First up, an Arizona gun club that lets people have their picture taken with Santa and a bunch of guns. This NPR post about it asks whether “it’s OK”, which is weird to answer. It’s really messed up — click that link to see a pic of a very happy lady, three guns, and an expressionless Mr. Claus — but should they be allowed to do it? Sure, why not? As long as the next mall Santa I see agrees to my “smoking jackets and martinis” photo idea.
An easy fix: paint the guns white and red like candy canes. Problem solved.
Second, a New Jersey man who’s fighting to keep his guns. Why does he need to fight? They’ve got that amendment there for a reason, cops, so back off, amirite? Except that he’s legally blind, he’s had guns stolen from him before, and he’s shot himself before. Plus, on one occasion where the police were searching his home following the burglary, they found guns stashed around the house, including one in an oven mitt. An oven mitt. That’s the kind of hiding place I would’ve thought up as a kid. That’s a whole lot of strikes in the “Of course you don’t get guns” column.
My favourite part of the New York Times article on this man is when they try to get a quote from him. The emphasis here is mine:
When Mr. Hopler answered a knock at the side door of his white, clapboard house one morning this week, he politely declined to talk to a reporter “until the case is over.” No guns were visible through the door, which had decals advertising the National Rifle Association and Ruger firearms.
This man’s the kind of character where, at worst, the NYT were expecting to see a rifle half hidden in a potted plant next to the door or, at best, thought the clarification would useful for the reader.
