Grand Rapids Michigan Mayor George Heartwell (courtesy mlive.com)

The following is Grand Rapids Michigan Mayor George Heartwell’s official statement to the Grand Rapid, Michigan City Council on the subject of gun control:

Since last we met as a City Commission – according to the online resource Wikipedia – there have been nine school shootings, and at least one movie theatre and one mall shooting in the United States. If that pace continues it will outstrip last year’s reported 31 school shootings. Since January 1, 2000, there have been a reported 119 school shootings in the (United States). How could we forget the 6-year-old boy in Flint who brought his uncle’s gun to school and killed his little 6-year-old classmate because, as he said, “I don’t like her.” . . .

In Grand Rapids there have been 23 reports of gunshots and three shooting victims since January 1.

There have been uncounted numbers of suicides by gun in the country since last we met, but, if averages hold up, then 1,119 people have turned their guns on themselves and taken their lives in the last three weeks. Just over half of all suicides are by gun.

There is estimated to be 310 million guns in this country. That is one gun for every man, woman and child in the nation, save 9 million. Many of those guns are owned by unstable people or are owned by others in the homes of unstable people in which guns are readily available. The Congress of the United States has failed its responsibility to protect us from those dangerous and mentally unstable people. Every American citizen is at risk today because of our lax and irresponsible gun laws. We even had an illustration in our neighboring community of (Ionia) of two licensed gun carriers drawing on each other after a road rage incident. Both are dead.

I sit in our City Commission meeting week after week anxious and frightened because a civilian with a gun is in this chamber. I know that he can kill me, and probably others at this table or in these chambers, before the police officer in the rear of the room can react. Carrying a gun always, always represents the threat to use that gun to kill or maim another. That, after all, is why these people carry their guns.

Now the gun advocates want to “desensitize” the community to open carry. The more guns we see, they say, the less we will fear them or the people carrying them. Well, I will never be desensitized and God help us all if society accepts those bullying tactics as the norm.

I urge all citizens who feel as I do to take action. Arm yourselves with the righteousness of our position. If you see an armed person come into a store or restaurant, alert others and leave the establishment. If you see an armed person in a shopping mall or movie theatre, alert security and leave the building. If you see an armed person approaching a school, call the police. You see we can never know what that individual’s intention may be. We must always err on the side of public safety rather than regretting later, when people are dead, that we didn’t act.

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146 COMMENTS

    • Iknowrite? I can’t believe that gun didn’t jump out of the holster and kill him dead, right then and there.

    • This is exactly how the typical liberal who knows nothing about guns other than what they’ve seen on TV or a movie thinks.

      Only they’re unable to articulate it this clearly it because their position was formed via indoctrination and fear-mongering, not rational thought, reason and evidence.

  3. This mayor uses Wikipedia to cite things, so I sort of ignored everything else he said.

    Good side of that is he isn’t wasting taxpayer money on doing very hard research…

      • What’s your point Shawn? That an elected mayor of a major city should or should not be held to a higher standard than a web blog?

        TTAG doesn’t use taxpayer resources to send any messages, let alone an anit-constitutional one spreading fear, uncertainty and doubt. I would hope that an elected official trying to influence policy or outright making city policy would at least inquire to his own police force about about this topic or do some actual research before defaulting to wikipedia.

    • Its wrong enough to always check the source of Wiki. It’s groupthink and that’s its only strength.

  4. “The Congress of the United States has failed its responsibility to protect us from those dangerous and mentally unstable people. ”

    WTF?!? How about some PERSONAL responsibility?

    • If he expects to add “bodyguard for every citizen” to their job description, they’re going to be stretched a little thin.

      • Since they’re gonna be stretched so thin, guess it’s a good thing those bodyguards won’t actually be liable if they, you know, guard or not.

    • Nice job he does of tarring tens of millions of legal, law-abiding gun owners with the actions of, you guessed it, mostly criminals. Because obviously every gun owner is automatically a public safety threat because we have the audacity to want to defend ourselves with something slightly more effective than the desperate hope that the police show up in time to do something more than take our statement or call an ambulance. I hope for his sake that if a criminal ever threatens him or his family’s safety, they accept “the righteousness of our position” as a suitable deterrent. But somehow I doubt it.

