In the immediate aftermath of the Ft. Lauderdale shooting, the mainstream media’s using the attack as a jumping-off point for recycling their usual pro-gun control arguments — regardless of their relevance. Or complete lack thereof.  Needless to say, The New York Times is on the case.

Ahead of the inevitable editorial board condemnation of the NRA and firearms-friendly Floridians, columnist Gail Collins sets her sights on Donald Trump. I know, right? Here’s the set-up . . .

The immediate reaction of many folks from gun places to the Fort Lauderdale shooting was that — aha! — Florida is one of the few states where it’s illegal to carry a gun anywhere in an airline terminal.

Meanwhile, many people in non-gun places wondered why airline passengers were allowed to have firearms in their luggage.

It’s hard to have a rational gun conversation in a country with such a cultural chasm. It’s the job of our national officials to bridge the gap. And it ought to be possible, since there are some important issues on which almost everybody agrees. One is that gun purchases should be run through background checks to make sure the buyer doesn’t have a record of lawbreaking or serious mental problems.

If Hillary Clinton were President, would she be one of those non-gun-place-people wondering about the government “allowing” people to travel with their firearm stored in their luggage (locked and unloaded with the ammo stored separately)? Would President Clinton have turned to Uma and cried “will no one rid me of this troublesome freedom?”

Ms. Clinton sure loved her some background checks. You know; the ones “almost everyone” agrees on. Except maybe, I dunno, lemme see, Maine voters! Downeasters who defeated a proposal to expand background checks to anyone who dared lend a firearm to a friend, never mind sell it to a stranger (melodramatic shudder).

Before bashing the President-elect, Ms. Collins has to deal with the pesky fact that no one knows how the Ft. Lauderdale killer got his gun, and whether or not he went through a background check to do so.

We will be arguing for a while about whether background checks could have stopped the Florida airport shooting. But either way, sensible regulation of gun sales will still be sensible regulation of gun sales.

So that’s that then. Trump!

This is the moment where I tell you that our president-elect does not believe in sensible regulation of gun sales.

Donald Trump’s position on gun laws has gone through a rather familiar evolution. Back in the day he was a sort of indifferent moderate. Then came the campaign and a love affair with the National Rifle Association, which dumped about $30 million into the effort to get Trump elected president.

Soon, he was fantasizing about packing heat during the Paris terrorist shootings. (“I can tell you that if I had been in the Bataclan or in the cafes, I would have opened fire. I may have been killed, but I would have drawn.”) . . .

But about the background checks: The N.R.A. lobbyists hate them. And Trump has promised that as soon as he’s sworn in, he’ll “unsign” Barack Obama’s executive order closing a big loophole involving online sales and gun shows.

Trump could make a really good start this month by just — not doing anything divisive. Give the country a hint that the guy who terrified so many Americans during the campaign will be more measured in office. Leave the background checks alone. We’ve been through a lot.

Yeah, you’ve been through a lot, Gail. Not as much as the families of the defenseless passengers killed by a man who should have been removed from society. But a lot. I’m sure.

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68 COMMENTS

  1. Background checks didn’t have a damn thong to do with this loon. But the bad guys already know that?

  2. “Meanwhile, many people in non-gun places wondered why airline passengers were allowed to have firearms in their luggage.”

    Because we’re not allowed to carry them on our person, duh. Or would you prefer that?

    • I resent that this lady lumps all us “people from non-gun places” in to one category of thought…. although it does speak to her view of the world that “all people agree” with her opinion on background checks. Echo chamber much?

      • What’s a ‘non gun place’ anyway? Third world countries that don’t have running water or electricity have firearms…. NYC? Chicago? LA? Don’t tell me these are non gun places….

  3. For about 2 years in my 20s I loved The Wall. But then I realized what a rancid cancer Pink was and how badly he needed to be pistol whipped with his father’s Webley. So I grew to loathe the album. But then I found the alt. country/bluegrass version and now it’s awesome again. Go figure.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AKRbQuxdLkY

      • The Wall exemplifies everything that went wrong in Rock music. It stopped being fun and became whiny narcissistic pablum, and it’s purveyors became condescending elitist snobs.

