Late Night Drift
Posted: January 17, 2011 Filed under: American Gun Fetish, Anti-War, Barack Obama, Foreign Affairs, Haiti | Tags: Ezili Danto, gun violence, haiti, Papa Doc's return, semiautomatic weapons gun control 19 CommentsSomething to think on …
from The Economist:
Opportunists who seek to gain political advantage by blaming the shootings on words would do America better service if they focused on bullets. In no other decent country could any civilian, let alone a deranged one, legally get his hands on a Glock semi-automatic. Even in America, the extended 31-shot magazine that Mr Loughner used was banned until 2004. As the Brady Centre, established after the Reagan shooting to commemorate one of its victims, has noted, more Americans were killed by guns in the 18 years between 1979 and 1997 than died in all of America’s foreign wars since its independence. Around 30,000 people a year are killed by one of the almost 300m guns in America—almost one for every citizen. Those deaths are not just murders and suicides: some are accidents, often involving children.
The tragedy is that gun control is moving in the wrong direction. The Clinton-era ban on assault weapons expired in 2004 and, to his discredit, Mr Obama has done nothing to try to revive it. In 2008 the Supreme Court struck down Washington, DC’s ban on handguns, and in 2010 Chicago’s went the same way; others are bound to follow. In state after state the direction of legislation is to remove restrictions on gun use (those footling bans on bringing weapons into classrooms or churches or bars), rather than to enhance them.
It is fanciful to imagine that guns will ever disappear from America; they are too deeply embedded in its founding myths and its culture. But that does not mean that more effective checks on the mentally unstable are impossible, or that restrictions on the killing power of what can be sold are doomed to failure. Neither of these will happen, though, unless the blame is directed to where it belongs.
(Via Phoenix Woman tweet ) from Haitian Blogger Ezili Dantò in a post called: Obama’s change in Haiti: the Return of Dictator, Jean Claude Duvalier:
Air France flew Jean Claude Duvalier back into Haiti today. A coup for France who saw its influence diminishing as the US took over with the Interim Haiti Reconstruction Commission and the UN occupation. (Ousted president Jean Claude “Baby Doc” Duvalier returns to Haiti unexpectedly ; Jean-Claude ‘Baby Doc’ Duvalier, ex-Haiti dictator, makes surprise return to country Sunday ).
Why would the world’s most powerful nation, the United States, allow this?
Well, their pillage of poor Haiti is butt-naked right now. At the one-year anniversary of the Haiti earthquake, even the conservative media is talking about the failure of US aid, the UN and the NGO poverty pimping business in Haiti. Thus, the UN, as US proxy, needs to justify its job in Haiti. These folks think of us-Haitians as simplistic animals, so why not set up what’s worked for them in other parts of the world? The bringing back of Jean Claude Duvalier, Haiti’s bloody dictator, is, in their plantation minds, sort of like setting up a Hutu/Tusti thing (Duvalier/Lavalas), a civil war in Haiti, an insecurity to bring “order” to.
Bill Clinton, the poverty-pimp-NGOs, the repugnant UN and the foreign-imposed-IHRC need to distract the world from the donation dollars that’s being pocketed or not collected, so hey, let’s rack up the colonial narrative – remind everyone of those “anti-democratic Haitians not ready for the same standards” as the rest of the “civilized” world. Those infighting, violent, illogical Haitians in love with dictatorship! Why not set up the chess board, right before Feb. 7th – the 25th anniversary of the ouster of Jean Claude Duvalier, bring him back to push the two OAS/Duvalierist candidates – Manigat and Martelly (Sweet Mickey), so everyone can forget about the masses wishes, their total disenfranchisement, the 300,000 dead in 33 seconds and those 1.5million still homeless without sanitation, shelter, clean water; the return of President Aristide; the international fraud since 2004; these imposed UN/US elections. and the UN-imported cholera…We’re just puppets the International community , led by the U.S., are moving around their own battlefield. Haiti is not in control. Haitians are not in control. Air France and American Airlines can land anyone in Haiti.