    • Exactly what I thought, Jim Barr, when I read that. I know of know such requirement of congress in its job description (a.k.a., the Constitution). Weird that this mayor is so pig ignorant of the law.

  5. If you see an someone dress in blue that has a gun, call the Po-po and get out of there. Say there is someone with a gun. That is what he means, right?

  6. sooooo every time I see a cop I should flip my shit, and bail? and just assume that the inanimate object is going to kill me and everyone around? sounds rational.

    • Obviously, since the mayor believes even the armed cop IN THE ROOM is unable to effectively deter or stop the crazed armed citizen before he guns down the entire city council.

      So if a LEO on location cannot prevent carnage by gunfire, what are the rest of us supposed to do while we wait helpless for the local PD to find our address on their GPS and tool on over to count the bodies? I believe this dope just made our argument for us.

      Oh, yes, BTW, “…shall not be infringed.”

  8. 1. If everyone leaves the movie because of me it will be much quieter without the texting and gabbing and such.
    2. Had no idea Congress was charged with protecting me from dangerous people. Heading into an unsavory part of the city later but I’m sure my Congressman will come with me.
    3. I didn’t know I wanted to kill or maim another. Apparently I do, as I carry.
    4. If people leave the restaurant because of me, I should receive better service as the waitstaff won’t be as busy.

    • My thoughts exactly! Hey, if people want to vacate the area because they feel frightened that I’m armed….knock yourselves out. I’ll go about my day relishing in the peace and quiet.

    • And the wait-staff will be extremely polite, knowing you are armed and may shoot them at any moment for poor service.

  9. So, to put this into perspective, Since January 1, 89,998,881 Americans with guns did not commit Suicide.

    Last year, 89,999,969 Americans with guns did not participate in a school shooting.

    Since January 1, 2000 89,999,881 Americans with guns did not participate in a school shooting.

  10. As another thought, if someone keeps open carrying (legal in MI) and keeps getting stopped by police, could it be harassment by police and even the mayor?

  11. Every politician should be afraid of an armed population. Thats the way the constitution was designed.

    • Absolutely. This is yet another reason why open carry is vital to preserving our republic. If the armed citizen/s who attends their meetings always carried concealed, the Mayor would write him/her off and not pay any attention whatsoever.

      I know lots of people are not comfortable with open carry. Even I struggle with it sometimes. Nevertheless, this is why we have to keep doing it.

  12. “Arm yourselves with the righteousness of our position” I laughed really hard until I kept reading his recommendations after that. Seriously though people like this need to be tried for treason.

    • How many grains of Positional Righteousness to down a rapist?

      (I dare the powder manufacturers to come out with a product called Positional Righteousness. If Hornady can do Zombie Max and make money, you can do this…)

  13. I guess when you have a sister city like Deeetroit you can afford to talk out of your ass. The good mayor just plum forgot to mention criminal gangbangers & hoods looking for an easy buck. Now I know where one of the Roswell aliens finally took up residence, Randy

  14. This mayor seems to have irrational fear of guns and also an irrational fear of people with or without guns. Now I would blame the media, both entertainment and news media for his fears, because he isn’t shooting as many rounds as I am, nor attending places where lots of folks shoot firearms safely. I don’t seem to fear as many people as he does either. I will pray for him to be able to see beyond his fear.

    • I suppose if the media reported every traffic fatality with the same gusto, he would be afraid to cross a parking lot, as everyone driving a car is just looking for an opportunity to run someone down, why else would they have a car.

  15. Should we call the police when we see armed police officers too? After all, police officers kill people all the time. What about politicians? Historically, politicians have caused countless deaths and genocidal conditions. When I see a politician, I feel anxious and frightened.

  16. It seems I have been tooling up incorrectly for quite some time now. I’ve been packing a 45, but evidently ‘righteousness’ has more stopping power. Where can I buy an IWB righteousness holster?

  17. I spent the majority of my life 30 miles west of Grand Rapids (despite what they want you believe they ARE NOT on the lakeshore). I spent 4 years as an undergrad and 2 years on a masters in engineering at Grand Valley State in downtown GR. In the middle of that I also had an engineering co-op job at a local medical device manufacturer.