        • The ‘Floyd finally got to be what they were capable of once they finally dumped that egotistical jackwagon Waters.

          ‘Momentary Lapse’ and forward has hands-down been their best body of work.

          (Nothing *against* their earlier stuff, mind you, I have ‘Dark Side’ on MoFi gold, I just prefer the ‘grown up’ version…)

        • At one time I loved The Wall and hated The Dark Side of the Moon. Then I grew up and now it’s kind of the opposite.

        • Geoff, you sure you’re not thinking of Syd “I took too much acid” Barrett?

          Barrett led the band until like ’68 and then Waters took over until 1985. Gilmour took over after that and they only put out another three albums or so one of which was just a few years ago. The only one I can remember off the top of my head from the last period is The Division Bell.

        • No, I’m not referring to Syd. (His brain was toast(ed) long before ‘Dark Side’.

          Waters seemed to think *he* was the Floyd and turned into an insufferable f**kwit. Once they cut Waters loose Gilmore’s power-blues style really blossomed. (See ‘Terminal Frost’ on YouTube to see what I mean.)

          Their first post 1985 was ‘Momentary Lapse of Reason’ in 1987.

          Followed by ‘The Division Bell’ in 1994.

          Their live album ‘Pulse’ was in 1995.

          There’s a recent one, ‘The Endless River’, it did nothing for me, so I passed on buying it.

          ‘Pulse’ was a real treat for me, as they managed to capture the ‘air’ of their concerts (post-1985). It was a huge influence to me as I was at the time putzing around mixing sound for some local bands…

        • Interestingly, as much as Steve’n’Seagulls look like they’re from the deepest parts of Appalachia, they’re actually from Finland and spend all their time touring around Europe.

          The Luther Wright and the Wrongs Rebuild the Wall was fairly early (2001) and was a bit more alt. country than a lot of the bluegrass covers out there. As far as I can tell, I think the trend may have been started by The Gourds with their (alt. country/bluegrass) cover of Snoop Dogg’s Gin and Juice in 1997.

          https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UiZ4IVwxGDQ

          Then in 2003 Iron Horse released the pure bluegrass ‘Fade to Bluegrass’ and ever since there seems to have been a steady stream of bluegrass covers of just about any pop hit you could name.

          https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3c7bISLhVl8

    • soldier field ’77: 78,000 knuckleheads on god’s eye, mr. natural 4way, zillions of dots, dust and gold buds that actually shimmered. attendees tried to enjoy partial dark side and complete wish you were here and animals on an epic extravaganza scale, utilizing complete surround sound. part of the superbowl of rock series (elp came through with a 52 piece orchestra) that followed the world series of rock a year or two earlier (aerosmith flat on their faces following jan hammer while the roof spontaneously combusted in old comiskey, stampede and all).
      m’waukee county stadium ’87: jack twins subduing through bludgeoning the parody of itself that the wall rehash tour had become. the father’s plane crashing was akin to spinal tap’s monolith, super hoky.
      the wall’s first tour never made chic a goo. old girl and boy went to wrigley a few years ago for the resurrection.
      the water’s tours were all deluxe. he pretty much wrote their back catalogue after barrett.
      parts of the wall, and everything before is to my liking.
      the two film soundtracks, “more” and “obscured by clouds” are my favorites.

    • As far as Pink Floyd’s “The Wall” goes, I always thought of it as if it’s through a child of Nazi Germanys eyes during the lead up and during WWII. The govt. is in total control, teachers are trying to mold the child into one of the millions of other mindless robots (what today we would call sheeple) and parents have went off the deep end. The child is/has gone crazy as he refuses to let his mind conform and reverts further back into childhood. I NEVER got anything closely resembling liberalism out of it, actually the complete opposite as I stated.

