How the GOP Promoted Gun Madness

[Octafish]

How the GOP Promoted Gun Madness

When looking at the faces of the six-year-olds butchered in their Connecticut classroom, you should also see the faces of the politicians who pandered to the NRA and its obsessive opposition to commonsense gun control, the likes of Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush.

By Robert Parry
ConsortiumNews.com
December 16, 2012

New York Times columnist Nicholas D. Kristof offers a typical column reacting to the massacre of 20 school children in Newtown, Connecticut. He calls on politicians to show courage in standing up to the National Rifle Association, but he doesn’t seem to have the courage himself to identify the key political culprits in a three-decade-long pandering to the NRA’s clout.

There’s a reason for that. The vast majority of the politicians who have served as handmaidens to the NRA’s war on commonsense gun control are Republicans, including such icons as Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush. And it is routine for mainstream pundits, like Kristof, to avoid “sounding partisan.”

SNIP...

But the reality is that the United States had begun grappling with its epidemic of gun violence in the 1970s by passing commonsense gun laws, and it was Reagan and Bush-41 who saw the political advantage in playing the tough-guy role and treating gun-control advocates as sissies.

SNIP...

But Reagan surely benefited from the staunch support of the NRA and gun owners when he swept to a landslide reelection in 1984. Those results were duly noted by Reagan’s Vice President George H.W. Bush who made opposition to gun control an important part of his 1988 campaign.

Bush’s opponent, Massachusetts Gov. Michael Dukakis, was a strong supporter of gun-control laws and Bush saw that as an opening. Bush accused Dukakis of wanting to disarm all private citizens. “That is not the American way,” declared Bush at one campaign rally. “I feel just the opposite.”

CONTINUED...

http://consortiumnews.com/2012/12/16/how-the-gop-promoted-gun-madness/

[BeyondGeography]

1. What a photo

What a nightmare we've been living through for the past 32 years. The GOP is nothing but destructive.

[Octafish]

2. Poppy epitomizes the idea that some people are entitled to use guns on other people.

He was photographed handing it down at some NRA function or another.

The NRA Brags That They'll Work Out Of President GW Bush's Oval Office

by John Mintz
Washington Post, Thursday, May 4, 2000

The National Rifle Association's second-ranking officer boasted at a closed meeting of NRA members earlier this year that if Republican nominee George W. Bush wins in November, "we'll have . . . a president where we work out of their office."

First Vice President Kayne Robinson, who is in line to succeed NRA President Charlton Heston, added that the NRA enjoys "unbelievably friendly relations" with the Texas governor. Robinson, who is also chairman of the Iowa Republican Party, made the comments Feb. 17 before 300 members in Los Angeles. He also described 2000 as "a critical election" in which Bush's success would ensure "a Supreme Court that will back us to the hilt."

SNIP...

Gun control groups say Bush has rarely strayed from NRA orthodoxy and for years has aggressively promoted its political platform. The NRA said it is proud of its ties to Bush.

SNIP...

At the Los Angeles meeting, LaPierre expressed confidence that the GOP-led Congress will do what the NRA wants--even though the group briefly stumbled last year. [font color="green"]In the aftermath of last year's Columbine High School massacre, in which 12 students and a teacher were shot dead, the Senate humbled the NRA by voting to close a loophole under which firearms purchases at gun shows are exempt from background checks. Gore cast the crucial 51st vote, and gun control forces were exultant[/font color].

CONTINUED...

http://www.commondreams.org/headlines/050400-01.htm

Poppy's Dim Son, the NRA's champion, took the Oval Office by a vote of 5-4, thanks to the GOP's partisan SCOTUS appointments.

[Octafish]

3. Bush donates WWII revolver to center

By Joann Loviglio, Associated Press Writer

PHILADELPHIA — Former President George H.W. Bush got his World War II service revolver back Wednesday, 60 years after giving it to a Navy lieutenant aboard the submarine that rescued him when his plane was shot down over the Pacific Ocean.

Bush donated the revolver to the National Constitution Center the same day the son of late Lt. J.G. Albert Brostrom returned the .38-caliber Smith & Wesson and its leather shoulder holster to him.

Brostrom was the sonar man on the USS Finback, which rescued Bush, a Navy pilot, after he was shot down by Japanese anti-aircraft fire on Sept. 2, 1944. Brostrom brought the future president to the infirmary and later shared his bunk with him.

"It was a little grubby in there, but that's how it was done in those days," Bush said. He gave Brostrom the revolver in gratitude.

CONTINUED...

http://usatoday30.usatoday.com/news/topstories/2007-07-18-2385214720_x.htm

[G_j]

4. K&R

[Octafish]

6. ''Money trumps peace.'' -- George Walker Bush, Feb. 14, 2007

''Money trumps peace...uh, sometimes.'' -- in answer to a question about pre-emptive war on Iran.

I remember Cindy Sheehan tried to bring it to our attention.

[rrneck]

5. Guns are the symbol of all things conservative.

And the anti symbol of all things liberal. That's why they use it, and that's why it works. For both sides.

