I've been out for a few days

I have been unable to post for a few days due the death of a close friend.

Many of you read about it.
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=118&topic_id=23145&mesg_id=23185&page=

Jimmy and his older brother Trung have been friends of mine for many years.

Although the circumstances of his death are not fully known to us right now, every day brings new information.

At the moment it appears to have been a worthless piece of shit criminal trying to rob them.

Jimmy had a concealed permit, but they were going to a place were it was unlawful to carry, so he did not have it on him.

I attended his funeral this morning, and burned 6 one dollar bills (one for each year I knew him) during the offerings portion of the Budist ceremony.

Jimmy was a firm believer in the RKBA and all other rights, and had been from the time he immigrated to this country from Vietnam.

His older brother Trung and I frequent the range and hunting and fishing trips together.

We both have CC permits, and we are both still FIRM believersin the RKBA!

It is truly hard to lose a friend, not to mention a close one.

"We both have CC permits, and we are both still FIRM believers in the RKBA!"-Spoonman

I would think this type of loss would just strengthen your resolve.
Good to see that "blame" isn't inapropriately being laid- where it doesn't belong.

Sorry to hear that. My heart goes out to you and his family...

DNR

My condolences on the tragic loss of your friend.

Good people obey laws, criminals don't.

and whereas I am deeply sorry for the loss of your friend, I am absolutely disgusted by members of this board who will use this tragedy as a springboard from which to launch their anti-rights agenda.

Some members of DU scour news articles across the internet to come up with the juciest, most tragic examples of firearms used in an irresponsible and/or criminal manner, and here we have an example of when their callousness and lack of compassion really show through. What they FAIL to realize is that the articles they publish contain the tragic stories of PEOPLE with feelings and families and friends, such as Spoonman and Jimmy. Yet, they have absolutely no regard for those feelings, after all, their driving motivation is to paint these victims as examples of why the RKBA should be restricted and to push their anti-Democratic agenda.

And, I seriously doubt that we will hear any sympathy from these people for your loss. Why? They don't give a shit of the human toll of their ideas. They are looking for shock value only. They care not one iota of how tragedies like this can be averted.

So, to those of you out there who use stories like this to champion your non-progressive, restricive ideals, you should be ashamed of yourselves. I do not think you espouse the virtue and values of the progressive and Democratic movement, and you are exaclty what's wrong with our party and our nation.

Spoonman, I am truly sorry for your loss. Please, if you think about it sometime, pass along my sympathies to your friend's family and let them know that I will always fight for the right of citizens to defend themselves so this kind of tragedy can be avoided.

Brian

....there are no posts prior to yours that reflect the "callousness and lack of compassion" you're complaining about. How about waiting and seeing whether such comments actually appear, and then criticize them? Wouldn't that be the right thing to do?

My sympathies to Spoonman for the tragic loss of his friend.

rather, all the Guns in the News Threads posted by the anti-RKBA crowd

Please notice the link I used to reference the event.
Had I used the link directly to yahoo, Fly would be slightly out of line.
However, Fly's analogy is FUCKING SPOT ON!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!, and I thank him for his apparent prolonged thought and concern for the situation.

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by just saying "Sorry for your loss"

But, that's probably too much to expect, isn't it?

by just saying "I lost a friend".

But HE chose to exploit the loss of his friend to expound his political position.

*I* chose not to respond. *I* would say that *I* exhibited the most common decency in this instance, if I were asked.

And since my non-response was COMMENTED ON, without comment in response by the person who had chosen to exploit the loss of his friend to expound his political position, I do believe that I WAS asked. My common decency was questioned. I find it very easy to defend.

"that's probably too much to expect, isn't it?"

Yup, it's very much too much to expect me to read the exploitation of a personal loss for political ends and then pretend that the point of the post was to express personal pain, and respond as if I believed that pretense. I find it difficult to be so easily manipulated.