      • Never said the Wall was liberal, although I think that label would fit well on Waters. On the surface you’re right. That’s what I saw in it when I was in my early 20s. Then I grew up and I saw a man who ignored his wife and drove her into the arms of another man, then took a groupie back to the hotel and beat her up. Sure Pink grew up without a father and his artistic impulses were stifled in school, but his vacation from reality was of his own doing. What I saw was an attempted justification of the excesses of the rock and roll lifestyle. So you got to be rich and famous and hot girls fling themselves at you and now you just can’t handle your problems. Grow up Pink.

  4. ” It’s the job of our national officials to bridge the gap.”

    No, its the job of our National Officials to protect our rights and if need be give leftist degenerates like you a Helicopter Ride.

    Bend over leftists we are going to have a very fun 8 years. No Rinos or Cucks are going to save you, and after that? We will have Eric Trump.

    • Thank you Henry, a true American and a believer in our Constitution.As you pointed out so well, look at France and those impossible gun laws. Nobody, and I mean NOBODY should ever be shot with such restrictions, right.
      Same here, with more restrictions we could easily be another France. Still ppl would be killed by people on a “mission”, how sad.
      It isn’t gun control when a terrorist goes rogue . It becomes right versus wrong, the idiot must die to save the innocents.
      I like the cut of your jib sir!!

    • Well played on the helicopter rides Henry.

      Of course, you probably know the reason we don’t fear helicopters is because of Solothurnes.

  5. Because God knows there isn’t a picture to be found anywhere of Trump even holding an actual firearm, we had to photoshop one in (again). How long until we start giving him crap about this like we did Obama (the”mom-jeans” photoshoot)?

    (IIRC, the famous NRA photo is a flintlock muzzle-loader & thus not a ‘firearm’ per the ATF)

    • WTF do do want sir? He’s not even in office yet yet you denigrate everything about the man. Give the guy a chance. I know that you have been a Bushy forever, but don’t play the hand before it’s dealt! That’s all we ask

      • Well, wouldn’t you give me crap for claiming to be strongly pro gun without having been seen with a firearm? Didn’t we all give Obama shit about this?

        • I am strongly pro-gun, here as well as on Facebook (much to the dismay of some of my friends!).
          There are no photos of me with any guns that I know of.
          A photo of Obama with a gun doesn’t make him pro-gun, not does a lack of photos of Trump with guns make him anti-gun.
          Photos don’t mean anything; actions speak much more loudly than photo-ops. Obama’s actions put him firmly in the anti-gun camp, photos be damned.

    • After 8 terrible years of your lover Obama in office barnbwt , we now have some fresh air in DC.But you won’t even let him sit in the chair and you already put him down.It is people like you, and you directly, that made us what it is now.We are sick and tired of your liberal agenda, it’s over and you lost. Suck it up Buttercup! Find another venue now, snowflake!

      • Wait, you accuse me of;
        -Being a Bush supporter
        -Denigrating everything about Trump
        -Being Michelle Obama and/or Reggie Love
        -Being a Liberal
        -Being a snowflake (despite raging at me like a full-on trigglypuff)

        While knowing fuck-all about me other than that I observed Trump has never been seen holding a gun, then asked if we should ever expect him to. You really aren’t capable of independent or critical thought, are you? Can’t even concieve an opinion until Trump weighs in. Do you support No Fly No Buy, too?

        • barnbwt, you are absolutely correct. The Trump sycophants cannot conceive that their idol would renige on his “promises,” and in that context each of them suspends the critical judgment so necessary to keep “Trum-peckers” dick to the fire. I patiently await his ACTION on his alleged support of 2A, and I hope and pray it does not morph into what his position has reportedly become on “Mexico will pay for the Wall.” OMG, it looks as though his last position on that is alleged to be that “we’re gonna bill Mexico.” In the meantime, while we all anxiously await the coming of Godoh, I’m stocking up on all relevant 2A materiel.

    • Well since pink Floyd seems to be on the menu tonight I’ll go with…

      “All in all, your just another dick with no balls…”

  6. You cant stop crazy after the fact. If it turns out that this guy bought his gun after his visit to the FBI and his voluntary psych check. Then its the state of Alaska’s fault for not reporting his prior mental state to the Feds.
    From whats been reported so far tonight here locally. This guy shouldnt have been able to buy any new guns. His previously bought guns. Thats the issue. Where do we draw the line.
    1000s including myself frequently fly with arms. In my case both long and hand guns.
    It has occurred to me many times going to the airport to pick up relatives. I had to leave my gun at home.
    You cant even legally leave your gun in a parked car here at an airport. These State laws regardless of todays actions. Have got to go.