If Air-France wanted to bring in Osama bin Laden into Haiti, how could Haitians stop it? Still, we-Haitians will be blamed, as usual, for all the outrageous acts the wealthy powers-that-be do in Haiti. The “Friends of Haiti” continue with their macabre plan to further destabilize and exacerbate Haiti’s already agonizing sufferings.
and a tweet from Mac McClelland from Mojo:
MacMcClelland Mac McClelland
Baby Doc is back in Haiti! Our pics, chats w/ people cheering for a rapey murdery ex-dictator
You know, I’m kinda thinking the one thing that we still do export onto the global market in a significant way is our thing for violence.
Discuss amongst yourselves …
peej
Carissa
dakinikat
ecocatwoman
grayslady
mablue2
NW Luna
peggysue22
skydancingguestblogger
Mona (aka Wonk the Vote)
Sky Dancing 
This looks to me like an easy way out. And no doubt there will be plenty of Haitians foolish enough to be glad Baby Doc is back. Thugs keeping the peace has a lot of appeal to some people.
Another lost opportunity. Have to wonder what Bill Clinton’s role has been in this.
I’m totally wondering about what’s going on and what WJC is up to. Who let Baby Doc back in and why wasn’t something done to stop this? I wonder too.
Very disappointing news. I see another take over of a foreign countries government, this time Haiti by Duvalier. Lets see, we got Tunisia and Lebanon…what is one more country added to the list.
about the gun control thing these physco nut cases will find a way to get a gun . and most of them dont care about any law that might be put in place .
Which is why I suggest a huge Pigou tax (sin tax) on the handgun bullets and the clips for semiautomatic weapons. Preventing folks from getting clips like that again would help. I’m not trying to yank a shot gun away from some one who is trying to get the gator out of their back yard.
A small compact 9mm handgun has a clip that holds 10 rounds. A revolver will hold 6. For the 9mm you load the bullets into the clip, the clip into the gun. Are you saying you want to charge for just the empty clip?
Preventing folks from getting clips like that again would help yes, I didn’t even know those were banned under the old gun law. However, if you’re good and you have extra 10 round clips, you don’t need a 30 round clip. See here.
This guy in the video has 4 clips on his belt! 😯
i dont have a problem with the Clinton-era ban on assault weapons thing coming back .
Seems like that should’ve been a no-brainer bit of legislation to take care of prior to the 2010 midterms.
think the way to curb these nut cases from killing is better mental heath prevention services. stop the problem before it becomes problem
We have the current laws because so many men were putting away their wives for having mental problems and parents their children … plus the huge cost to society. That’s a bigger commitment to loss of rights and expenses than even the gun control would be. Either way, I don’t know if it will actually happen. They same people that said violent political rhetoric is no big deal are cheering and point fingers at one of the victims that obviously was suffering PTSD and shouted something … how easy they switch stories.
A return to Clinton-era ban on assault type weapons and ammo could have been the one good thing to come out of the AZ shootings – but instead we got another blast of hot air about changing “tone” and a pep rally.
Yup. The Columbine assassins got semi-automatic weapons DURING the ban on assault weapons. They also had explosives.
Gun control measures might help in the future to prevent a normally sane person from doing something irrational in the heat of the moment, but I don’t think it would stop the crazies. I’ve said before and I’ll say again….A crazy person will find a way.
but unfortunately these are the 1st services that get cut or people don’t take mental health problems seriously until its to late.
yes, that’s very true. But also, if they try, it’s hard to get help.
thats why they need to make its easier to get help .
i think the prob is people think if you cant see a problem it must not be there .
It’s hard to get help; often it’s also very hard to convince people who need help to get it.
There’s a lot that needs attention with mental health and it should start with providing services. But also a big help would be some kind of campaign to help direct people who see people in trouble, provide a plan of action. I think a lot of people know something’s wrong with a family member or neighbor or student on campus or coworker but we tiptoe around them without helping because the crazy person controls the room. Who’s protected by which laws, will I be placing myself and my family and our finances in danger if I step in; you know? I think people are justifiably reticent to get involved.
thats my take on this issue .
i agree some kind of kind of campaign to help direct people who see people in trouble would be a good 1st step.
I *would* like to know who let Baby Doc get back into Haiti. Kinda like sending Lenin back to Russia during WWI ?