Sunday, March 15, 2015

Guns and neighbors.

About 70-80 supporters gather to protest Lower Merion gun rule they say is illegal.The poor people of tony Lower Merion, Pennsylvania, must have felt like they woke up in the middle of Texas earlier today.

"Several dozen gun-rights supporters peacefully descended on a Lower Merion park Sunday afternoon, where they protested a local gun ordinance and called on the district attorney to take legal action against the township.

 The township's rule does not ban legal guns from parks, but rally organizers say the ordinance is illegal under Pennsylvania state law. A crowd of about 80 people carried signs, American flags and firearms as they listened to speeches in Bala Cynwyd Park on the cold afternoon. "We're all here because we believe that real patriotism is a willingness to challenge the government when it's wrong," said speaker Steve Piotrowski of Citizens for Liberty.

Joshua Prince, a lawyer, told the crowd that Lower Merion would be sued and asked District Attorney Risa Ferman to bring legal action against all involved.

Two Lower Merion commissioners who attended said the township is not concerned about a lawsuit. The protest did not represent the view of most residents, they said.

"For all intents and purposes, this is an armed occupation here today," said Township Commissioner Brian McGuire, who supports the ordinance and attended the rally to talk to constituents. 

The rally kicked off with the Pledge of Allegiance and a moment of silence for Philadelphia police officer Robert Wilson III, who was killed in the line of duty March 5 when robbers invaded a video game store. The gun event, billed as being family friendly, intended to draw gun-rights supporters from across the state. Organizers said Thursday they were expecting between 280 and 480 to turn out, but the crowd Sunday was substantially smaller.

Gun-rights advocates say the Lower Merion ordinance is illegal under a Pennsylvania law that gives the state jurisdiction over firearms regulation. But gun-control supporters argue that Lower Merion's rule does not fall into any of the categories regulated by that state law. Many localities have repealed their gun regulations after a bill passed last year strengthened state preemption of municipal gun ordinances.

The law, known as Act 192, broadly defines people who can sue localities over their firearms rules to include most state residents and organizations - who do not have to prove they have been personally harmed by the ordinance in question.

Philadelphia, Pittsburgh and Lancaster all left some ordinances on the books and were sued by the National Rifle Association in January.

With a group of state legislators, the cities have brought a separate case against the commonwealth, alleging that procedural maneuvers used to pass the bill were unconstitutional.  

Gun-control advocates think the effort in Lower Merion is part of an attempt by gun-rights supporters to get townships to rescind their ordinances before the court rules on the law, said Shira Goodman, executive director of CeaseFirePA.

"We believe that the law will be thrown out, so we don't feel threatened by a lawsuit," McGuire said. As the national battle over guns has shifted largely to the states, questions like these have become key parts of the debate.

Almost every state has some form of preemption, according to a 2014 analysis by the Carnegie-Knight News21 program. But Pennsylvania's law has drawn national attention from gun-rights and gun-control groups alike.

The NRA called it the strongest statute in the country. On Sunday, the gun-rights demonstrators' presence went unchallenged, though one person shouted "unpatriotic" from the other side of the park, and organizers said they found nails in the street near parked cars. " [Source]

"Guns don't kill people." But neither do laws against controlling guns.

*Pic from Philly.com

 

33 comments:

PilotX said...

When you're scared of everything I guess you need a gun everywhere you go.

PilotX said...

Fun fact, on this date in 1945 five pilots from the 332nd fighter group were awarded the distinguished flying cross. Included in this honor was Chicago Do Do chapter's Shelby Westbrook.

Yīshēng said...

Hey Field, loved the sidebar story about the Dr. in Chi town making house calls. I'm hoping to do something similar in rural communities, folks think Black folks in the 'hood got it bad medically speaking, you ain't seen NUTHIN' 'til you seen what our rural dwelling brothers and sisters deal with!!!

Anonymous said...

This NRA thing is totally crazy! Open carry, concealed carry, wth?

It's as though they're prepping for a war or something! Totally scary!

Make love, not war people!

Anonymous said...

Blogger PilotX:Freeing slaves from the Republican plantation since the 70's said...
When you're scared of everything I guess you need a gun everywhere you go.

8:05 PM
+++++++++++++=
All humans are afraid of losing their lives. So it makes sense to carry a gun for protection from evil.

Anonymous said...

The Constitution allows Americans the right to "bear arms." But I always thought bears had four legs, not arms. I think perhap guaranteeing the right to carry rabbit's feet instead would bring us better luck. However, PETA would certainly work to ban these. They might begin by passing laws about where you may or may not carry rabbit's feet. Also, terms like "Hip-Hop" would be considered hate speech.

Anonymous said...

