Guns for the needy
by digby
In a city still reeling from a shooting rampage that killed six and severely injured a congresswoman, contrasting giveaways are being proposed for a handful of its working-class neighborhoods.
One would dole out free shotguns to poor adults. Another would hand out free school supplies to needy children.
[…]
Shaun McClusky, a real estate agent who lives in the Tucson area, said he heard about the Armed Citizen Project and contacted the group’s leader, Kyle Coplen, a post-graduate student in Houston. Coplen’s initiative has raised about $13,000 to purchase shotguns that would be distributed in seven cities, perhaps more.Recipients will have to pass a background check and will be given special training before receiving a free shotgun.
“It’s about home protection,” McClusky said. “If you are a single mom or dad and can’t afford a shotgun, we’ll give one to you.”
In response, local activist Sal Baldenegro Jr. is spearheading the School Supply Giveaway campaign, and hopes to raise at least as much, if not more, money than McClusky.
“Tucson residents are working hard to make our neighborhoods safe, but free gun giveaways completely undermine this effort,” Baldenegro states in a website for online donations. Handing out school supplies, he adds, “will result in a vibrant and healthy Tucson community.”
Joseph Miller, Midvale Park Assn. president, said his neighborhood doesn’t need “gun welfare.”
And he makes an excellent point:
“Nobody’s going to want to move into a place where they’re giving out free guns,” he said.
Dead bodies are definitely an eyesore.
I’m going to guess that Mr McClusky is yet another cocky gun proliferation activist who just wants to make a political point. And I’ll take it one step further and speculate that he is one of those fine fellows who thinks that half the population are freeloaders who need to stop their whining, get off their hind ends and get a (better paying) job instead of asking other people to support them. Needless to say however, giving them a free gun is the Christian thing to do.
h/t to Colleen Kirby
.