    • Can I get a statute citation for the airport parking lot thing please? The only statutory listing I can find is in 790.06(12)(a)14, to wit:

      The inside of the passenger terminal and sterile area of any airport, provided that no person shall be prohibited from carrying any legal firearm into the terminal, which firearm is encased for shipment for purposes of checking such firearm as baggage to be lawfully transported on any aircraft;

    • Can I get a statute citation for the “no guns if you’re crazy” thing please? The only listing I can find is in the Second Amendment, to wit:

      “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.”

      Nothing in there that I can find about “unless the government thinks you’re crazy.”

      If he was not incarcerated, or hospitalized fro treatment (right) following “due process of law” then the government has no authority nor ability to restrict his natural, civil and Constitutionally protected right to keep and bear arms. Even if he really is crazy. You, on the other hand, have every right to shoot him down like a rabid dog when and if he draws a weapon and engages in criminal behavior. Not before.

    • A voluntary admission t a mental health facility is not a disabling condition, only an involuntary admission because one is a danger to himself or others. Alaska had nothing to report, and it was legal for him to buy a firearm. Add to what Matt said, two strikes. Want to go for a third?

  7. Robert, it did take some serious balls to say what you did. I applaud you sir! I think that when I come here I will see the logical and unvarnished truth…you have not failed us my friend!

  8. You luberals lost, cry about it,deal with it. Ain’t no gun control commin anymore. In fact the opposite is commin. Get off the track unless you wanna get run over because this Trump Train arrives at the inauguration station in two weeks!!!!!!!!!

  9. I sure hope this event doesn’t cause any knee jerk “no guns in baggage” rules.
    I’m flying to Reno in two weeks and taking my EDC.
    In March I’ll be taking a long gun and my EDC to Texas. Dang it all!

    • Assuming (fingers crossed) we get some form of national reciprocity it would seem unlikely that some regulation(s) preventing firearms in checked baggage would be likely or reasonable. What good is a national reciprocity law if you can’ find a way to bring the gun with you?

      IMO it would make more sense for the airlines to give discounts (or upgrades) to passengers who carried concealed on their planes.

  10. So, we talk about putting a wall up at the Mexico border. When are we going to put up a wall around New York City? It is a bigger threat to Free America than Mexico.

    • Disperse the criminal element across the nation as it is arrested & forbid it from returning, after enforcing appropriate punishment, and these forces of tyranny will see their power & resources dissolve steadily.

  12. “It’s hard to have a rational gun conversation in a country with such a cultural chasm.”

    You hit the nail on the head, Gail. I *really* hate to tell you this, but we are winning the culture war.

    Public opinion on gun ownership is ascendant in *our* favor, and the trend shows no signs of slowing down.

    I know this really must bother you, Ms.Collins, but guns are woven into the cloth of America. They’re not going anywhere.

    Tell you what, consider this an excellent opportunity to work on your coping skills. If that isn’t working, see your doctor for pharmaceutical therapy.

    There are plenty of things, Gail, that you ‘Progressives’ do that makes us uncomfortable. For the most part, we just smile and stay silent about it.

    Since you ‘Progressives’ are all about tolerance and acceptance of others, just tolerate and accept us the same way you demand we tolerate and accept *you*.

    See? 🙂

    • May we look back on gun control in the future as a mere aberration like Temperance or the Salem Witch Hunts.

  13. This is abject failure by the fbi. He wentto there office in nov. Said he was crazy. This is on them…..

    • Umm, no. The FBI in Alaska saw to it that he voluntarily admitted himself to a psychiatric facility–which is beyond the call of duty. As a voluntary admit, he was not subject to a loss of his firearms rights. Now perhaps you can explain to all of us what it is that the FBI did other than uphold his constitutional rights?