By the way: even with all the follow-up I have provided on the tragic story of the unarmed, non-criminal teenager shot in the back in Florida last month, by someone who was first touted in these quarters as a paragon acting in defence of self and property ... including excerpts from newspaper articles clearly demonstrating the very tragic consequences of that death for the family and friends of the young man who was killed (and even, one might well say, for the man who killed him) ... I have failed to see any indication from the "RKBA" crowd that they felt any sympathy whatsoever for the bereaved friends and family. Given that it was one of that crowd who had first posted the story and gloated at how the killer had not been immediately arrested and charged, I might almost have expected to see some of that when the truth came out. Lucky I'm so cynical and hard to disappoint.

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you sure do have a lot to say. Everything BUT "sorry for your loss"

I choose not to respond to the initial post in the thread.

I choose to respond to the nasty innuendo directed at me (as part of the group being strangely smeared with a big brush) for that non-response.

Not that hard to figure out, when you think about it, is it?

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you are hellbent on turning this into a flame fest.

Strangely resembles a personal attack, if ya ask me.

Had that post not been written, I wouldn't be here. Perhaps you should have a word with the aggressor in the situation, instead of continuing to attempt to shame the defender. Doesn't one have some sort of inherent right to the defence of reputation? Where's jody when you need her?

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than to take you off ignore.

Because as soon as I did, you demonstrate the very reason I had you there!

"But HE chose to exploit the loss of his friend to expound his political position."

You don't no a damn thing about me, my friends, my convictions, or my reasons for this post.

To assume you do, demonstrates an unbelievable degree of arrogance, especially by someone who claims to have such deep convictions.

There was somewhat of a statement in using MrBenchley’s link as an indirect link to the story, but it wasn’t what you think.

My thought was exactly what Brian stated in his post, and I notice Refill was right too!

But just in case you want to attempt to expound on this, you should at least have some knowledge of what your commenting on, so here was my hidden message.

HOW FUCKING DARE YOU try to use the death of my friend as political fodder for an emotional feeding frenzy of weak minded, goose stepping robots!

“But HE chose to exploit the loss of his friend to expound his political position”

Now ask yourself again, who was it that was posting this story in a shameful “exploit to expound his political position”?

I guess *you* think it's a one way street?

“I find it difficult to be so easily manipulated.”

Like the post was even placed for your benefit.

Back on ignore where you belong and will stay!

and happens to be Wayne LaPierre's secret bastard son, and African-American to boot.

And he thinks it's very funny that there's all this hypocritical "concern for vicitms" from the bunch that have been screaming for months that there ought to be no single "Guns in the News" thread allowed...

and that there ought to no multiple "Guns in the News" threads allowed...

...especially when you consider its the same bunch that not too long ago were jeering and laughing because a teen trying to shoot himself MISSED.

For that matter, wasn't there a thread earlier this week in which this bunch were getting big laughs out of somebody pretending he had shot his friend with an assault weapon?

"especially when you consider its the same bunch that not too long ago were jeering and laughing because a teen trying to shoot himself MISSED.

For that matter, wasn't there a thread earlier this week in which this bunch were getting big laughs out of somebody pretending he had shot his friend with an assault weapon?"

Come on Benchley, post it so everyone can see where I did these things you claim.

As for your first comment, I'm sure the rest of the people here at DU have now lost any remaining respect for you, that's if they even had any to begin with.

Personal attacks are personal even if the skirt the rules.

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and it is obvious!

"Especially since this same crowd has spent months bitching because those stories are being told in public. They don't seem to care that people get shot...but they want them to be shot in silence, far from anyone's eyes. And they claim that the real tragedy is that gun battles didn't break out at each incident."

The bitching you here is the echo from your own screams blaming the gun for the actions of an individual.

I blame the whining, crying, spineless pieces of shit that want to blame the gun, the maker of the gun, the seller of the gun, the republican party, the media and everything and anyone else other than the other sorry piece of shit that pulled the trigger, and the system that fails to make the penalties a deterrent to the action!