The rally kicked off with the Pledge of Allegiance and a moment of silence for Philadelphia police officer Robert Wilson III, who was killed in the line of duty March 5 when robbers invaded a video game store. The gun event, billed as being family friendly, intended to draw gun-rights supporters from across the state. Organizers said Thursday they were expecting between 280 and 480 to turn out, but the crowd Sunday was substantially smaller.

It's always nice when the ammo-sexuals invite their kids to their festivals of weaponry. What could possibly go wrong?

Anonymous said...

Does anyone else think the Constitution may be a little bit outdated, seeing as it was written soooo long ago, in very different times and circumstances?

Anonymous said...

Lilac, "Make love, not war people!"

10:31 PM
==========
That makes no sense if you are a human being. Most don't know how to love or what it is for that matter.

Check this out by Aldous Huxley before he died:

“It is a bit embarrassing to have been concerned with the human problem all one's life and find at the end that one has no more to offer by way of advice than 'try to be a little kinder”

Now, he was a spiritual guy who sought GOD all of his life and his conclusion was human beings are mean-ass people who don't know how to love one another, let alone respect one another.

The nature and character of people tend to be evil:

"Humans are made good but they love to do evil." St Augustine

Anonymous said...

OpenID lilacpr2000 said...
Does anyone else think the Constitution may be a little bit outdated, seeing as it was written soooo long ago, in very different times and circumstances?

11:50 PM
-----------
It's only outdated if someone like you think our founding fathers made a mistake.

They did not make a mistake. The Constitution is flawless, perfect. That's why America is great. No other country can boast perfection like America.

And you, missy should be thankful you were made a colony years ago, and now you may someday be able to vote in our election. That will happen as soon as The Republicans take control of the WH in 2016.

Anonymous said...

Field it is time to take down Creflo as a HN in your sidebar. He doesn't deserve it because he has saved so many lives brought incalculable happiness to the black community.

Anonymous said...

"Does anyone else think the Constitution may be a little bit outdated, seeing as it was written soooo long ago, in very different times and circumstances?"

Yes, a wee bit.

(Not only that, but contrary to what some people think, the Constitution isn't some perfect enlightened vision of wise oracles who could see into the future -- or a tablet of divine rules handed down by God. It's the result of a lot of ugly horse-trading between a bunch of squabbling, self-interested, wig-wearing businessmen.)

Unfortunately, the Founders made the document damn hard to change. I'm not saying it should be easy to alter, or else there wouldn't be any point even having a constitution. But our revision process makes it virtually impossible to revise things that are obviously not working.

Sometimes, I think we should scrap it entirely and replace it with a parliamentary system, one legislative house, and proportional voting. What we've got is a corrupt, gridlocked joke.

Anonymous said...

You know the Constitution is an interesting thing. It has been amended 27 times!

I think I'll read it sometime.

See what little loopholes I can find ;) hehehehe...

Anonymous said...

Lowlac,

Let's hope the laws banning slavery don't become outdated. They are old laws.

Sincerely,

Asmondius

Anonymous said...

“As between the presence of white racism and the absence of blacks fathers, which poses the bigger threat to the black community?”

Anonymous said...

Instead of banning guns, California has just passed a controversial new law requiring bullets to be registered and to have shell casings with laser etched serial numbers...

http://pakavenue.com/webdigest/it_corner/intro_001.htm.



field negro said...

Anon@2:24, that is a classic chicken or the egg question.

Yīshēng said...

Are there more poor Blacks abusing Medicaid, or middle/upper class Whites abusing Medicare?

Anonymous said...

Yisheng, that is an interesting question. Do you have any research on it?

One thing for sure, if humans are involved there is plenty of abuse to go around.

Anonymous said...

There were no loopholes in the Constitution, for it was perfect. The minute they started making amends loopholes came into being.

Bill said...


Yīshēng said...
Bill said...
And for some strange reason, the media only cares about Black lives when it can be used politically.
>>>>>>
But this is rarely the case, that a Black person that does NOT have a criminal background is "highlighted" in the media. And from that, I can easily conclude that perpetuating the myth that ALL Blacks are criminals serves a more important (to White racists) cultural agenda as opposed to a political one.


Yes, you are correct, the liberal media doesn't highlight Blacks that aren't criminals. How does that keep Blacks voting for dumbocrats?

I've made the point before that every time a rethug talks about welfare reform the liberal media shows video of a black woman with multiple kids and talks about the racism of rethugs wanting to deny the black woman help. Despite the fact there are more whites on welfare, the media ALWAYS shows a black woman to call rethugs racist and keep Blacks scared of the racist rethug party.