  14. Someone on TV this morning made the point that where he got the gun made no difference. The area where the shooting happened is an unsecured part of the airport. The shooter could just have easily brought the gun in a car and walked in and done the shooting. The gun could have come from anywhere and the detail that it was in his luggage is not relevant.

    • Wouldn’t be legal, but neither is mass murder. Baggage claim is by the curb. Where you leave with all your belongings. All of them, including your gun. It’s equivalent to him arriving & shooting up a coffee shop across town after driving there in his rental car.

  15. “It’s hard to have a rational gun conversation in a country with such a cultural chasm. It’s the job of our national officials to bridge the gap.”

    Gail, I find it both hilarious and insulting that you would suggest that you even want a conversation. It was YOU and your friends in the anti-gun media who dug that very chasm, piece by piece, paragraph by paragraph. It exists because of YOUR underhanded, deliberate efforts to mislead, to misinform, to exploit fear, to reinforce stereotypes, to twist numbers, to mangle truth.

    And after all of that; after you’ve worked so hard to divide, confuse, and polarize people; after you’ve looked over your chasm, you flop down in your chair, wipe the sweat from your brow, wink, and say, “Why can’t we communicate with people on the other side?” Nerve. You’ve got nerve.

  16. Whenever one of these events occurs, the left’s response is to demand the rights of every citizen in this country be infringed. However, if you suggest the crazies be institutionalized, the criminals incarcerated or we stop importing terrorists, they howl at the injustice of it all. The animals in our country have allies that enable these sort of killings. In any rational society, this fruitloop would have been institutionalized for his and society’s safety.

    At a recent party I was talking to a man who works at our state psychiatric hospital. He was discussing how many dangerous mentally ill people they are forced to release. This mirrors my experience working in privately run psychiatric hospitals. Thanks to our friends on the left, it’s extraordinarily difficult to get someone involuntarily committed and keep them there. This absolutely need to change. If for no other reason than it condemns many of them to living like animals on the street. But more importantly it keep innocents from reaping the violent consequences of leftist feel-good ideology.

    • The closing of mental health facilities were both the right and left. The right wanted to cut budgets. That’s why people get kicked out. To be Involuntary committed you have to appear in front of a judge for at least the appearance of due process.

      • +1 The right wanted to cut budgets and the left got their feelz. One of those situations where the left and the right were both winners, at the expense of extremely vulnerable people.

  17. These fascists like to say the NRA is in gun manufacturers and shop owners pockets. Universal Background checks would actually be a boom for shop owners as every single transfer would make them money. The NRA does one thing. Supports individual right to choose which firearm you as an individual would like to own. What is more democratic than freedom of choice?

  18. So…

    You can’t carry in the airport, or on the plane. In transit, yr subject to local laws at connections, however draconian, including if the plane “diverts” somewhere you never meant to go. (I’m looking at you, N Y.)

    You can barely ship yourself your own gun, and they keep making that worse. Carrying money to buy a gun at the hunting end of your flight is in itself “evidence” of terrorism or drug running … and subject to confiscation without conviction, trial, or charge. Driving cross-country with yr gun is likewise evidence of criminal intent, plus puts you at risk of whatever random laws you drive through.

    And, “Nobody is trying to take your guns.” Got it.

  19. I propose “The Cheese Rule”:

    Any restriction on guns be identically applied to cheese. It can’t be a burden. Nobody’s trying to take your cheese away. (Or maybe chardonnay, or arugula. Or artisanal chocolates.)

  20. “sensible regulation of gun sales will still be sensible regulation of gun sales.”

    We are indeed fortunate as a nation to have sob sisters like Gail Collins to decide for us what is sensible and what is not.

  21. I keep reading these stories and I can’t help but wonder when they’ll pass some common-sense crime control. I mean, just make the crime illegal and problem solved./sarc

  22. We’re sure Gail Collins will be on the ground at the mercy of the enemy invader jihadist savages that obama has given equal rights to own firearms as those of America citizens.
    Quoting Ann Coulter: “There’s no major problem facing the United States today that isn’t the result of immigration.” Including “gun violence.”

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