Iowa Representative Mary Mascher (courtesy iowahouse.com)

“By muffling the noise generated with every shot…a silencer would provide a new degree of intimacy for public mass murder, delaying by crucial seconds or minutes the moments when someone can call the police after overhearing strange bangs coming from a theater or classroom.” – Iowa Representative Mary Mascher quoted in Iowa House votes to legalize gun silencers [via radioiowa.com]

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96 COMMENTS

  2. “These young people are obtaining weapons and they’re obtaining weapons that are Glocks and they’re obtaining weapons that aren’t just little pea shooters or, you know, pellet guns,” Abdul-Samad said.

    In what other profession can an individual be so ignorant yet so successful? The anti quotes in this article are saturated with derp.

    • Don’t believe for a second that they know any more about any other issue than they do about guns.

    • Samad has been on a personal anti gun crusade ever since his son, a gang banger, decided that he wanted to know what it felt like to kill someone so he grabbed a gun andwent to go hunt down members of a rival gang (though his fellow thugs tried to stop him) and he ended up getting himself killed.

      • …while dad was busy trying to ‘improve’ Des Moines? Politicians, devoted to trying to better the…mselves.

      • When I left Des Moines many years ago Ako was just a pain in the ass community activist. Good thing I left before things went from bad to worse.

        • Yep. Now he is the anointed ropeadope Marxist mohamadan rep of the dem party. Untouchable.

          Mascher – more of the some from the Peoples Revolutionary Cesspool on the Cedar River. A true dimwit of the Nancy Pelosi school.

  3. That is a Mary? Oops, ad hominem comment almost posted.

    Well…whatever. I guess if someone chooses to take a MP5-SD for a mass shooting she may be right. She has obviously never heard a M4 with s suppressor go bang indoors.

  4. Since I live in IA I immediately sent an email to my reps. That lady in particular is full of it because every single rep has been getting a ton of emails regarding this issue. Yet she claims she never heard from anyone about the bill or about people wanting suppressors legalized. She is definitely a politician. The AR15.com forums are full people trying to get this ridiculous idea of a “silent” gun out of peoples heads. The Iowa Firearms Coalition has also been getting the word out as much as possible.

    As I said in one of my posts there…. if you are relying on gunshots to be your early warning indicator, there is something wrong with your system. It’s like saying if a guy went walking around with a knife stabbing people in a theater no one would ever notice or call the cops because its silent. Red Herring all the way.

    • Funny thing is she actually replied to me when I sent out all of my emails awhile back, said she hadn’t heard of it, but would look into it, so I sent her the full proposed bill as posted online back to her, and she sent a message saying “OH, thank you, ok, now I can review it and learn more about it”

      um, seriously? you didn’t know this was coming up and it’s your JOB! ugh. Anyhow, so she is full of it and obviously ignorant of how suppressors work.

    • Ironic that yesterday someone actually did kill two people and wounded four others in a workplace stabbing up in Edmonton yesterday.

    • In my opinion, in Iowa the bigger problem we have in Iowa is Baudler (retired State Patrolman of the heavy handed knowitall cop club) who thinks the McCain model is what is required in Des Moines. Won’t can’t even get law changed to allow for 12yr old to touch a handgun when in the presence of a parent.

  6. And at the end of the article:

    The bill is not likely to come up for a vote in the Senate. The Democrat in charge of the Senate committee with jurisdiction over the bill does not intend to advance it.

    • Yes, this bill has about as much chance as a repeal of Obamacare has of getting by Harry Reid.

    • Rob Hogg has flat stated that ANY gun bills that cross the Judiciary Comittee will never receive a vote. This is the same tactic Democrats have been using here for years, they know the votes are there so they don’t allow the vote.

      There is, however, a push to get it in front of the natural resources comittee instead. Given that it passed 83 – 16 in the house with large bipartisan support, the votes are notthe issue at this point.

      • Doesn’t sound like votes are the problem as much as elected officials acting like spoiled children.. May be time to organize the vote against in the next elections, if not dig for something solid enough to warrant a recall.

      • Well maybe. But you may recall when “Thinks He is Governor” Gronstal and his pack of libtard dem needed gun votes in order to be reelected. Iowa became a shall issue state. And the POG gullible as ever rewarded him/them for their transparent ploy. The one issue vote. 2014 the House (Rep Party) isn’t hitting them over the head with ANYTHING. RPI is the posterchild for the GOP in dysfunctional disorganized politics.

        And yes that loudmouth POS Hogg needs to go.

  7. Mary is back! The BANG keeper! All hail Mary! All hail Mary! Oh Mary can you see by the dawn’s early light…

  8. How many crimes have been comitted with leagally owned silencers? I believe that number is a big fat 0

    • Didn’t Christopher Dorner use a silencer/suppressor?

      I guess that would be the state-provided exception to the rule.

    • If one were to believe network television (something I’m not overly familiar with, admittedly), silencers are regularly used to commit crimes of every sort, the only auditory evidence being a whisper-quite “phut”.