Post these stories, all of them you want, I’ll even help you search if you get tired.

But don’t EVER try to bullshit anyone into thinking your not parading these tragedies in an effort to eliminate crime!

If it were crime you were fighting, where are the stories about the consequences of the actions committed by these criminals? i.e. the trial, conviction, and execution of the criminal.

I suspect that stories just don’t quite achieve the same emotional reaction your trying to achieve.

Let's see some stories about how some fuck stain got the needle for shooting an innocent man, woman, or child!

You want the crime to stop, newsflash - when the punishment fits the crime, the crime will stop!

No matter how hard you try to show proof otherwise, it has been proven time and time again that that approach works!
Start treating these criminals like criminals, and make them PAY their debt to society, not have society pay for them to be in prison!

Commit an offense with a gun, off to prison you go for 10, 15, 20 years at hard labor.

Hard labor, like the old chain gangs that were cleaning the road sides, digging drainage ditches, building roads, and everything else we pay for as tax payers today. No fucking cable TV, weight rooms and other amenities like the tennis courts gyms and swimming pools.

Commit murder with any weapon, automatic death penalty!

ZERO fucking appeals, ZERO fucking excuses!
Hell I’ll push the plunger, flip the switch, or squeeze the trigger and never loose a minutes sleep over it!
You commit murder, you die too, and not 10 or 20 years later. Limited appeals, date of execution set at verdict, the clock is ticking and fuck you if you can’t stop it!

If anyone here disagrees, fine, it’s your prerogative, but the zero recidivism rate for executed convicted murderers totally disproves ANY logic you may try to interject!

Crime rates indicate one thing to me, and it isn’t a need for gun control, it’s a need for criminal control.

If people weren’t so busy screaming about SCOTUS, John Lott, the NRA, the VPC, The Joyce Foundation, or HCI, they might have enough wind left in their lungs to scream for the elimination of the ACTUAL problem….the fucking criminal behind the trigger!

and that is what is obvious...

"Post these stories, all of them you want, I’ll even help you search if you get tired."
Yeah, we can tell from the constant screams of rage that the stories are posted at all.

"But don’t EVER try to bullshit anyone into thinking your not parading these tragedies in an effort to eliminate crime!"
What's bullshit is this sudden ludicrous concern for victims on the part of gun nuts. Now let's hear again why the gun show loophole should stay open.

"What's bullshit is this sudden ludicrous concern for victims"

Your truely a piece, if you think my concern is "sudden".

You sometimes demonstrate too clearly your inability to view the world in any manner outside of your little box.

How exactly do you describe your politics?

Was it "liberal"? "progressive"? "democratic"? "Democrat"?

Unfortunately, I'd believe the last one. But not any of the others.

Whew. I'd actually rather think that you'd plagiarized that post from somewhere unpleasant that that someone purporting to be any of the above really wrote it.

I've heard that death/grief gets the testosterone flowing ... so maybe we're just witnessing a "must be his time of the month" kinda phenomenon. Not a pretty one, I must say.


Oh, and by the way, again:

"If it were crime you were fighting, where are the stories about the consequences of the actions committed by these criminals? i.e. the trial, conviction, and execution of the criminal."

The killing of the Boca Racon teenager has only got as far as the charge and arrest of the killer so far, but I've been doing my bestest to keep you updated. If I'd known you were so interested ... well, how would I have known that?? Not from anything you've said, that's for sure.

And in any event, why would you say "if it were crime you were fighting"? Me, I'm wanting to prevent the harm caused with firearms. How do you try, convict and execute a 13-yr-old who killed himself with daddy's hunting rifle? What death sentence will deter that kid from being dead?

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you have my deepest sympathies and my thoughts are with you

Please lock it, I'll not turn this into a flame fest, and I started to do it myself.

Spoon, it sucks that there are people here who will turn a personal tragedy to leverage their twisted political ideas. Failing that, they will turn a cry for sympathy into a flamefest so the mods will lock it.