John Langley and Malcolm Barbour, both big dumbocrat donors. I wonder the impression of blacks they have helped create with their "Cops" teev show?

The liberal media only feigns concern about Blacks when it can be used politically.

White cop shoots Black kid, lots of media attention. Black on black crime or failing government schools aren't a concern. No white rethugs to blame.

Imagine the outrage in the liberal media if teacher unions contributed to rethugs and were failing poor kids of every color. We would see images of Black kids crying because they aren't being taught to read and write. The media would demand national attention for the racist problem of rethugs not helping Black kids in school.
Unfortunately, teacher unions are the biggest contributor to Field's party so the liberal media will never call for reform.

Dumbocrat agenda.

Josh said...

Honest question: In all the years you've been keeping the meter running on the Killadelphia murder count, what percentage of victims have been killed by this type of person -- a gun-toting, NRA flag-waving conservative armed to the teeth?

Field wrote: "that is a classic chicken or the egg question."

For anyone interested, let's clear this up once and for all, from an evolutionary biology standpoint.

It's the chicken, people. Really. Were you asleep in school?

"But what laid the egg?" I hear people shouting.

Proto-chicken laid the egg. A chicken hatched.

When paternal and maternal DNA mixes, what results is an imperfect copy; e.g. the DNA "mutates." Each successive generation born is different than the previous. Sometimes these changes are small, sometimes they're not so small. More feathers, a longer beak, trouble flying, etc, etc...

This is the principle of natural selection.

So, no more philosophical pondering over which could have possibly came first. Twas the chicken.

Bill said...


field negro said...
Anon@2:24, that is a classic chicken or the egg question.


As someone that works with/for children, what does your real life experience tell you?

PilotX said...

No Desert, the constitution is perfect. It was written by Jesus.

field negro said...

My.real life experience tells me that failing families are a problem,and it invariably leads to pathologies.
But it also tells me that there are folks in power (ahem ahem, republicans) who would rather see resources that can be used to help these conditions being wasted on something else.

Yīshēng said...

Anonymous Bill said...
Yes, you are correct, the liberal media doesn't highlight Blacks that aren't criminals. How does that keep Blacks voting for dumbocrats?
>>>>>>>>>>

Bigger picture Bill bigger picture, it's the lesser of two evils and surely you've heard of that before, right?

Josh said...

"ahem ahem, republicans"

Where, exactly, do these Republicans have all this supposed power?

Ferguson? East St. Louis? Brooklyn? Compton? Suitland? DC? Philly? Even in Congress, A liberal Democrat who happens to be black holds veto power over every muthalovin' Republican elected to office.

I understand Republicans being blamed for shit for which they should be blamed. By and large, they're greedy, warmongering, Bible-thumping sumbitches that don't seem to care much about anything but a traditionalist power structure that necessarily discriminates against any and everything on the outside of that tribe.

But where do Republicans exist outside of paranoid minds in the majority of these areas that beggar belief in terms of their functionality juxtaposed against the rest of society? Is a Republican in South Carolina somehow oppressing blacks in Chicago?

There's a stark difference in Republicans being to blame for something and Republicans being scapegoated.

And one doesn't need Einstein's visual capabilities to piece together 2 and 2 here. Republican = white = racist = evil = the root of every single black problem in the history of black problems.

A Democrat in every major position in the nation, and still it would somehow be the fault of Republicans.

Bill said...


field negro said...
My.real life experience tells me that failing families are a problem,and it invariably leads to pathologies.


Chicken or egg.

How does more tax money get Black absentee fathers to get involved with their children?

Josh molests little boys said...

Too many losers with guns. How about more armed winners?

PoopAvenger said...

I can't wait to read Josh's alcohol-fueled comments tomorrow.

Anonymous said...

Blogger PilotX:Freeing slaves from the Republican plantation since the 70's said...
No Desert, the constitution is perfect. It was written by Jesus.

3:18 PM
---------
The Constitution was perfect from the beginning. But Jesus did not write it. However, it was probably was 'inspired' by Jesus through our founding Fathers.

You see, all of the Founding Fathers were all White and 'white' indicates 'purity'. In other words there was not 'one' Black involved in writing the Constitution. It was only after they started screwing around with its perfection with amends did loopholes start to appear.

Imho, we need to go back to the original Constitution in all its perfection, and never make amends.

According to PX, he agrees. BTW, who is Desert, or did you make a mistake?

Josh said...

"I can't wait to read Josh's alcohol-fueled comments tomorrow."

Yeah. I understand perfectly.

Never, ever, in your life, ask black people questions. Doing so is an alcohol-fueled racist rant.

Clay said...

Yes Josh...let them guzzle down a couple of Colt 40'zs, smoke them some cracks.....it's about that time of day.