(photo courtesy of Jack Tomczak, via Twitter) Last Friday night (08 Feb 2013), yours truly, the ol' TwoPutter, was invited by Jack Tomczak & Ben Kruse to be on Late Debate to discuss guns with Andrew Rothman, who is with Minnesota Gun Owners Civil Rights Alliance. So I tossed on a shirt that's guaranteed to raise the hackles and feed the paranoia of RightWingNutJobs everywhere (about that Tee Shirt, here), and headed to the studio!
I'd like to start this out by saying Jack & Ben are gracious hosts; they'll ask the lefty that goes on the show some tough questions, but they're always fair (well, to me and those lefty's that I've heard 'em interview). So I'll give 'em a shout-out; they're doing everyone a service by putting opposing views on air, on their show. Plus, Jack and Ben can be really funny! If you have to listen to RightWingRadio, theirs is a show to listen to.
And I'd also like to say that as a person, I like Andrew Rothman - he's a very articulate person that believes passionately in what he does. Some of which I happen to agree with; some of what I vehemently disagree with. But hey - this is America; disagreement is our tradition going way back to the days of The Founding Fathers. The point here is Andrew is someone reasonable people can (and should) like even while disagreeing with his positions.
Prior to that night's radio gig, I'd never met Andrew. But, I'd heard him! On January 19th, GunNuts "rallied" at the Capitol in St. Paul; pictures and my comments in a Facebook Album titled "Guns Across America, St. Paul's Circus Act". Here's what I said, back then, in a tweet: "Opening speaker at #GunNuts Rally: "No new #Gun Laws in #MN; gun laws don't work" Yep - "right" out of the gate, and then repeated by speaker after speaker (including Tony Cornish, R=NRA) were "no new laws - PERIOD."
So that's the backdrop; yours truly, the ol' TwoPutter, was headed to the studio.
You can link to the podcast here and listen along; the following transcript has to deal with finding common ground - that the idea anyone can go to a gun store, or under a tent at a gun show, and buy a machine gun is a really, Really, REALLY bad idea. Or, so I thought; starting at 7:05 into the show:
TPT: "We should actually start off, you know, and see if we can find any common ground. Now, you know, back in the 1930's we had Al Capne and the bootleggers, yada yada yada. And in their infinite wisdom, (cross talk) let me finish, don't start talking over me already; I know your style! We outlawed Tommy Guns. My question is: are you ok with that? Should sub-machine guns be illegal?
Rothman: No.
TPT: Alright, now we have it, folks! Now we're getting ready to go!
Rothman: Let's go back a little further. First we had Prohibition and it turns out that if we just prohibit something there won't be any of it. We know this about the war on alcohol; we know this about the war on drugs. But we ended up with this huge bureaucracy of the, the uh, the Revenuers. And these folks did their very very best to win the war on alcohol. Failed miserably and creaed a huge market for crime in the process. When Prohibition was repealed, there was this whole federal bureaucracy with nothing to do. 1934 - the Gun Control Act (sic). So they had to do something about all those machine guns and all that crime which was caused by: Prohibition.
TPT: I just want to make sure all the listeners are very clear that Andrew, you just said that there should not be a prohibition on fully automatic AK-47's, M-16's, Thompson sub-machine guns, Uzi's, yada yada yada. Is that really your position?
Andrew: That's my position.
Ladies and Gents, you simply cannot make that up.
While reasonable people are trying to find reasonable solutions to curb gun violence, including banning Loop-Hole Legal Machine Guns, a leader of those opposing any - ANY - new gun law is very clear: fully automatic weapons should be readily available.
Listen to the podcast here; not only is it great radio, but you'll gain insight into the thoughts of those that oppose any and all regulations on The 2nd Amendment, which reads:
"A well regulated militia, being necessary to the security of a free state, the right of the people to keep and bear arms, shall not be infringed."
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I did the transcription, as best I could. Any error is inadvertent and will be corrected upon review; please suggest any such correction in the comments, below
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