    If there has EVER been a city that strives to be more like Detroit and NYC I haven’t seen it. I witnessed them pass some of the most (non-gun related) draconian laws I’ve ever heard of. The policies of that man, the one up there, in the picture, have effectively decimated the west side of the city. If it wasn’t for the University trying to liven the place up it would be nothing but hookers and crack houses.

    • “If it wasn’t for the University trying to liven the place up it would be nothing but hookers and crack houses.”

      See, those are the high tech industries he’s been trying to foster. Ask him about his “service charge.”

    • I stay out of GR. The smart people are yuppies and the rest are trash. The closest I get to that place anymore is Cabela’s. The last time I was up that way was when I was 21. We left the bar, and proceeded over to the bad stretch of Division (read 90% of it) and chucked pennies at the hookers. Good times, but that was years ago. And it has only gotten worse.

    • You worked for Stryker, eh?

      Yeah, downtown west of the river would be a craphole but for the university.

      • Actually, no. Not Stryker. A little company called ATEK (I caught a press release on the intertubez a while back that they had been bought out, I don’t know what they are now). It was a good arrangement, they are 4-5 blocks from the engineering building. Instead of the standard alternating one semester work, two semesters at school they just asked me to walk back and forth between classes. I got a good 3 years of full time experience out of it rather than the standard 1…..

        @slicer: I’m not sure what the stats are for GVSU students being victimized. I know my truck was broken into 3 times during my time there. Once at work, once parking on the street near the University (because there is nowhere near enough student parking) and once IN student parking. Cops told me the first time it was my fault, I shouldn’t have had anything in sight in the vehicle. I almost went to jail for blowing up at the cop…..

        And I’m still finding shards of glass under the seats from the last time. Y’know, after even after I emptied my truck of EVERYTHING including registration and insurance someone still wanted a peak inside.

  18. Any and all POTG in Grand Rapids should heed his advice. Every time you see an armed cop come into a store or restaurant or movie theater or approach a school alert those around you and leave immediately. After all, in the words of your own esteemed mayor “Carrying a gun always, always represents the threat to use that gun to kill or maim another. That, after all, is why these people carry their guns.” This includes cops!

  20. So I wonder if he would respond in fear to a police officer. They are, by the way, people too and are capable of turning their guns on him as well.

  22. What I like is that they are getting desperate enough now to really say what it is they are thinking, and it’s appalling.

  24. I sit in our City Commission meeting week after week anxious and frightened because a civilian with a gun is in this chamber. I know that he can kill me, and probably others at this table or in these chambers, before the police officer in the rear of the room can react. Carrying a gun always, always represents the threat to use that gun to kill or maim another. That, after all, is why these people carry their guns.

    Wow, that’s all kinds of tone-deaf. If carrying a gun always, always represents a threat, does that mean citizens should be anxious and frightened to be in that meeting because an armed police officer is present? And is it permissible to theaten citizens with armed violence for daring to attend public meetings?

    • Of course not. Everyone knows that cops are incorruptible, lightning fast, and never miss. /sarc
      In all seriousness I personally trust a person with just a gun more than a person with a gun and a badge.

      • It is also worth noting that the Mayor does not understand that the police officer in the back of the room is a civilian with a gun sharing the room with him.

    • And somehow every day those gun-toting citizens manage *not* to kill their mayor. I’m not sure how they do it.

  25. and when you “err on the side of safety”, and that “err” results in my being falsely accused and probably detained, you can bet I’ll sue you until you have no money left on which to live.

  26. I live in GR. Our mayor is an idiot and the success this city has had is due to private investment from families like the Devos, Meijers and Vanandels. They brought the theaters, exhibition venues, BUSINESS, and and real tourist attractions or business to this city. It was a Devos who thought of the ever-poplar artprize that brings millions to the city. GR has prospered in spite of this nitwit, not because of him. He has done nothing positive for the city.

    This is the straw that breaks the camel’s back. It’s time to elect a new mayor!

  27. “Arm yourselves with the righteousness of our position.”

    Yeah, right; don’t pay attention to any facts to the contrary, we’re right to demand disarmament because it’s “common sense”.

    Who’s bullying who, here.

    Heartwell obviously doesn’t own any mirrors.