      Hm…wonder where this particular public servant is getting her information…?

      • Yeah, you never hear the action cycling, which is quite noticeable when you knock the sound of the muzzle blast down. But them, in the movies, the slide never seems to cycle despite he fact that they fire 2 or 3 shots. Ignorance is bliss, I guess.

        • Yeah, in movies, action cycling is the loudest thing in the world when it means “i have a gun and it is loaded” except when you are an assassin. pfft pfft pfft is all you hear from a silencer…

        • It goes right along with the gun never requires reloading, you can rack the action as much as you want but no ammunition is ever expelled, and bad guys die immediately and silently when shot with suppressed weapons.

          This latter is particularly interesting since the majority of handgun wounds not only fail to immediately kill, but in the US the victims actually live long enough to reach a hospital, receive treatment and continue their lives.

          TV and movies make a poor source of firearms education but they are unfortunately the major outlets for firearms education. It’s really not so surprising that people who don’t like guns have some very strange ideas about them, in fact it’s not even problematic. What is problematic and unacceptable is a politician attempting to legislate firearms while knowing nothing about them and harboring all sorts of strange misconceptions.

        • I had to stop and ask myself “why do so many people watch so many movies that misrepresent the functioning and effectiveness of guns? Why don’t they simply go to a range and try a few guns, if the things are so exciting ‘on screen’?”

          The answer appeared to me quickly enough. Gun ranges don’t arrange for you to shoot from couches while stoned.

  9. Forget emailing this particular rep.

    It’s her constituents who need an education. I haven’t looked up her district, so let me just take a stab at it-Des Moines? Or another city?

        • Not really. Greenwich Village mixed with The Castro collocated with UC Berkley.

          Home of University of Iowa (the other state university where you can party your head off while getting a meaningless BA in basketweaving and similar drivel). Fruits, nuts and marxists in the cornfields.

        • I refer to it as Little Chicago because half the students are from Chicago, but your references may also be apt.

  10. “…provide a new degree of intimacy…”

    What does that mean? Sounds like an advertisement for marital products.

    • Well, I guess in a pinch you could use a silencer, but I would detach it from the firearm first. Just to be safe.

    • “provide a new degree of intimacy for public mass murder”

      Intimacy in relation of a murder? Really? She used the word intimacy? My first thought is that she needs professional help with her mental illness. Normal people don’t use the word intimacy I describing a public mass murder.

  11. That’s one of the most-uneducated things I’ve heard. I hope this bill doesn’t die. There is no reason to suppress suppressors.

    • As per the article, it almost certainly is going to die; the Democrat in charge of the Senate committee with jurisdiction over the bill does not intend to advance it.

  13. I now must research silenced-involved shootings. 2011 saw around 300 rifle murders, and that’s rifles of any kind, not just scary black ones with things that go up. Same year about 600 people died from falling out of bed. I propose height restrictions on beds, and a safety course before purchase of a bed. I’ve heard you can buy a bed frame, then get a box spring and mattress and build your own. Some get all tactical with headboards, footboards, and a bunch of pillows, but it all comes down to how well you sleep and lots of practice.

    • The one I liked was that the rifle deaths were about half as many as deaths from auto-erotic asphyxiation. Kind of puts it in perspective.

      • “Scarfing, the silent killer!” Who knew? I got choked up just thinking about it.

  14. Mary gets all her correct facts from Tristar, MGM and United Arts movie studios. She forgot about the exploding car hoods when they are shot , and the endless ammo Magazines.

    • I’ve sometimes wondered if Hollywood isn’t accidentally creeping up on the ‘perfect’ gun. Of course no such thing can exist since like everything else it must compromise and obey the natural laws but in Hollywood not so much. Just consider a light, ergonomic and concealable gun with infinite ammunition, infinitely and instantly variable in it’s caliber, power, range, and rate of fire, with no recoil or any chance of ever missing the intended target.
      It can be stopped by a thin sheet of glass when desirable or penetrate heavy armor when needed. It is inert when necessary to the point that it will not detonate unstable explosives one moment but if needed can cause any hit to an automobile to result in a massive explosion out of all proportion to the supply of volatiles found in a car.

      That is nearly a perfect weapon and I’d be carrying one right now if only it existed. The thing is, people like this politician appear to think such do actually exist, at least in some permutation. That is, while they don’t believe there is one gun that can do all that, they think there is some gun that can do each of these things, never minding obvious contradictions. They don’t understand , for instance, that 10 different 9mm pistols have roughly the same capabilities. They seem to think that one performs like a grenade launcher while another is capable of penetrating armored vehicles and a third might well be virtually non lethal.

