Humor or Hypocrisy? Harder to Tell Than You Think

Can I just say at the outset that sarcasm is not a good launching off point for lawmaking? Therefore, let's do these guys the courtesy of assuming that they're not that childish, and this is a serious issue to them.

Five South Dakota lawmakers have introduced legislation that would require any adult 21 or older to buy a firearm “sufficient to provide for their ordinary self-defense.”

The bill, which would take effect Jan. 1, 2012, would give people six months to acquire a firearm after turning 21. The provision does not apply to people who are barred from owning a firearm.

Nor does the measure specify what type of firearm. Instead, residents would pick one “suitable to their temperament, physical capacity, and preference.”

The measure is known as an act “to provide for an individual mandate to adult citizens to provide for the self defense of themselves and others.”

The self defense of others! Just sayin'.

So in other words, Quakers and Muslims alike must be armed if this bill passes in South Dakota. And it will be a state in which everyone is required to own a firearm but no one is required to be TRAINED IN ITS USE. And teens will be at the mercy of every armed adult within shooting distance, defenseless.

Of course, they say it's just a gag.

The humor, of course, is passing some by. But I spoke to Rep. Wick about the proposal—the funny, clever idea he had for getting under the skin of everybody who thinks the health-care bill is constitutional. And he clearly gets the joke he’s made, both the bite of the thing and the comedy. If the government can force us to buy and keep health insurance, then why can’t it compel us to keep and bear guns?

Yeah, right, humor. "Those Asians - they just can't drive! Ha ha, just kidding." They're not kidding. They'd be thrilled to death (literally) if we all had to own guns. Every time there is a shooting in a high school, it's a conservative who suggests that this tragedy could be avoided if ALL the kids were armed. Ideally, the Republicans want poor people to be armed to the teeth without being able to afford medical care, because that would thin their ranks.

Ha ha, just kidding.