  28. So anyone with a gun means to kill. Oh but not my bodygaurds or the police. They are “different”.

  31. In Grand Rapids there have been 23 reports of gunshots and three shooting victims since January 1.

    Mayor Hartwell, this describes a typical weekend in any other large city in the world. You are not a special snowflake. Grow up!

    I sit in our City Commission meeting week after week anxious and frightened because a civilian with a gun is in this chamber. I know that he can kill me, and probably others at this table or in these chambers, before the police officer in the rear of the room can react.

    Uh, Your Honor, that civilian with the gun is the personal bodyguard you hired to protect you from all the people with guns who don’t use them to commit suicide. You really should seek treatment – you’re paranoid and delusional.

  32. How can this man, who took an oath to the constitution, say these words and not be immediately stripped of his title? How can he even function with such a crushing paranoia of people and crowds?

  33. Sounds like Hizzhonor is off his meds again.
    …How long have you been having these paranoid delusions, sir? That long? Please go with the nice men in white uniforms, sir. They’ll take to a safe place. No sir, no one is out to get you, sir. These nice men are here to help you…

  34. Anyone notice that Mayor Heartwell doesn’t appear to be afraid of the armed police officer in the meeting?

    I guess it really says something about the person who only trusts people on his payroll.

  35. Bullying is any action we don’t like now or can find a way to take offense to, forgot about that .

  36. Afraid of a citizen (and I wonder if its the same one each time) legally carrying in the council chambers. Huh.

    I suppose he’s also afraid of the citizens who brought their voices and opinions? No? Wonder why not …

  37. Why doesn’t this mayor get his panties in a bunch, about that police officer with a gun in the back?
    What if he becomes unstable and starts shooting everybody in the room?

    • We have to start pressing that question really hard to the gun grabbers. Why do they blindly trust any armed person who wears a blue costume uniform? Remember, both security guards and sworn police wear similar garb. After all, those armed security guards and police officers could go berserk any moment and kill countless people.

      I am really serious about this. It forces gun grabbers to admit it is ridiculous. And then we tell them the FACT that armed citizens actually commit fewer violent crimes than police officers.

  38. I sit in our City Commission meeting week after week anxious and frightened because a civilian with a gun is in this chamber.

    This poor guy needs counseling. The fact that according to him simply not knowing there was somebody in there with a gun would make him feel better highlights how irrational his fear is.

  39. This makes me want to go to their next meeting wearing as many handguns as I can possibly fit on my belt. Imagine his horror as he sees me wearing not one, but three or four handguns — especially a .44 Magnum with a barrel over 8 inches long!!!

    Now if I could only find a belt that would hold up all that weight.

    • suspenders would help hold some of the weight on your shoulders. Also don’t forget shoulder holsters.

      • I tried that once too prove a point to a friend. One shoulder holstered 1911, another in a sob holster, a m9 in a crossdraw, a vaquero in a quick draw on my hip, and ppk in my back pocket.

  40. This mayor and way too many of our politicians fail miserably at their ability to read and comprehend. As proof, If they could read, I suspect they would have read the US Constitution; yes the same one they swore to uphold and defend.

    Just a refresher on the 2A:
    “A WELL REGULATED MILITIA BEING NECESSARY TO THE SECURITY OF A FREE STATE, THE RIGHT OF THE PEOPLE TO KEEP AND BEAR ARMS SHALL NOT BE INFRINGED”

    After having read the US Constitution; if they had any ability to comprehend what they read, the words SHALL NOT BE INFRINGED, should be easy to understand. Yet these “I know I am smarter than the fools who elected me” continue to violate the same US Constitution they swore an oath to defend.

  41. “I sit in our City Commission meeting week after week anxious and frightened because a civilian with a gun is in this chamber. I know that he can kill me, and probably others at this table or in these chambers, before the police officer in the rear of the room can react.”

    Umm… Police are “civilians” too.

  42. Many of those guns are owned by unstable people or are owned by others in the homes of unstable people in which guns are readily available.
    Define “many”, Mr. Mayor. The vast majority of guns (tens of millions) are owned by stable, law-abiding citizens who will never shoot or kill anyone, and I would even go so far as to say will never break the law at all, during their lifetimes, and, more importantly, who have a 2nd Amendment right to keep & bear arms.

