courtesy New York Times and AP

Houston Police Chief Says He Has ‘Hit Rock Bottom’ on Gun Rights Arguments

Chief Art hasn’t changed, and never will . . .

Just hours after 10 people were killed in a school shooting in Santa Fe, Tex., the police chief in nearby Houston issued a defiant condemnation of elected officials who have failed to act on gun control, saying he had “hit rock bottom.”

In a statement on Facebook, the chief, Art Acevedo, wrote that he had “shed tears of sadness, pain and anger” after the shooting, which happened about 35 miles away.

“I know some have strong feelings about gun rights but I want you to know I’ve hit rock bottom and I am not interested in your views as it pertains to this issue,” he wrote. “Please do not post anything about guns aren’t the problem and there’s little we can do. My feelings won’t be hurt if you de-friend me and I hope yours won’t be if you decide to post about your views and I de-friend you.”

courtesy Motley Fool and Vista Outdoor

Will Vista Outdoor Misfire Selling Its Firearms Division?

Timing is everything . . .

Vista Outdoors (NYSE:VSTO) wants out of the firearms business. After falling gun sales caused it to record its first quarterly earnings loss since going public three years ago, the firearms and outdoor sporting goods manufacturer said guns just don’t fit in with its strategic vision. It will, however, continue to sell ammunition.

The decline in firearms industry sales has been well-documented since the Nov. 2016 elections, and several tragic mass shootings have increased public pressure on retailers and manufacturers.

Dick’s Sporting Goods announced it would no longer sell certain modern sporting rifles at its Field & Stream stores, and several financial institutions vowed not to loan money to gunmakers. Remington Arms has also been dealing with bankruptcy, while Dick’s, Walmart, Kroger, and L.L. Bean announced they would no longer sell rifles to adult customers under 21 years old.

That makes Vista’s plan to sell its Savage Arms division a poorly timed and short-sighted decision. By selling from a position of weakness at a time of heightened industry pressure, it likely won’t get top dollar for what are still valuable brands. The irony is that Vista actually saw higher firearms sales in the quarter as retailers began to restock, while ammunition sales were down.

Biden says ‘enough is enough’ after Santa Fe school shooting

Wait…we thought Slow Joe was a fan of shotguns . . .

Former Vice President Joe Biden called on people to take a stand against gun violence Friday after a shooter opened fire in a Santa Fe, Texas, high school, killing 10 people. …

Biden, considered a top potential Democratic contender in 2020, has been a supporter of the “March for Our Lives” protests for tougher gun laws that were sparked by the Feb. 14 shooting in Parkland, Fla., that left 17 people dead.

The former vice president has also denounced GOP support for gun rights and the “prostitution” of the Second Amendment since the Parkland shooting.

“I think the Second Amendment is being badly interpreted. It’s not consistent with what our Founders intended,” Biden said in March during a discussion with University of Pennsylvania President Amy Gutmann.

https://youtu.be/W1Wgfyqwp8g

Notorious ‘progressive’ anti-Hillary conspiracy blogger has pivoted to pro-gun and ‘Trump 2020’

We welcome gun rights supporters of all stripes . . .

During the brutal 2016 Democratic Party primary, H.A. Goodman established himself as a forceful and influential pro-Bernie blogger.

Writing for Salon and Huffington Post, and posting selfie videos to his popular YouTube channel, Goodman was oft-cited by Bernie Sanders most hardcore supporters.

He was described by The Washington Post as “the unofficial scribe of Sanders’s most hardcore voters” and he was invited on CNN and MSNBC to advocate for Bernie Sanders.

Goodman has since changed his tune. He now has a pro-Second Amendment YouTube channel and is now openly supporting Trump’s 2020 re-election bid on his Twitter account.

Parents, You Need to Act to Protect Your Children from Shootings

A child therapist’s prescription . . .

Parents, the U.S. Congress is not paying attention to the students protesting and requesting gun laws to be changed so they can go to school and feel safe. They ignore the students because most of them are not old enough to vote. Many of the members of the U.S. Congress are mainly concerned with being re-elected and maintaining their high paying job where they do not have to do a great deal of work.

Parents it is time for you to act! The 2018 elections are occurring this year and many seats in the House of Representatives and Senate are up for re-election. Since the U.S. Congress will do nothing to protect the school children then you must. Every parent needs to go to the polls this year. You need to vote for people who will stand up to the NRA and vote for people who will enact laws which will protect the children of our country. You also need to cast votes that will remove those members of the Congress who refuse to enact laws that will protect our children.

