06.03.2001 Paranoid Legislation From Paranoid Legislators – The Case For Home Schooling.

 

By Executive Director Kevin Starrett

06/04/2001

After months of disrupting hearings in the Senate Judiciary Committee, Senator Ginny Burdick proved an important political point.

You don’t need to be in the majority party. You don’t need to have a rational issue. You don’t even need popular support.

If you are sufficiently juvenile and contentious, you’ll probably get your way.

Burdick is, without question, the loudest, most shrill, least intelligent but most obsessed hater of self defense in the Oregon legislature. A self styled one trick pony, Burdick seems oblivious to any issue except further restrictions on the rights of gun owners.

Voters in her district could rightfully ask what she has produced for them beside the nearly endless stream of anti-gun legislation for which she has become notorious. If they did, they might very well demand a refund.

Still, this is Burdick’s quotidian fascination. Her mantra. She remains fixed, glassy eyed, on her delusional obsession. Senate Bill 508 is the perfect case in point.

508 dealt with a problem that existed only in the twisted minds of Burdick, a few of her lackeys in the legislature (Senators Deckert and Duncan and House Reps Charlie Ringo, Lane Shetterly and Randy Leonard) and some genuinely paranoid bureaucrats from the government education establishment. (Yes, there are also the usual collection of crackpot “Million Moms” and their brainwashed, feminized, wussified offspring cackling about the value of “toy gun buy backs,”but by and large, 508 was the provence of professional idiots.)

What 508 was intended to do was outlaw the carry of concealed handguns, by holders of concealed handgun licenses, anywhere school children gathered. Not just on school property, but anyplace the unwitting prisoners of the government schools might assemble as part of a school outing.

As a result of “Burdick and friend’s” repeated obstructions of the legislative process, and in defiance of all rational thought, Republican Senate President Gene Derfler, the term limited puppet of Democrat Governor John (“Kidsgrabber”) Kitzhaber, folded like a $10.00 Hide-A-Bed and authorized a hearing on this lunatic legislation. (Even the Portland Oregonian, which champions new attacks on liberty with the regularity of a metronome had a rare and inexplicable burst of lucidity and criticized the bill as needless. We are, of course, still recovering.)

It is, needless to say, an exercise in futility to enumerate the many reasons this legislation is imbecilec. Those who are so intellectually challenged that they don’t understand the idiocy of it are certainly incapable of being educated about the obvious reasons that its only likely effect will be to get kids killed.

Those of us with a sufficient supply of functioning brain cells don’t need to be told that people intent on using guns to hurt folks at schools will most likely not be deterred by a law banning their presence. This simple fact seems to escape the supporters of this legislation, not one of whom could point to a single example of a permit holder misusing a firearm in a school or anywhere else.

The hearing on SB508, held on May 23rd from 6pm to 11pm, was truly theater of the absurd.

It started on a high note when Senators Steve Harper and Roger Beyer arrived in the hearing room wearing NRA hats. NRA’s regular sell outs aside, it was clear that they meant it as a positive gesture to gun owners. It was largely downhill from there.

The most chilling aspects were not the testimony of the legislative buffoons who testified on its behalf. But let’s review them anyway.

Senator Verne Duncan, a Republican, seemed, as usual, totally out of touch. As one of the sponsors of the bill and also a member of the Senate Judiciary Committee that was hearing it, Verne came across as a lovable, aging uncle who really meant well but was dealing with unfortunate episodes of dementia. Verne repeatedly asked if there was a legal remedy for someone who just happened to leave a gun at a school. Information, we are reliably informed, that he had been given numerous times in the recent past.

Senator Ryan Deckert, still looking all of 11 years old, seemed like he would be more comfortable seated in the lap of Burdick, either as beloved grandchild or a ventriloquist’s dummy. Lane Shetterly was predictably bland to the point of becoming translucent.

House Rep Randy Leonard, who his best known for his explosive temper, limited vocabulary and diminutive intellect, shared that he had a concealed handgun license ( a frightening thought) but that carrying a licensed handgun where school children were was like “shouting fire in a crowded theater.” Ah Randy…never had an original thought in his life.

Still, we Oregonians have come to expect insipid stupidity from many of our elected officials. (In some districts it’s mandatory.)

But the really unnerving testimony came from the hacks who populate our school boards.

Anyone with loved ones in government schools in Oregon should take time to listen to the testimony given by some of these mountebanks.

You can hear the testimony (if you can stand it) by clicking here and scrolling down to the May 23 Senate Judiciary Hearing at 5: 55pm.

But here’s the short version.

Although they were forced to admit that not a single incident with a licensed handgun at a school had ever occurred, the witnesses from the establishment were convinced that some tragic and criminal act was imminent.

One of these bozos actually said that “sooner or later,” if a person had a gun he was “going to use it”. He was referring to license holders in schools on official business! He also said if he knew a parent in his school was legally carrying a firearm he would immediately summon an armed guard.

Even Senator John Minnis had to characterize these ravings as “paranoid.”

These people are responsible for running our schools? Well it might explain the testimony of young Cody Hill. A high school student who conducts toy gun buybacks entitled “Guns Aren’t Fun,” the poor kid has been so ruined by the institutions he’s been subjected to that someone should be getting charged with child abuse. I, for one, felt sorry for the kid. Taking my young son to the range has been one of the most enjoyable experiences I’ve ever had. This young man is a testimony to the rising tide of girlifying our boys. The whole episode was a great boost for the home school movement.

What follows is quoted from an e-mail sent out by Senator Burdick on June 1st 2001:

“Those of you who have attended or testified at gun violence hearings before expect having to run the gauntlet of men with bulges under their coats as you make your way to the hearing room. You expect to hear the jokes from them when they are at the microphone to testify that “Yes, as a matter of fact, I am packing right now,” referring to the fact that they have their loaded handguns with them. You expect jeers and rude interruptions from the opposition while you testify. But on Wednesday, May 23rd the contempt for the gun violence prevention movement reached a new low by certain Senators. They did a gross disservice to you and your children as well.”

Paranoid? Delusional? You bet. And now they want your children.