    Carrying a gun always, always represents the threat to use that gun to kill or maim another. That, after all, is why these people carry their guns.
    On this point, Mr. Mayor, we can agree. Playing defense is something that, while not always desired or sought, is sometimes necessary in the world in which we live today.

  43. I’ve been worried Michigan’s gun rights have been strattling the fence for quite a while. We are “shall issue” and have open carry. Even when stuff gets better it feels iffy. SBR’s just got legalized a few months ago. But very few CLEO’s will sign off on suppressors, which to me defeats the purpose. We still have to register handguns, and our lower half of the state is shotgun/handgun only for hunting. They were going to allow pistol caliber rifles… That wen’t to the Gov’s desk on Dec 14th 2012, and faded into oblivion. Our local governments seems pro gun, regardless of party affiliation, but our state gov’t doesn’t.

    We’re climbing steps of ice. We’re getting somewhere slowly, but I can’t shake the feeling that it’s inevitably going to melt. I kind of feel that way about the whole coutry, then I go put holes in paper and I feel better.

    • Pretty much everywhere north of kent county you can hunt with a rifle. Only the southern counties are shotgun zones. FYI

      • I thought the line was around Muskegon. My bad. I don’t concern myself with it too much, as I live south of the line.

        Either way, It’s a feel good law that punishes me, and regulates stupid, unsafe people. If I’m up a tree, bullet flight time doesn’t matter as it’s going straight into the ground if it misses.

  44. “I urge all citizens who feel as I do to take action. Arm yourselves with the righteousness of our position.”

    From Emerson’s essay on Courage:

    An old farmer, my neighbor across the fence, when I ask him if he is not going to town-meeting, says: “No; ‘t is no use balloting, for it will not stay; but what you do with the gun will stay so.” Nature has charged every one with his own defence as with his own support, and the only title I can have to your help is when I have manfully put forth all the means I possess to keep me, and, being overborne by odds, the by-standers have a natural wish to interfere and see fair play.

  45. this level of paranoia borders on mental illness. and the level of anger and hate towards gun owners is bigotry.

  46. He is listed as an Independent but has, since 1990, made only three donations to politicians and all three were to Democrats including one to each our “wonderful” Senators, Levin and “Stab-U-Now.”

  47. A grown man that is “frightened and anxious” of an inanimate object, should really just go ahead and have himself neutered and join a band of eunuchs…………..

    I only hope that he doesn’t have children, as I’m sure his progeny carry the same recessive “lack of sack” gene and we have enough of the emasculation already in our society.

  48. “Many of those guns are owned by unstable people or are owned by others in the homes of unstable people in which guns are readily available” Well at least he is admitting that politicians own guns.

  50. “I urge all citizens who feel as I do to take action”

    That says it all there. “who feel as I do.” Feelings, not reason, guide him.

    Who cares how I feel about a subject? What I think should be more important. But he doesn’t think, he feels.

  51. Every time you see someone driving a car you need to alert others, alert security, call 911 and alert them as well; and then get of the streets, preferably into a deep car proof shelter. I know that someone driving a car can kill me, and other people who are just walking around – even people sitting in their home have been killed by cars – and all that could happen before any police officer out keeping the city safe could stop them!
    The number of people killed by in auto accidents every year is more than the number of people killed by guns, and cars are designed to be as safe as possible while guns are (as the media has told me) “Made To Kill People”. It is only common sense that if something like cars can kill more people than guns – when guns are killing machines and there is one gun for every man, woman and child in the nation, (save 9 million) – cars should absolutely be feared and reported every time you see someone driving one. After all:
    We must always err on the side of public safety rather than regretting later, when people are dead, that we didn’t act.