Many of the high school students impacted by shootings may not be old enough to vote in the 2018 election, but parents you can. You can send a very important message to the teenagers of our country. You can tell them that you hear their cries asking for laws that will make them feel safer and you agree with their demonstrations and you are responding to their requests to be safe. You can say the Congress may ignore them but we will not ignore them. You are too important to ignore and we will keep you safe.

How the NRA Sabotaged the BackGround Checks System — and 3 Fresh Ideas That Actually Could Reduce Gun Violence

Yep. This was the NRA’s fault, too . . .

By ignoring this problem with NICS, gun control advocates seem to be forgetting the history of the Brady Bill and the method by which computer background checks came into being. The NRA, not the gun control movement, was the creator of the FBI call-in system. The system was designed to fail from the start.

The deliberate mediocrity of our background checks has its roots in an era when stopping violent gun buyers was a hopeless exercise.

President Lyndon B. Johnson, the Great Persuader, lobbied hard for the Gun Control Act of 1968, which he said should prevent “hardened criminals, or alcoholics, or drug addicts or mentally unstable” citizens from buying guns. But Congress sent him a weak bill, which he reluctantly signed on Oct. 22, 1968, with an accompanying statement….

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60 COMMENTS

  1. “I think the Second Amendment is being badly interpreted”

    Any “interpretation” of the 2A is an Obamination. It says what it means and means what it says. No interpretation needed

  2. Vista Outdoors is also selling Bell, Giro and Blackburn (very big bicycle brands), along with the Copilot bike baby carrier brand, Raskullz and Krashco child helmet brands and the Jimmy Styks paddleboard brand. The company also announced last year that it was going to sell its Bollé eyewear and helmet brand.

    Also last year, Mark DeYoung, Chairman and CEO of Vista Outdoors, agreed to “accelerate his retirement plans” and step down.

    Are you getting the picture? Vista is in trouble and may be having a fire sale that has nothing to do with guns.

    • Corp conglomerations are cyclical fad, organized by crooks and financed by fools, which never work out.

      If Joe Biden is “fed up” I suggest he fellate his double barrel shotgun. Please.

  3. “I think the Second Amendment is being badly interpreted”

    Obviously Biden has not read The Federalist Papers.

    • ^^^ This.
      With just a modicum of interwebz searching, one can easily find out our founders intents.

      • The blow hards of gun control are generally persons of limited intelligence, rational thought processes, logic, and research are beyond their limited skill sets, yet you expect them to deploy a search engine and then read and comprehend? If you want them to read such things, you must download it for them, translate the language to modern usage, and then rewrite it to a middle school reading level. They are still unlikely to read it because they are also quite lazy.

        • Gun-control is:

          COMMUNISM ATTEMPTING TO REMOVE AN OBSTACLE.

          Gun-controllers are:

          PEOPLE CONTROLLERS THAT DON’T WANT TO BE SKINNED ALIVE.

          Kill a commie for mommy.

      • Here’s the problem with that Oregon. They have to do 3 things which they’ll never do.

        1. Care what the founding fathers actually thought.

        2. Assume that maybe a bunch of rebels got it right back in the 1700s.

        3. Admit that guns can do good as well as evil even in the hands of untrained militia men that toted their own rifles with them to the battle.

        They’ll never do that though because over the centuries we’ve become so much more intelligent than those rebels of the 1770s, we’re so much more urbane, and we’re so much better educated than they ever were. For them, to admit the founders were far wiser than we give them credit for means that mankind hasn’t evolved a whole lot in 300 years while we’ve gained technology, lost religion, and put a TV in every home.

        Just between you and me, I think we could use some more of that wisdom the founders possessed. We need to realize if we just stick to the values and guidance given in the Constitution and stop inflating every little issue into the next Armageddon with our 24 hour new cycle that a lot of our so called major issues would work themselves out. Stop stressing people out and making everyone run around in a state of semi panic and we’ll see a good number of issues die off along with a lot of support for gun control.

    • Well, even slow Joe gets to reality eventually.

      The 2A is sometimes being interpreted well, as in what the words mean, in context. More often it is, indeed being interpreted “badly.”

      Oh, wait. Slow Joe meant “badly” as in “inconveniently for his political ambitions.” Well, again he’s right, but has the stats wrong. Once in a while, intermittently, the courts slip up and interpret the 2A as written, which works out badly for him.

      • Slow Joe meant “badly” as in “inconveniently for his political ambitions.”’

        This.

  4. So a grown man and police chief is posting about “de- friend” folks on FB. I’m at a loss, a nine year old girl I’d expect this from , I’d say yes we’ve hit rock bottom ……

    • This cops attitude is a little worrisome, it almost makes you wonder what this guy will do to enforce his views after hitting “Rock Bottom”. Not the kind of guy that I want as a cop after posting this kind of desperation.

