You can always count on the National Rifle Association to raise the level of discourse… to sheer nuttery! For example, at a July 23 “No on 594” event in Silverdale, WA, NRA spokesman Brian Judy is caught on audio comparing universal gun background checks to Nazi Germany*, before ridiculing Jews like I-594 backer Nick Hanauer for being anti-gun.
“These people,” an exasperated Judy exclaims about anti-gun Jews. Really:
“About 2 weeks ago, Nick Hanauer, the billionaire, contributor to 594, wrote an article in Politico.com. Go home and search Politico.com and Nick Hanauer. He wrote this article, its called “The Pitchforks are Coming . . . for Us Plutocrats.“ So it was an article, it was a letter to all his fellow rich people. And he was saying that the middle class was shrinking, us haves are a smaller and smaller group of people, and soon enough the have-nots, they’re not going to take it anymore and they’re going to come after us plutocrats with pitchforks. And I’m convinced, I saw the article and there’s the answer to my question.
Why does a small group of billionaires want to register handguns? ‘Cause I know where they want to go. I’ve watched these people for 30 years, they want to ban ’em, but they have to register them first so they know where to get them. And these billionaire plutocrats want to get rid of handguns so when things do go loose that the people only have pitchforks to come after them. [Unintelligible] and they have the guns. And then at the end of this article, I mean it’s staggering to me, because at the end of the article Hanauer talks about his family, and they’re from Germany. They had a pillow manufacturer in Germany. And in one of the last paragraphs he talks about his family being run out of Germany by the Nazis. It’s like [slapping noise; laughter]. How stupid can they – you know? Now he’s funding, he’s put half a million dollars, toward this policy, the same policy that led to his family getting run out or Germany by the Nazis. You know, it’s staggering to me, it’s just, you can’t make this stuff up. That these people, its like any Jewish people I meet who are anti-gun, I think, “are you serious? Do you not remember what happened?” And why did that happen? Because they registered guns and then they took them. And now you’re supporting gun con – you come to this country and you support gun control? Why did you have to flee to this country in the first place? Hello! Is anybody home here? It’s just – I don’t know.
Yeah, yeah, maybe they don’t know. So, but it’s really sad the level of understanding some people have of history and, like they say, if you don’t understand history, you’re doomed to repeat it. And here’s this billionaire, this arrogant, elitist, progressive billionaire who’s, you know, running around Seattle getting all his fellow billionaires to pony up to push this thing.”
Uh-huh.
First, it’s interesting to note that the biggest laugh Judy gets is when he talks about Hanauer’s family being “run out of Germany by the Nazis.” Ha-ha! Because that’s always funny.
I’ll be here all week; try the veal!
Second, to dismiss Judy’s comments as merely clumsy or insensitive, you’d have to ignore the contortions he went through to weave Hanauer’s Jewishness into the narrative. So who is backing I-594? Wealthy Jews, Judy warns the room! Now that’s an anti-semitic dog whistle if I’ve heard one.
Talk about repeating history.
* And FYI, this Nazi gun control myth the NRA loves to repeat? It’s total bullshit. Just in case you had any doubt.
Rightwingers are so frustrated that Jews don’t vote like they “should.” These poor Christians are just looking after our interests, yet we keep supporting liberals who want to destroy Israel and support gun control. Why can’t we all be like the Koch brothers and Sheldon Adelson they wonder.
Nice catch.
Regarding Hanauer and the need for guns as self-defense, he’s pretty open about a future need for those of us with higher incomes to defend our lives and property with something.
And what do I see in our future now?
I see pitchforks.
Read more: http://www.politico.com/magazi.....z38meea13g
Rock beats scissors. Firearm beats pitchfork.
I don’t own a gun, but when I hear Hanauer (not to mention idiots like RR) say shit like this (he said the same thing on NPR earlier this month as well), it makes me wonder if perhaps I should.
Gun people are whacked out. I’ve lost track on who they think they are supposed to protect themselves against. It’s like paranoia syndrome. Maybe if they thought about resolving issues that will keep the earth on its axis as we know it then maybe they would have to think less about eventually fighting (or having to shoot) someone.
Are they worried about the government, or now the rich Jews, or the poor minorities, or the immigrants, or running out of resources and having to kill your competition and other gun owners.