  53. There have always been a lot of guns in America but mass shootings are a more recent phenomenom. Is it possible that the entire structure of society is to blame, not the guns? Is it possible that government ineffectiveness, urban sprawl, unemployment, depression, general hopelessness and lack of self esteem are to blame? If this is true then our country is broken. According to the Founding Fathers this would be the very time guns SHOULD NOT be relinquished. This would be the time guns are used to empower the citizenry to enact changes that put the American dream back on track. I dare say I believe if we were to disarm American now absolute disaster would befall us immediately. The solution lies in the happiness and opportunity of all citizens, not in banning an object that isn’t capable of good intentions or bad intentions. What if firearms were outlawed and the number of mass killings dropped by half only to be replaced by bombers who killed 5 times more people per mass killing. The law of unintended consequences could be terrible. The aweful truth that is too difficult to mention is that our current model of living is a complete disaster. I am a patriot. I want America to suceed but I know things aren’t working as arranged now. Nothing succeeds like success. If things were working conversations like this wouldn’t take place. No one would even contemplate it like we don’t contemplate problems with sea-serpants attacking coastal cities. It wouldn’t come to mind.

  54. “The Congress of the United States has failed its responsibility to protect us from those dangerous and mentally unstable people. ”

    “I sit in our City Commission meeting week after week anxious and frightened because a civilian with a gun is in this chamber.”

    “Carrying a gun always, always represents the threat to use that gun to kill or maim another. That, after all, is why these people carry their guns.”

    Sigh.

    Lawdy! Lawdy! I think he caught a case of the vapors!

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FtcCvH9hDFI

  55. Where is this place called “Grand Vapors,” and why did it elect a mayor who needs testosterone replacement therapy?

  57. so he is telling people: “when you see an armed person, call another armed person” … the fact that people think that somehow police officers are magical angels has a nice romantic tone to it. but in the end, they are people with a gun who have training. dot dot dot. mind you, some armed people in a public place might be off duty police officers or plain clothes police officers … do we call police on police than? i just do not understand the logic or the rhetoric being used by those who rely MOST on the man with a gun … “before the police officer in the rear of the room can react.”

    what a hypocrite. can i have a police officer with me and all members of my family too? thanks!

  58. I am shocked, SHOCKED, by the failure of empathy and sympathetic understanding seen in the comments here. The fact that a politician is pants-wettingly terrified whenever he sees a gun is a reason to feel sorry for the poor, gutless milksop, not a reason to cruelly mock him and denigrate his views. It’s not his fault that he’s a thumbsucking pansy whose mother doubtlessly milkfed him through age eight.

  60. Funny how these politicians exhort adults to, when they see a gun, “Stop! Don’t touch! Call the Police!”. But if you try to get an Eddie Eagle program into the school, which preaches the exact same behaviour – “Oh no! You’re trying to teach kids about guns.”

    Dickheads like this won’t stop until all of society is wrapped several layers deep in bubble-wrap, to prevent any sort of injury to themselves or others.If you don’t accept your wrap, you’re a psycho maverick rogue potential killer.

  61. C.S. Lewis said, – “Of all tyrannies, a tyranny sincerely exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive. It would be better to live under robber barons than under omnipotent moral busy bodies. Those who torment us for our own good will torment us without end for they do so with the approval of their own conscience.”

  62. I am a concealed carry instructor in Grand Rapids. I am proud to say just last week I graduated another 24 people who will soon be carrying on the streets of Grand Rapids. I am sure that the fact that gun stores and classes are full all over town drives George crazy.

    • Gideon, thanks for what you are doing. I’ve never been to Michigan but mayors like this one seem to exist in every state. Maybe you guys and gals can just start open carrying everywhere it’s legal. What are they going to do? There aren’t enough police in Grand Rapids to question every open carry citizen if you act together. Nor would every business empty out when you walked in like the fool suggested. I use to view open carry activist with a somewhat negative opinion though I supported their right. Now I’ve seen the light. These people aren’t breaking any laws and will likely result in the state being a safer place due to their visible “peace makers”.

  63. Certainly the thing for all Grand Rapids citizens to do is Man Those Phone Lines. Innundate the police so a liberal 911 call goes something like this- Help Help, a perp is killing me, he has a blade halfway in my gut, hello? hello? hello (recording) Thank you for calling the GR emergency response line, all our officers are busy at this time & can’t help. Would you please take a short survey though? Press 1 if you really wish you had a gun now, Press 2 if you want that asshat george out of there asap, Press 3 if you need help with your “Final Expenses” /// liberalism, it’s not a disease, it’s a permanent cure, Randy

  64. “The Congress of the United States has failed its responsibility to protect us from those dangerous and mentally unstable people. ”

    “I sit in our City Commission meeting week after week anxious and frightened because a civilian with a gun is in this chamber.”