  5. Chief Art – The adult equivalent of putting fingers in his ears “WAAA I CAN’T HEAR YOU WAAA”.. Much edgy, so belief.

    Maybe someone will buy up Savage and turn it into a new Ruger.
    FJB with a rusty tie rod, again, still.
    Don’t know who H.A Goodman is but, “Welcome to the party, pal”

  6. Don’t give a flying fuck what this cop or Biden, or any other emotional reactionist has to say about my 2A rights and my private property. I will not comply. Gonna buy a nice M14 tonight, in their honor.

    • I know… it’s almost like… a cOnSpiRAcy by the “gun industry” and the “big gun lobby….”

      Because all this whiney “enough is enough” feet stomping and breath holding tantrums just MAKE ME WANNA BUY ANOTHER GUN.

      And I do not need another gun (not until I buy some scuba gear and fish my guns out of the bottom of the lake… terrible canoe accident, just terrible)… I guess I could buy ammo. Anyway, the point is: everytime these ignorant hysterical kooks open their mouths and cry MoAR LAwZ! …I don’t think it has the net effect that they imagine it does, at least with a hundred million “other” Americans like us.

      I mean… I am almost fed up to the point of whining, “enough is enough” about this nutty gun-blaming circus.

      Be safe. 🙂

      • interesting point. You’d think by now the antis would’ve realized all their tantrums move more iron than the gun companies could ever pray to on their own. I’d start buyin up some shares from gun manufacturers post haste as it seems Santa Fe, TX is goin to be the next hill the antis wanna die on in their ever continuing battle to strip our rights.

  7. Prohibiting a quarter of the population from buying guns, banning imports on whatever the government in power decides on, banning firearms dealers from participating in new types of commerce and many other offenses is a “weak bill” now. They don’t want to take your guns though.

  8. Child therapist… “laws that will make them FEEL safer…”

    Well now that they feel safe everyone is ok… right?

    Maybe push for school gun safety courses… that would actually make them safer.
    Maybe push for stronger enforcement of laws rather than revolving door justice for gangs and criminals?
    Maybe push for better health care for our children with depression, anxiety, anger issues, victims of abuse etc? Maybe have government bonuses for people going into mental health fields?

    If you, as a therapist just focus on feelings and not problem solving skills then I hope I never refer anyone to you.

    • I promise they will “feel” safer in Canada. And Canada has free Health Care too!

      Try it! I double dog dare them to try it.

      hmmm… Mexico has strict gun laws too.

  10. “Chief Art hasn’t changed…”

    Hey that guy has a GUN!!!

    ““I think the Second Amendment is being badly interpreted…”

    You’re right, Joe. It doesn’t mention the right of your Secret Service detail to have guns. Those guns just don’t belong on our streets. Sorry.

    Hey, Arne. How’s the pedophilia gig going? Shut up about subjects of which you have no knowledge.

  11. “Obama Education chief: Pull children out of schools until gun laws change”

    Any parent worth their salt should, or already have, pulled their kids out of the government run indoctrination centers. The problem is, and has been for more than one generation in some places, that a lot of parents don’t actually raise their own kids. They allow the “public schools,” media, and society at large to teach their children everything. When any of those young people grow up and learn to respect other individuals and their fundamental rights, it is entirely by accident.

    You don’t murder people because you have respect for their right to life. You don’t steal, or defraud, other people’s things because you respect their right to property. You don’t try to force your will upon others because you respect their right to liberty. AND you don’t use the force of government to do any of those things because down that path, tyranny waits.

    These fundamental principles are not taught to the majority of young people. Once upon a time it was called the golden rule, “do unto others what you would have them do unto you.” Or more accurately, if you have no respect for others and their rights then you are undeserving of any respect for yours.

    • In two generations the schools have gone from………..
      ….praying for their teachers
      to
      ….cursing their teachers
      to
      ….killing their teachers.

      This is all due to the Left and their co-conspirator teachers unions and now the teachers are getting the blowback.

    • Absolutely correct. Children do not learn how to be adults by hanging around with other children (“socialization”), but by spending quality time with adults.

  12. Acevedo is hoping to ride an anti gun agenda into political office and sadly he probably will succeed. Here we are preaching to the choir, I would appreciate links to source material in order to respond in those comment sections when permitted.

    • You’re wrong.
      A lot of people care about what they think and say. Otherwise, they’d have no one to say these things to.
      Never underestimate your enemy.