      I like to use the vehicle model to explain it to complete noobs; While there is a ‘gun’ that can penetrate armor and another that will fire explosive ammunition and another that has an astounding rate of fire they are all different guns suited for different purposes. This is precisesly why one car has excellent gas mileage, another can go 200mph and you need a truck to pull a heavy load; they are created with different purposes in mind and just as you can’t tow a disabled semi truck with a prious or win indy car races with a tow truck you can’t have a concealable weapon that fires 3000 RPM of armor piercing ammo. Some times an analogy as simple as that turns the lights on and starts them at least asking the right questions.

  15. Allow me to translate Representative Mary Mascher’s statement:

    Many people fail to carry defensive firearms in public and have no way to defend themselves from a spree killer. Therefore, let us infringe upon the rights of everyone to have items like suppressors so we can help the unarmed, defenseless masses have a better chance of escaping a spree killer.

    So, in typical fashion, Communists Progressives are demanding that I give up something for the (unsubstantiated) benefit of people who fail to plan ahead and make prudent, wise choices for themselves. Got it.

    • Uhm, yeah, exactly that, except that even if you put it to them just that way they STILL think it’s ok.

  16. There have probably been millions of unreported silencer crimes. Millions! But they were silent so they went unnoticed! (see what I did there)

  17. Let’s not to be too tough on Mary. At least she shaved off her beard for that photo.

  19. She’s not a real Iowan. Judging by the fact that she represents Iowa City, my guess is she’s a Chicago transplant.

    • Looking up info, says she was born in Iowa City….. but then again I don’t really consider Iowa City part of Iowa. It is more like Little Chicago.

      Iowa…. a largely rural midwest state, tons of farmers that have had to protect their crops/homes from wild animals in the past…. You would think people like her wouldn’t exists…… if only….

      • Maybe it’d be a better use of her time trying to come up with a way to get U of I knocked off the #1 party school spot, seeing as how she will never understand firearms.

  20. It always astounds me at the measure of faith politicians place in a criminal’s willingness to comply with the law.

  22. Uh huh. Forget about the countless gun incidents that happen WITHOUT silencers…..let’s go after a gun/silencer incident that has NEVER happened before.

  23. Mascher’s opinion could only make sense if:
    1, Criminals couldn’t already illegally make or obtain silencers,and;
    2. Teachers were unarmed and untrained.

  24. I find that most of the time I can accurately gauge the political opinions of any woman with a hyphenated last name, especially if I already know they’re a democrat.

  25. I’d say she probably got that from Untouchables reruns, except she was probably there in the roaring 20’s, I wondered if we ever got the true story on ma baker.

  26. I also have to wonder if the Democrats quoted in the article are aware that the murder rate in Iowa is 1.3 per 100,000.

  27. So according to them pretty much everyone in Norway is an assassin? Since I don’t know anyone who doesn’t at the very least have a suppressed .22 here in Norway.

  28. Good God, this lady is clueless. Dollars to donuts she didn’t read the bill, much less understand it. The bar to be a Representative in my Iowa is set quite low.

  29. On tv and in the movies nobody uses silencers but hitmen for the mob, and serial killers. People don’t get any other information. Nobody is teaching them. Most people seem to expect them to know as if their daddy taught ’em.

  30. This is one of the many fear tactics antis use. Tie the suppressor to a tragic shooting and make up a scenario of how they may be used.

  31. “…delaying by crucial seconds or minutes the moments when someone can call the police after overhearing strange bangs coming from a theater or classroom.”
    Yes, after the hypothetical delay, cops are only minutes away. Because the reaction time to press “9, 1, 1, call button” is of utmost importance.

  34. Since these fools get all their “knowledge” about guns from movies, we should start nudging them to ban plastic bottles. After all, movies teach us that plastic bottles make awesome silencers.

    • Also, if you laid put all the plastic water bottles we use in a year, they would reach all the way to Detroit. And we wouldn’t want to mess up Detroit.

    • My thoughts exactly, although that probably qualifies as an ad hominum attack. Not much to look at, and even less to listen too.

  36. “Representative, can you advance your instances where a legally obtained silencer was used in a mass murder or even murder?”

    “uhh….”

    “Please STFU. Next?”

    ^ How things should work. No more laws that restrict rights based on what might could possibly happen someday. Feel free to outlaw murder with a silencer, though.

  37. I WANT THAT JACKET!! I’ll trade a Bushmaster M-17S to the man (or woman) who brings it to me!

    It’s not for me…. well. Maybe I’d hang it on my wall, like a psychedelic painting… Bring mushrooms also.

  38. Jesus. This actually makes me mad like nothing else I’ve ever read here.
    Just.
    Get your shit together, jeez.

  39. And a katana would work much better. No noise either and very tough to have wounds which are not fatal, if not instantly than a short time later. Tough to deal with amputated limbs. A katana and a wakizashi, much better in a crowd than a gun for this. No reloading, two and three foot razor blades flying around. One could slice and dice many in a gun free zone before help arrives.
    This legislator is barking up the wrong tree. She is concerned about a problem that does not exist. Perhaps she should seek some prophylactic stomach acid meds. All this worrying about non problems may negatively affect her GI health.

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