THE TAOS TATLER.

The mysterious phenomenon of guns firing by themselves.

Victoria Taft, writing at PJ Media, reports on a terrifying new trend reported by mainstream media lately, injuries and killings committed by cognizant self-firing guns. She offers up a plethora of injuries caused by them recently in Portland, Oregon.

[P]olice report that ten guns shot ten people over a 24-hour period of time starting Friday night, Memorial Day weekend. No guns have been arrested.

She then gives details on each of the guns-on-people shootings, of which your Tatler, not desiring to frighten his readers, will provide but two.

• 05/27/2022, 5:57 a.m. An employee retrieving a scrap metal dumpster discovered a gun inside being held by a man, and a disturbance resulted in the gun firing itself. The gun is still on the lam.
• 05/27/2022 6:03 a.m. A man was found shot to death in a house by a gun that fired itself. No gun has yet been arrested for the crime.

Of course, what Taft is lampooning is the policy of gun-hating major media to assign blame not on the perpetrators of shootings, rather the weapons they use, although they more or less limit blameworthy implements to guns. All of this of course is to rally public support behind additional gun control measures, irrespective of all previous attempts proving utterly ineffective.

The media and Democrats’s (pardon the redundancy) ultimate aim, no surprise, is banning all private ownership of guns. While in the past, their tactics have garnered limited support restricting gun ownership, poles lately indicate the strategy is falling flat, that a majority of those polled prefer beefed up police forces and prosecutors and judges taking a tough stance on criminals rather than further restricting gun ownership.

It must be noted though, poll results on this matter swing widely, with stricter gun control enjoying greater popularity in the aftermath of mass shootings. That is why Democrats and media pile on with frenzied joy in support of it directly following the carnage. The hope is in the heat of the moment legislation further restricting or even banning guns can be rushed through before things cool down. Pretty-boy Pierre Trudeau is doing just that in Canada.

Ultimately, though, in the United States we have the Second Amendment protecting citizens’s rights to bear arms. Previous thinking on the left, which had been gaining traction for some time, that the plainly written Second Amendment doesn’t really mean what it says, has been discredited by the courts. Completely banning gun ownership or even overly restricting it requires a constitutional amendment passing by a two-thirds vote in both houses of Congress, or a national convention of the states passing same by a three-quarters vote. In short, it’s not going to happen unless the commies take over.

Meanwhile, those nasty anthropomorphic guns will keep shooting people.

A mystery solved.

From Mediaite:

Texas police lieutenant says cops were reluctant to engage gunman because “they could’ve been shot.”

A Texas Department of Public Safety official said responding officers were cautious as they entered Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas because “they could’ve been shot.”

[…]

One girl inside the room reportedly bled for an hour after she was shot. She died at a hospital. It is unknown if that hour might have saved her life.

This writer is an enthusiastic supporter of the police, but that enthusiasm is tested when they don’t do their job.

Doing whatever it takes to make us believe junk science.

No surprise there, to environmentalists and the radical left (to be redundant), truth is merely an affectation of the bourgeoisie and capitalists vermin. Still, your Tatler is a little disappointed they haven’t yet tried to scare us with forecasts of “hailstones big as canned hams.”*

*A crack made by David Letterman long, long ago, when a TV weatherman and still funny.

“He’s had it coming, the big meanie!”

WASHINGTON, D.C.—After being denied communion in her home city of San Francisco, House Speaker Pelosi has retaliated against the insult by introducing articles of impeachment against Pope Francis.

“Denying me the Eucharist is a high crime. It’s not even the Pope’s job to deny communion to anyone,” said Pelosi to gathered reporters in Washington. “Who does he think he is? He’s gone mad with power! It is, therefore, my solemn Constitutional duty to draft articles of impeachment to be sent to the Senate so Pope Francis can be tried for his crimes.”

Well worth reading it all, from America’s most reliable newspaper.

Doing bad by doing good.

IQ-challenged Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, whose life long ambition is to be clever, had another crack at it today, this time concerning the latest slaughter in a public school.