  14. I’d much rather my kids “be safe” than “feel safe”. Banning guns is not going to happen. It’s time we harden our schools, have on-campus armed response, reverse progressive policies which escalate bad behavior in schools by failing to punish it, and we need to publicly shame and ridicule school shooters instead of making them infamous in the media. There is strong evidence that failure to punish and copycat crimes are driving school shooters.

    • Ya, it’s the difference between cover and concealment. The latter only works if the enemy doesn’t know you are there.

  15. How old is slow senile Joe gonna’ be in 2020?!? And when is the “Time’s Up© BS movement going to turn on creepy Joe Biden?😄😄😄

  16. Nothing like paying a bunch of liberal dumbass teachers to sit around and get paid with zero kids to teach. Sounds like a great idea. No kids, no reason to have schools open, or pay teachers. Save us a bunch of money on taxes.

    Let me see how long these parents can stay home with their kids before all of them lose their jobs. Who am I kidding, these people are all on welfare anyway.

  17. Just read a NY Magazine piece. Guess how many school mass shootings we average per year?

    http://nymag.com/daily/intelligencer/2018/03/there-is-no-epidemic-of-mass-school-shootings.html

    “And, perhaps most critically, there is no epidemic of mass shootings in American schools — at least, not under the conventional definitions of those terms.

    In the immediate aftermath of the Parkland shooting, progressive activists and commentators (including this one) repeatedly claimed that there had been 18 school shootings since the start of this year. This proved to be a gross exaggeration. In reality, according to new research from Northeastern University, there have been a grand total of eight mass shootings (shootings that kill at least four people) at K-through-12 schools in the United States since 1996. Meanwhile, over the past 20 years, the number of fatal shootings in American schools (of any kind) has plummeted.”

    Yes, it is a tragedy and deeply affects us. Unlike, for example, the 100+ Americans that we lose to the opioid epidemic every day. But, Dems want gun control. It’s their bag. And the media plays it so much that we all think it’s bigger than it is. The school shooting problem, that is, not the opioid problem.

    • EXACTLY. We’re being gaslighted by the news media and the Democratic party. They’ve effectively convinced the entire nation to see something that just isn’t there.

  19. Every time a new spree-killer unlimbers and starts killing people in a supposed “gun-free zone” just drives home the obvious fallacy of the gun control ideology. Whether spree-killer kids with low self-images or dedicated terrorists bent on waging war against “The Great Satan”, their targets of choice are those places where they can be assured of not having armed opposition.

    The gun-free zone might as well be a “Come On Down!!” sign to anyone who wants to kill a bunch of people without facing any opposition. Gun-control arguments—all of ’em—simply don’t stand up to the hard fact that, in every recent circumstance, had there been one armed and trained person to immediately confront the killer, the attack might have immediately failed or, at the very least, more lives would have been saved. There is simply no logic in gun-control ideology that is superior to the idea of hardened spaces with armed and trained people within. One “good-guy-with-a-gun” is infinitely better at stopping killers than wishful signs and ephemeral laws.

    • I agree. It is baffling how we see places like jewelry stores and banks protected by armed guards. Stadiums and courthouses have metal detectors and armed guards. But at schools, they just slap up a “gun free zone” sign and don’t back it up with any measures that actually enable them to enforce the signs. Truly ridiculous!
      If they limited the number of entry points in the schools and placed metal detectors and armed guards at each entrance, I would think there would be a huge decline in these types of school shootings. Since school shootings are not even close to being the leading cause of death in school aged kids, this would not be the most effective way of reducing deaths, but it would, hopefully, take the air out of their calls for gun control.

  20. I still think it strange that the Left wants to punish law abiding citizens for the actions of a few psychopaths that they themselves are responsible for creating. I’m also still waiting for the first shots to be fired. Thankfully we haven’t gotten there yet, but I am positive it’s just a matter of time.

    Also, I like how the media keeps spinning this whole situation out of control. Everyone would likely cool down if the media didn’t keep ramming it into our ears every day. They want to tear the country apart all for ratings and profit.

    • I know, really! This latest Texas shooting is perfect proof that the most commonly called for gun control (banning semi auto “assault weapons” and “high capacity” mags) will be totally ineffective at stopping these types of attacks. A pump shotgun and a revolver!

      Time for people to stop focusing on the tool that was used, and realize that the violent behavior is the real problem. The tools used can change, but the behavior is the same every time.

  21. “I am not interested in your views as it pertains to this issue.”

    The feeling is mutual, Artie Boy. Go cry in front of somebody else. If an incident that happened in another town and involved no one you know can deracinate your emotions so completely, you should probably find another line of work. Houston, as long as this weenie is your chief law enforcement officer, you have a problem.

