stupid isn't just restricted to the people that conservative voters elect.