Can’t we all just get along. And the things that keep us from killing each other?
@3
Can’t we all just get along. And the things that keep us from killing each other?
You’d sound more persuasive without that pitchfork in your hands.
@4 Don’t you try to take away our pitchforks! The only thing that stops a bad guy with a pitchfork is a good guy with an even bigger pitchfork!
Interesting that advocates of unrestricted gun ownership no longer talking about hunting, target shooting, or other shooting sports. Now, they couch their arguments in terms of violent social upheaval. Are they planning something we don’t know about?
@2 “those of us with higher incomes”
You mean people making over $15 an hour?
@2. Here is a thought exercise, if people don’t have jobs because corporations offshored and automated them and then people don’t have food because the republicans got rid of food stamps, what could happen between the people who don’t have food and the people who are living like kings? Use your imagination.
Ya know, $15 an hour isn’t much. It really isn’t. But as I watch the right’s reaction to minimum-wage workers asking to be paid $15 an hour for their labor, I’m thinking maybe we do all need guns. As I used to say, liberals must arm!
@9
I’ve always wanted a .45 caliber Thompson sub-machine gun.
It would look so cool over the fireplace.
If pitchforks are outlawed only outlaws will have pitchforks.
Most people don’t know how to use pitchforks, shovels, hoes, machetes, sledgehammers, etc. — and they are pretty weak, when it comes down to it — even most weight lifters. They’d be better off with guns.
I’ve spent a lot of time doing blue-collar jobs and guess what? Most of them are not that easy and you can get a lot more than $15 hr if you can do them well.
But you had better have a good education to fall back on — because when they finally succeed in breaking your body — you’ll never again make the money that you were.
I couldn’t care less about Hanauer’s ethnicity. I care more about his ivory tower proselytizing. He’s obviously worried about how the middle and working class view him and his ilk, but instead of campaigning to fix the class issue he’d rather the government disarm the peasants so they can’t exact any kind of retribution upon him and the aristocrats should their fat cat legislation fail… effing pathetic and utterly self-serving. Nothing could could convince me more to vote for 591. X(
@13 You’re an idiot. Try reading.
Either way I-594 is poorly written, will have no effect on crime, targets only lawful gun owners (“transfers” are the issue), and will criminalize common everyday activity lawful Washingtonian gunowners currently enjoy. Such as sharing firearms with friends while shooting on public or private land. Male no mistake I-594 is registration, and historically registration leads to confiscation.
It’s the NRA version of mansplaining.
And the NRA top attorney is a confessed murderer and armed robber. The only reason he is out of prison is because the Police totally fucked their case. That is what you get when the only real qualifications for Police work are being a bully with an IQ of 90 or less, and no known criminal history after the age of eighteen.
@15. that’s a scare tactic that doesn’t hold up.
We register cars, and boats, and motorcycles and dogs and cats and software and marriage licenses and birth records and land titles and trademarks and historically registration has not lead to confiscation. So why not guns?
@13 So you’re in favor of shooting the rich?
Like RR, I think the left should turn tables on the right and get armed.
I think one solution to threats posed to women’s clinics and the women who need them is to arm women – I think armed women, especially lesbians would be especially galling to the right-wing uterus police.
Just like “Dykes on Bikes” is a thing, there should be “Dykes with Guns” groups to practice open carry, and have squads outside women’s clinics to keep a perimeter secure, and to escort potential patrons from their cars past the gauntlet of screeching fundies.
I would love to see the faces of the misogynist Teahaddists if that were to happen.
“And FYI, this Nazi gun control myth the NRA loves to repeat? It’s total bullshit. ”
That statement is, in and unto itself, BS. And its also why gun-control keeps losing: reporting only the sliver of truth to support their case, but ignoring the rest and hope no one actually challenges them on it.
Hitler DID loosen gun-control laws… for the German people only. Jews, Gypsies, etc?…. not so much. In fact, there were strict gun-control laws that, by 1938, if a Jew was found with anything that could potentially be used as a weapon (especially guns), they could be executed on the spot. And how did it all start? By requiring gun registration.
Read history:
http://news.google.com/newspap.....#038;hl=en
Why not instead talk about how a majority of the law enforcement organizations in Washington do NOT support i594?