  22. Arne Duncan wrote (tweeted), “This is brilliant, and tragically necessary.”

    Arne, you truly are an idiot. Are you completely incapable of putting things into perspective? Let me lay this out for you in a way your simple mind can understand.

    Our children are safer in our public schools than they are in our cars on the way to and from school. More children are killed and injured in auto accidents than all the school shootings combined.

    Therefore, let me correct your first sentence in your tweet. “This is ridiculous, and completely unnecessary.”

  23. Art Acevedo, what are you feelings on the over-matched, incompetent, lazy, un-involved, unloving parents that begat the monsters of our time?

  25. Houston’s (politically appointed) police chief is a DISGRACE TO HIS OATH, HIS COUNTRY, HIS STATE, HIS OFFICE. This hack must step down, NOW.

  26. Change the Constitution and give a revolution granted only 3% will not comply but that is roughly 10 million pissed off armed citizens, and the English thought the IRA was bad the Democrats are tearing our county apart with there BS crap, they cannot and will not do anything constructive but anything illegal to maintain power is OK , pass perversion laws, prosecute parents for disciplining their kids, make all citizens a ward of the state where they get Money, food, clothing, Education, lack of work ethic etc!
    Democrat run Windy city is absolute proof gun control does not work!
    The NRA backed LBJ’s laws. they also tried ammo control for a few months during limp dick Lying LBJ’s promotion of the Industrial war complex that he was a profiteer from

  27. ““I think the Second Amendment is being badly interpreted. It’s not consistent with what our Founders intended,” Biden said”

    You’re right, Joe.

    The founders never intended for the police and military to be better armed than the people.

    • It is the duty of the militia to provide the security for a free state. It’s not the lawful duty of a standing army or an unelected police department.

      An army is for waging war. A police department is a goon squad the for local politicians to oppress their constituency.

      The militia is every able-bodied American, well trained, well equipped and well armed. If there is a riot, the neighborhood/people/militia grab their guns and assemble to stop the unlawful acts.

      http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OCYT9Hew9ZU

  28. “Biden, considered a top potential Democratic contender in 2020”

    By whom, exactly? He may poll well with “idiot windbags who spent four decades pontificating in the Senate and big blowhards who served as Obama’s V.P.”, but that’s a very narrow base of support.

  29. Perhaps the hypocrite should have taken the pistol off of his belt before marching in an anti-gun rally.

  30. “I know some have strong feelings about gun rights but I want you to know I’ve hit rock bottom and I am not interested in your views as it pertains to this issue,” he wrote. “Please do not post anything about guns aren’t the problem and there’s little we can do. My feelings won’t be hurt if you de-friend me and I hope yours won’t be if you decide to post about your views and I de-friend you.”

    How about apprehend you for treason? Look, the 2nd Amendment can only be removed by another amendment to the constitution. Removing that right by any other means is an act of treason, period. I don’t care about your feelings, but I do care if you don’t follow the Constitution. Man up, do your job, and follow your oath to obey and defend the Constitution. Geez Louise, the nerve of some politically appointed police chiefs who somehow think that a tyrannical police state is the answer to their own incompetence.

  31. “Biden says ‘enough is enough’ after Santa Fe school shooting”

    Okay. Let’s start with the security detail that protects you and your family, and in a few years, we can revisit your demand.

  32. Ahhh…..Chief Acevedo……sometimes the Germans have just the right word, where English falters.

    For a facial expression like that, my first thought was Honigkuchenpferd. Literally, it means a honey cake in the shape of a horse, which means almost nothing. As an idiom, though, it means having a dorky-ass, wide smile across your face, about something you shouldn’t be smiling that much or at all. Dictionaries translate it like a Cheshire cat smile or grinning like a Chesire cat. Both of those describe the expression, I suppose, but those both take the underlying meaning in a different and deeper direction. I only refer to the dorkiness aspect.

    My second thought was Backpfeifengesicht. Some might claim it’s even more fitting, but I couldn’t possibly comment. Literally it means a slap or a punch to the face. As actually used, it carries the context of someone who has it coming. So you’ll see it translated along the lines of “a face badly in need of a fist” or “a face just begging to be punched.”

  33. I live in Spring, TX which is a suburb of Houston. The dividing line between the two towns if but 3 blocks from my home.

    Given the way the Houston Chief of Police talks down to gun owners in Houston and in Texas more generally is a disgrace.

    I’ve never before appreciated how a merely 3 blocks distance can reassure.

  34. How did the NRA in the past, prevent govt agencies now from putting their disqualifying information into the system? I’m sure there’s at least one church that wishes they did that better.

  35. Hey Joe, tell me how your “Gun Free Zones Act” of 1990 fits in with the 2A????

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