    “Carrying a gun always, always represents the threat to use that gun to kill or maim another. That, after all, is why these people carry their guns.”

    Lighten up Francis.

  65. So I take it the LEO at the back of the room is equipped with nothing but a hot dog launcher and a room-filling baritone.

  66. “We must always err on the side of public safety rather than regretting later, when people are dead, that we didn’t act.”

    Like when we all regretted the deaths of 26 helpless people at Sandy Hook School? Because it would’ve been pretty easy to have some sort of defense there for them.

    Oh, wait, no… The very people whose policies made sure no one was there to act on behalf of the innocents have created a self-serving national zeitgeist from the tragedy — more of the same is all they’re saying.

    From where I stand, that doesn’t look like regret.

  67. TTAG is behind on this story. Tom Lambert, one of our members and the one that was mentioned in the story, attended the GR City Council meeting on Tuesday night and had this to say to the mayor:

    STATEMENT DELETED – WE’RE RUNNING IT AS A SEPARATE POST.

    The City of GR refuses to remove illegal and unenforceable laws on the books about carrying firearms. All municipalities are barred from enacting their own firearms legislation due to state preemption.

    • Robert Farago, I’ve asked Tom Lambert to contact you directly about maybe giving TTAG a synopsis of what’s been goin on in GR for the past year. I’ve got the transcript of some of the things he’s said to the mayor and city council. They are devastating (from a factual standpoint) and they have not appeared in the MSM. I could send you if you want. Let me know. It’s mighty good reading. :>)

      Mayor Heartwell has gone on the record, in recorded news video, saying he hopes the citizens of Grand Rapids are confused about the gun laws. Amazing.

  70. “That, after all, is why these people carry their guns.”

    Well, duh, but what the good Mayor fails to see is that it all comes down to is initiation of violence or the threat thereof. We carry because we acknowledge the genuine risk of violent criminals and we prefer to repel them rather than succumb to them.

    Self defense is about, well, defending yourself. That’s probably why they call it that. It has nothing to do with initiating violence against politicians like him or anyone else for that matter. This frothy fear he feels enveloping him has much more to do, I’m sure, with his need for control over others, and his frustration with not attaining it, than it does with any serious danger posed by lawful concealed carriers.

  71. ” If you see an armed person come into a store or restaurant, alert others and leave the establishment.”

    Sounds good to me.

  72. “In Grand Rapids there have been 23 reports of gunshots and three shooting victims since January 1.”
    In Grand Rapids, Michigan, a State damaged by Democratic leadership, I think it’s safe to say, they have their share of gangs and druggies too. Of course, there will be illegal use of weapons.

    “I sit in our City Commission meeting week after week anxious and frightened because a civilian with a gun is in this chamber. I know that he can kill me, and probably others at this table or in these chambers, before the police officer in the rear of the room can react. Carrying a gun always, always represents the threat to use that gun to kill or maim another. That, after all, is why these people carry their guns.”
    What has he done, or has not done, that would earn his execution by some shooter? He sure likes to paint with a broad brush and fear-monger.

  74. I wonder if he is afraid to drive as well because you never know if that
    car or truck headed towards you in an opposite lane may have a killer or suicidal
    driver at the wheel and selects your vehicle as a means to an end.

  75. If carrying a gun always implies a threat of violence, then you Mr. Mayor, along with men in general, are always implicated as potential rapists. Unless of course, you are missing your manliness….Mr. Mayor.

  77. “I sit in our City Commission meeting week after week anxious and frightened because a civilian with a gun is in this chamber. I know that he can kill me, and probably others at this table or in these chambers, before the police officer in the rear of the room can react. Carrying a gun always, always represents the threat to use that gun to kill or maim another. That, after all, is why these people carry their guns.”

    psychological projection at its finest.

  78. “There is estimated to be 310 million guns in this country. That is one gun for every man, woman and child in the nation, save 9 million.”

    First, 9 million is not an insubstantial number. If he said, “give or take a couple.” maybe.

    Second, it sounds like we need at least 9 million more guns.

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