[Octafish]

7. Perfectly stated, rrneck. Thank you!

Guns kill people. Sometimes, they protect an innocent person. More often than not, they are applied to protect or take someone's property.

Case in point:

Know your BFEE: War and Oil are just two longtime Main Lines of Business

Posted by Octafish in General Discussion (1/22-2007 thru 12/14/2010)
Sat Jan 05th 2008, 12:21 AM

This is the guy Ike was talking about
when he thought of making it:
“Military-Intelligence-Congressional Complex.”



Check out what U.S. Senator Prescott Sheldon Bush, wrote back in 1959,
cheerleading for Boeing, General Electric, Westinghouse, Remington,
Chevron and the rest of the war profiteers hogging at the trough of the U.S. Treasury:

To Preserve Peace Let’s Show Russians How Strong We Are

By Prescott Bush
U.S. Senator from Connecticut;
member of the Senate Armed Services Committee
The Reader’s Digest July 1959

MAN’S GREATEST danger, it is said, is ignorance. In a very real sense, the Soviet Union’s ignorance of our military strength may be the source of her gravest peril—and ours. Kaiser Wilhelm started World War I because he miscalculated Allied power. Hitler, mistakenly thinking he could blitz the world, launched World War II. Kruschev today lacks firsthand knowledge of our country; he may be given what others think he would like to hear—rather than an objective report on our actual military strength. Although it seems impossible that any sane person could start a war, we would be wise to take no chances.

Why not invite the Soviet high command to the United States for a conducted tour of our military might? We are bringing Russians to see our farms and factories, our scientific laboratories and research centers; we exchange dancers and musicians. Why not have their military leaders over for the most beneficial look of all? Our expressed policy, the aim and purpose of our entire defense system, is to deter the Kremlin from starting a war. What better way to deter than to show?

What we could show is nothing more nor less than the greatest military might ever assembled in the history of the world. If the Soviet high command could see what we have, they should be of our mind—that for them to start war today would be an act of insanity.

We could start in a Pentagon briefing room. There, with maps, globes, films and sound-projection equipment to help illustrate our points, we could give them a good hard look at the distribution of American power. Then we could fly the group to Mountain Home Air Force Base in Montana, where bombers of the Strategic Air Command are on 24-hour alert, many ready to take off within 15 minutes. We could see an awe-inspiring line of B-47’s, any one of which can, in a single mission, deliver explosive power equivalent to that of all the bombs dropped by all sides in World War II. We could invite the commander of the Soviet air force to ride in one of these planes, and see it refueled in the air, thus quietly demonstrating that, while most Soviet bombers would have to fly one-way missions, ours can strike any target in the world and return nonstop.

SNIP...

The demonstration at SAC should effectively dismiss from Soviet minds any speculation about the possibility of their gaining an advantage from all-out war any time soon. But we must face the fact that in a few years the Russians may be able to zero in our SAC bases with ballistic missiles. To drive this temptation out of their minds, we could show them other deterrents.

CONTINUES…

The Reader’s Digest
July 1959 pp. 25-30

Prescott Bush detailed how Kruschev and the head of the Soviet armed forces be our guest on nuclear submarines, demonstrations of sea- and land-launched ICBMs, operations from aircraft carriers and a cruise aboard the inter-continental strategic bomber, the B-52.

The guy was on to something. You know how much they get for a B-2 these days? Two bill? Each?



Almost forgot. Prescott also discussed the strategic importance of Iraq –
the very same right next door to Iran, the very place the CIA and MI6 had, five years earlier,
replaced a democratically elected government with a despot, the Shah. For the oil, I’d wager.

It’s fortunate for them that we want only peace with justice. Our entire record attests to that. We have no history of aggression, profess no desire for world domination, as do the Communists. Only by their continued menace have we been forced to take these measures for defense.

I ASK, “Why don’t we show the Russians many of these defense measures?” What I would not show them is any self-satisfaction on our part about the future, any slowing-up of plans to produce the new weapons which must inevitably take the place of the old ones. I believe we are in a continuing struggle to keep on top in this business of declaring war. I think that the Russians are never to be underrated. [font color="red"]I also believe that the Communists are master bluffers that they seek to put us off by arrogant threats to Berlin and to the peace of the far Pacific, and, while our people are preoccupied with these threats, they may try to take over Iraq as the Chinese Reds have conquered Tibet.[/font color]

So. At least three generations of the Bush Family Evil Empire have had their eyes on Iraq’s oil. Interesting how Prescott mentioned Tibet's destruction by China. How was he to know his namesake would one day become head of the U.S.-China Chamber of Commerce? The article also shows how Prescott boosted the Cold War, way back in ’59. It’s not so odd to think that three generations of crazy petrodollar-loving warmongers would rise to the top echelons of American leadership.



IMFO, this is exactly what Ike was talking about when he mentioned being on our guard against the “Military-Industrial Complex.” The Bushes and their supporters may think they're American royalty, but all they are is a multi-generational mob of traitors.

Oh, yeah. Guns are the anti-symbol for all things liberal, rrnect. They also are used to protect position, privilege, and power.