Luckovich Toon: A Nation Of Laws

[n2doc]

Posted Here so as to not offend the delicate sensitivities of General Discussion, where I usually post toons.

[upaloopa]

1. You still see it no matter where you post it

This speaks to me about how little life means to some folks.

[n2doc]

2. But it won't (I hope) get removed here

I'm pissed because I posted a story to GD earlier today about a girl who was killed by an old man who 'mistook' her for a groundhog. It got removed by the mods as a "gun" story. Now, if it has been a police officer who shot her, or a drone, or a Boko Harem terrorist, it would have been fine there, I'm sure. But not an old white guy. That's a "gun" story.

[gejohnston]

4. how do you know it was an old white guy?

Do you think all gun owners or hunters are white? Wrong. What difference does his race make?

[n2doc]

5. The person who shot the girl was identified

I don't make up shit like that.
http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2014/05/09/man-shoots-woman-mistaken-for-groundhog/8888549/

Go take your faux rage somewhere else.

[gejohnston]

10. but his race wasn't identified

nor did it show a picture of him. Still isn't relevant.
Nothing faux, WYSIWYG.

[upaloopa]

6. I understand now thanks

[MicaelS]

8. What part of ....

Discuss politics, issues, and current events. No posts about Israel/Palestine, religion, guns, showbiz, or sports unless there is really big news

Is so hard to understand?

[Lizzie Poppet]

11. The prohibition against gun posts in GD is an open joke.

There are several such threads posted there every day. Very few are closed. The rule might as well not be there.

[oneshooter]

9. You can always post that stuff in the "other" forum.

They will call you a hero of the day for it.

[gejohnston]

3. which reminds me

of a murder in Tampa a few years ago where someone confessed to "standing her ground". Only problem was, she didn't do it, wasn't on the video or the store, and investigators found that she was several counties away on that day and time. My theory? She was covering for someone and learned from "journalists" and bloggers that those magic words are get out of jail cards. Which leads me to this misinformed murderer:
http://www.democraticunderground.com/1172145447

SYG has been around for 130 years, until intellectually, if not dishonest, lazy pundits and "journalists" can't take the time to actually look it up.
That is what the cartoon tells me.

[Gothmog]

7. Very effective cartoon

[needledriver]

12. Let's deconstruct this cartoon

In order to embrace his second amendment rights, our fictional caricature must be:

Overweight

Wear a baseball cap

Because the desired effect of outrage will not be accomplished if the armed person is elderly, female, or a minority.

An utterly implausible circumstance must be contrived so that the caricature may espouse a patently false interpretation of a long standing legal principle.

Please notice the victim has empty hands, no knife or firearm seen. There is no indication that the caricature had the slightest reason to believe his life was in danger, thus justifying self defense with lethal force. Were this a real life situation, the caricature would likely be be arrested, tried, and convicted of murder.

But this is a cartoon, whose intent is to provoke an emotional response that has no relationship to the reality of the laws the cartoon lampoons.

The intellectual dishonesty in it is quite a disappointment.

[DonP]

15. Cartoons substitute for individual thought and insight

It's what passes for deep thinking in another forum.

Nobody here pays much attention to them, since they are so ritually stereotyped and offer no new ideas or insights.

It's kind of like "phoning it in".

[spin]

13. I might be wrong but I can't find one incident where this happened. ...

It a lot like saying all people who support improvements to our current gun laws are trying to ban all civilian ownership of firearms.

[gejohnston]

16. upon further reflection

I posted my deleted in haste. What I should have said was
The point of the cartoon is use a stereotype that plays on peoples' prejudices and bigotry. The "gun nut" is always portrayed an over weight, rural, blue collar white guy. These cartoons are more often than not reflects the elitism and classism of the cartoonists. The gun prohibition lobby, in the US and abroad, does have an element of this kind of urban elitism and classism. Does the movement as whole, such as it is, have those elements? Yes. That is why the movements are largely pushed by the political and economic elites.
This particular cartoon also happens to add a bit of race baiting along with it. Does that mean the movement is racist or engages in race baiting? Not really.

[tosh]

17. I know a great number of gun owners

and I know 3 gun nuts.

It just happens all 3 are overweight, rural, blue collar white guys.

That is a fact.

[blueridge3210]

18. Given the residence location in your profile

I would expect, statistically, the most men you know are rural/white; likely blue collar and quite possibly overweight. The fact that the three that you view as "gun nuts" fit the profile could simply be that they are a subset of a larger group of "overweight, rural, blue collar white guys".

[tosh]

19. Actually, no.

The three gun nuts that I know are from my hometown (place of birth) which. according to the U.S Census 2012 is 52% female and 36% white but you got the rural part right and the blue collar bit, among white males there it is probably a toss-up.

The Mosquito Coast is quite a different story. Among my friends and neighbors here I am not aware of a single gun owner. There may be a few but they're sure not all hung up about it. It's not the kind of thing that's ever mentioned. I'll be sure to share your characterization with them , though. "Overweight, rural, blue collar white guys" -- they'll love it!!

[blueridge3210]

20. Glad to hear I bring some joy to their life. (nt)

[gejohnston]

21. perhaps I didn't make myself clear

I don't know how you define "gun nut", but I define it as the same as "computer nerd" or geek: someone who is knowledgeable and/or collects firearms. That is to say collectors and competitive shooters who know the history, engineering, etc. of them. It isn't a pejorative to me.
My point about the cartoonists, and too many people on the left on the right is that being rural or blue collar is a pejorative in itself: besides the ball cap, comes the stereotype of being poorly educated, narrow minded, and just not "our kind of people". In really has more to do with my zero patience for faux liberals. You know the type, affluent "progressives" born with silver spoons in their mouths, support unions but feel uncomfortable around actual union members (cough Chris cough Hayes, who looked very uncomfortable interviewing a blue collar guy during the march on Madison.) I know some "progressives" and faux liberals, and I'm sure we all do, who are OK with unions as long as they vote for our guy, but if daughter were to show up with a blue collar guy, it would be a remake of Guess Who's Coming to Dinner.

[ManiacJoe]

22. If Luckovich knew his gun laws better

he would have changed the speech some. As is, it makes no sense and would result in the gun owner being arrested.