More good guys with guns
by digby
I wrote about this incident the other day. It looks as though the fine upstanding militiaman — a quintessential good guy with a gun — was a convicted felon:
An armed militia member who came under fire last week by border patrol agents is a convicted felon who is not legally permitted to carry a gun.
John Frederick Forester was not injured in the Aug. 29 incident, when a U.S. Border Patrol agent was chasing suspects through thick brush near the Rio Grande when he encountered the militia member holding a shotgun or rifle.
The agent fired several shots, and Forester immediately dropped the firearm.
Records show Forester has two misdemeanor convictions in 1999 and 2001 for theft and trespassing and a felony conviction for burglary of a building, reported KRGV-TV, and he served time in prison.
Texas law prohibits convicted felons from using guns before the fifth anniversary of their release from prison, but federal law bans felons from ever owning firearms.
The Cameron County sheriff turned over the investigation to the FBI, and it’s not clear whether Forester will be charged in the incident.
The commander of the militia group, which was not identified, told reporters that he checked if applicants were on probation or parole but did not perform a full background check.
He said the border patrol did not identify himself before shooting, and he accused the sheriff of mishandling the investigation.
My assumption is that these fine upstanding militia members would like to overturn those unconstitutional laws about ex-felons being allowed to own guns. But so far, people haven’t risen up in defense of convicted criminals’ constitutional right to bear arms. (Guessing that has a little something to do with certain racially different convicted criminals bearing arms. They don’t even want those folks to vote much less carry a gun…)
Cops and militia members and street gangs and God knows who else are all dressed up in camo-costume and packing heat these days. We’re even seeing little girls kill gun instructors with semi-automatic weapons over burgers and fries and calling it an “unfortunate tragedy” sort of like a tsunami or a freeway pile-up in a blizzard.
At what point does a culture recognize that this juvenile love affair with playing soldier with lethal weapons has to stop?
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