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Monday, August 17, 2009

Dead Heat

I think I'm gonna pack some heat the next time I go to the track. Or at least the first time after a obtain a license for a handgun. Too bad that, in New York, I can't sling some serious weaponry over my shoulder like this guy. Where's the NRA when you need them?


Because dammit, I'm pissed. I'm sick of this crap with the racino, and tired of subpar facilities at my racetracks. I'm against government meddling in racing, and sick of being parimutuelly overtaxed to death. I've had it with jockeys who move too soon or who get parked four wide from the two hole. I'm fed up with the drugs, and with those death panels behind which they put the horses down.

So, I'll bring a piece. That'll show 'em, right? Of course, I'm not going to actually use it...

Oh...so, then, why am I bringing one? Oh, that's right, I'll just be exercising my second amendment right to defend myself against aggressively aggrieved bettors.

Pretty wacky, isn't it? But though you readers trust me (right?), can you really trust that someone who's bonkers enough to bring a loaded assault weapon to a presidential event wouldn't really utilize it? If they're not going to use them, why then is this becoming such a popular fad?

I presume of course that if you can bring a gun to a place where the President of the United States is talking (though you couldn't even wear an anti-Bush t-shirt when he was around), I can certainly bring one to Saratoga, right? Now that the state owns the land, I don't see how NYRA can continue to assert their claim of private property. (And I wonder then, if that's indeed the case, if they can still summarily ban persons suspected of wrongdoing from the grounds?) Besides, I don't see anything on NYRA's website about not being allowed to bring firearms. No glass, no smoking or coolers in the building, it says. But nothing about 22-caliber semi-automatics.

6 Comments:

Steve Zorn said...

And if you don't want to run the risk of transporting your piece up the Northway, which is crawling with state troopers during the Saratoga meet, there's an oh-so-convenient gun shop right in Saratoga Springs.

Anonymous said...

While I agree bringing guns anywhere near a presidential event needs to viewed skeptically and probably prohibited somehow, there is no difference from a legal standpoint between the anti Bush tee shirts and the guns.

The anti Bush folk were INSIDE the event, the gun people are in the protest zone set up for that purpose, nowhere near the Prez, but both were entirely within their rights under existing law.

The anti Bush people clearly were legal as was proven in court, but so are the gun folk as long as they do not try to enter the event or God forbid fire the damn things or threaten someone.

It is a protest until proven otherwise, albeit in very bad taste.

Anonymous said...

Who is the guy with the gun supporting? Nazi Obama. Its all one sided with you Nazi's. Obama hates this country. Wise up.

steve in nc said...

Anon 1:22:

You're right. He is a Nazi (all us liberal Jews are Nazi's too) and he hates America. That's the same Obama Rush Limbaugh is always talking about right? The muslim terrorist one? The one born in Kenya? The imaginary one!

The real Obama is so damned busy being a tolerant President for all Americans, and Christian to boot that he's turning the other cheek even as the angry fringe totally out of touch with reality gather against him with assault weapons. (Maybe this makes him Canadian?)

Orwell lives!

Alan Mann said...

I understand Anon 7:25's point about the legality of the two actions, though I don't quite agree with the notion of equating bringing guns outside an event to wearing T-shirts. Whereas, in both cases, citizens may be exercising their right under the 2nd and 1st amendments respectively, to me, guns are an obvious security issue (especially in such a volatile atmosphere), while banning someone on the basis of a t-shirt is a flat-out suppression of free speech.

However, the larger point here in my mind is that this commenter and I can exchange ideas and disagree in a civil manner. The president thought that he could have similar exchanges on healthcare, but idiots like Anon 1:22 are making that impossible.

And the loonies at the town meetings aside, it's clear that Republican lawmakers are far more interested in scoring political points against the administration that discussing healthcare in good faith.

Anonymous said...

But its okay for liberals to rush the stage, throw pies at, and shout down conservatives when they try to speak, right?

Lets face it, there are loonies on both sides of the aisle, all of whom have a right to be heard but not the right to supress others from speaking. Civility is MIA.

The lunatics are running the asylum in America right now, unfortunately and unless/until a true centrist wing of either party emerges the Dems AND Reps will be held hostage by the extremists acting out under their respective banners.

The first party to publicly renounce the loons will regain the American voters trust.