Regrettably, Ocasio-Cortez fails to specify the laws permitting children and others be shot, a pity as your Tatler would love to have a look at them. One wonders though how such draconian laws might possibly survive the scrutiny of the courts: 5th Amendment problems to begin with, e.g., deprivation of liberty, due process and all that. We’ll just have to pass on that claim without further details.

We’ll also have to pass on the expression, “idolatry of violence.” Not quite understanding the meaning of it, your correspondent did some Internet research and found its earliest appearance was in 2012 and apparently is used exclusively by gun-control advocates, including bishops of the Episcopal Church. Unfortunately, none of the advocates explain just what the expression means, though it certainly sounds catchy. We’ll have to pass on that as well.

Since however Ocasio-Cortez, like so many on the left, is prone to using tropes, your Tatler will use one too, one he has used many times over the years. The Texas school where the carnage took place yesterday was subject to the Federal Gun-Free Zone Act, which prohibits students, administrators and security personnel from carrying guns in a public school and within 1000 feet of it. Such was the case yesterday at the Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas and the law was, in a way, a brilliant success; among the 500 pupils, dozens of teachers, staffers and security guards, just one person was carrying a gun. Of course, if adherence to the law had lapsed only a little yesterday, and but one teacher, staffer or security guard had also been carrying, we might not today be reading of the heartbreaking carnage.

Sacrilege the polite way.

Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi presented herself today for communion at the 9 am mass at Holy Trinity Church in Washington, DC. Deeply moved by the announcement made by Archbishop, Cordileoni of San Francisco she would be denied communion in his bishopric because of her active support of abortion, she instead quietly received at a local church in Georgetown, Holy Trinity. The church’s pastor, a Jesuit, has proudly stated in the past he will more or less administer the host to anyone who has, or had, a pulse. By way of example, President Biden also receives at Holy Trinity.

There were reports a tear was seen rolling down the Speaker’s cheek while receiving, but she dismissed them, saying: “Good God, why should I cry at such a fab event? This is a time for celebration. Let’s party!”

A much needed, but loving emendation.

Noted theologian Whoopi Goldberg, ThD, censured His Grace Archbishop Salvatore Cordileone yesterday for his decision denying House Speaker Nancy Pelosi the sacrament of Holy Communion, this because of her unrepentant support of abortion. Dr Goldberg, in her typically articulate manner, expressed this dissent in the academic forum known as The View.

The archbishop of San Francisco is calling for speaker Nancy Pelosi to be denied receiving Communion because of her pro-choice stance . . . this is not your job, dude! You can’t — that is not up to you to make that decision. You know, what is the saying? It’s kind of amazing.

Goldberg, in a softer tone, reminded the Archbishop of the Church’s teachings on Communion.

But, you know, what is the point of communion, right? It’s for sinners. It’s for sinners. It’s the reward of saints, but the bread of sinners. How dare you?

The Archbishop, upset apparently at the reprimand from the distinguished theologian, has reportedly gone into seclusion, taking with him only a copy of the Catechism of the Catholic Church, with the intention of reading it again from cover to cover, in hopes he may uncover other errors that may have crept into his understanding of Church teachings.

Once again, what used to be bad for you is now good.

Who among us, save those with naturally occurring skin protection, hasn’t been warned as a child or adult to avoid overexposure to the sun, the “expert” consensus being that “healthy look” could lead to melanoma? As there have been several upticks in in that unpleasant ailment over the years, overdosing on sun tanning has been cited as one of the causes.

Certainly, those of us in your Tatler’s family had those warnings into drilled into us growing up and though this writer paid them no attention whatsoever, another member of the family heeded the warnings and for years eschewed direct exposure to the sun whenever possible, giving him the pallor of bleached flour and earning him gentle (sort of) ribbing from his siblings.

Now, it turns out, another crop of experts has claimed for several years the opposite of those warnings, that is, under exposure to sunlight is likelier to cause melanoma than over exposure, which to this non-expert makes more sense and of course is especially welcome, given that that Taos gets around 300 days a year of sunshine. (Your Tatler’s person-of-pallor sibling has been alerted to this newish finding and seems pleased to have learned of it.)

Personally, your correspondent believes the best policy, when it comes to matters like these, is to heed the timeless advice of the playwright Plautus (ca. 250-184): Modus omninibus in rebus, moderation in all things.