Since Michael Bloomberg sent her and her rage-addled partner Jane Kay to the bench during the 2014 session, I feel like I’ve neglected one of my key jobs in blogging about Second Amendment human rights in Minnesota.<\/p>\n
For those of you new to my blog, and to my coverage of the ongoing battle over that civil right, let me recap:<\/p>\n
Heather Martens has never, not once, issued a substantially true original statement. \u00a0Ever.\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n Not one.\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n Her entire body of work – every last word – is demonstrably false. \u00a0The reason I say it’s demonstrably false is that I (and many better, smarter writers) have debunked, point by point, assertion by assertion, for well over a decade now, every single substantial thing she’s said.<\/p>\n And since Bloomberg has left town (’til the next session, anyway), she’s back at it. \u00a0On Monday she put out a press release regarding the GOP’s push to allow Minnesota National Guardsmen to carry their sidearms while on duty, in case someone tries to shoot up\u00a0their\u00a0<\/em>office.<\/p>\n And the\u00a0press release is, in its entirety<\/a>,\u00a0a\u00a0stunning display of dozey, fact-averse, intellectually-lazy bilge. \u00a0Put more briefly,\u00a0it’s a “Heather”.<\/p>\n The release is included below the jump – or, since it’s a “Heather”, I guess we should say “…below the trip and fall”.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Now, the mainstream media still gives Martens credibility – one of those rare cases when the “credible” media gives reliable time and space to people whose voices are utterly non-credible. \u00a0 In this case, it’s the Pioneer Press, who quoted Martens at some length<\/a>\u00a0(I’m adding emphasis):<\/p>\n Pro-gun control group Protect Minnesota Executive Director Heather Martens said the idea of allow military members concealed weapons without going through the permit process<\/strong> would mean they would not have gone through the standard background checks<\/strong> needed for permit holders.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n Just a hunch, here: \u00a0the military runs a background check or two on its people.<\/p>\n But this was the part that caught my attention:<\/p>\n \u201cOur permitting system protects the public<\/strong>,\u201d Martens said. \u2018That\u2019s a threat to public safety.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n So Martens is endorsing the carry permit process?<\/p>\n Ring the bells!<\/p>\n Martens’ press release, with commentary indicating the falsity of every single substantive claim, is included below:<\/p>\n <\/p>\n ST. PAUL \u2013 A proposal announced to today to force the military [False. \u00a0Not “the military”, over which the Minnesota legislature has no jurisdiction. \u00a0It’s the Minnesota National Guard and Air National Guard\u00a0– Ed]<\/strong><\/span>\u00a0to allow all personnel to carry guns is misguided, said Heather Martens, executive director of Protect Minnesota, the state gun safety and gun violence prevention organization [False; “Protect” Minnesota is an “organization” in the same way that Shot In The Dark\u00a0<\/i>is a news organization. \u00a0It’s a woman running lefty non-profit with a few of her cronies\u00a0– Ed]<\/strong><\/span>\u00a0.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cThis looks like an attempt to second-guess the U.S. military on matters of security,\u201d Martens said. \u201cIt\u2019s hare-brained.\u201d [Not “false” so much as “stupid”; the state of Minnesota needn’t “second-guess” anyone; administration of its armories and facilities is a state thing\u00a0– Ed]<\/strong><\/span> The proposal, made in the wake of the shooting at a military recruitment center in Chattanooga, Tennessee, would do nothing to address the epidemic of gun violence in this country, Martens said. [That’s correct, as far as it goes, in that it’s not intended to address the problem for the whole country; just Minnesota guard facilities. \u00a0In other words, Martens is wrong again\u00a0– Ed]<\/strong><\/span>\u00a0\u201cThe investigation of the Chattanooga incident found that two service members did fire at the shooter. But that doesn\u2019t solve the problem. [We don’t\u00a0know\u00a0<\/em>that’s false yet – but as I noted earlier, I’m betting\u00a0that the Marines and Navy people shooting back did, in fact, \u00a0lead directly to the end of the attack<\/a>. \u00a0I could be proven wrong. \u00a0But I doubt it.\u00a0– Ed]<\/strong> <\/span>The single most effective measure to prevent tragedies like this is the make sure dangerous people can\u2019t get guns in the first place. [Something the Second Amendment movement has accomplished, in spite of Heather Martens’ efforts\u00a0– Ed] <\/strong><\/span>But our legislature refuses to do anything about that. [Well, no – Minnesota’s carry permit law has ensured carry permittees are pretty absolutely safe\u00a0– Ed]<\/span><\/strong> Any person buying a gun should have to pass a background check. [And they do\u00a0– Ed]<\/strong> <\/span>But this shooter, who should have been unable to buy a gun, was able to do so because of our weak gun laws,\u201d Martens said. \u00a0[Martens apparently looks forward to a day when human justice can predict the future\u00a0\u00a0– Ed]\u00a0<\/span><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n The gun lobby often proposes putting more guns in more places as a solution to gun violence. [Well, that’s sorta correct; more guns in the hands of the law-abiding citizen. \u00a0They do it for good reason; it works\u00a0– Ed]<\/strong> <\/span>\u00a0However, the facts do not support the idea that more guns make us safer or that gun violence happens more in places were guns are not permitted. [False: \u00a0yes, they do – Ed] <\/strong><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n A recent analysis by Everytown for Gun Safety showed that of 110 mass shootings in which four or more people died since 2009, only 15 occurred entirely in places where guns were not permitted. In 57 percent of the shootings, there was a domestic violence factor involved.\u00a0[This is complete BS. \u00a0“Everytown” arrived at that number by counting mass-shootings\u00a0in private homes<\/em> – where guns are allowed, because institutional restrictions are irrelevant. \u00a0If you leave out private residences, and “Everytown’s” many, many errors regarding local laws’ definition of “gun free zones”, then\u00a0the\u00a0real\u00a0<\/em>numbers are\u00a092% of mass shootings occur in gun-free zones<\/em><\/a>. \u00a0Martens herself isn’t lying; she’s merely parroting shoddy research\u00a0– Ed]\u00a0<\/span><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n The Chattanooga shooter was able to buy a gun because of a loophole in current law that allows a gun sale to proceed if the background check takes longer than three days to complete. [Experience has shown that the law needs to give law enforcement a standard to follow, to prevent venial, unjustified\u00a0denials of permits\u00a0– Ed] \u00a0<\/strong><\/span> In Minnesota and many other states, gun sales by unlicensed sellers at gun shows or that are arranged on-line require no background check at all. \u00a0[Like, at bars? In back alleys? \u00a0Among packs of criminals?\u00a0– Ed] \u00a0<\/strong><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n Armed citizens showing up at military recruitment centers across the country, allegedly to guard them, already are causing a security headache, Martens added. \u201cLet the military handle its own security,\u201d she said. \u00a0 [They did – in Chattanooga, Fort Hood, Times Square, Little Rock, the Washington Navy Yard…\u00a0– Ed] \u00a0<\/strong><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n So Heather Martens’ record – never making a substantially true statement, ever – remains pristine.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Since Michael Bloomberg sent her and her rage-addled partner Jane Kay to the bench during the 2014 session, I feel like I’ve neglected one of my key jobs in blogging about Second Amendment human rights in Minnesota. For those of you new to my blog, and to my coverage of the ongoing battle over that […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[22],"tags":[201],"class_list":["post-54538","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-victim-disarmament","tag-heather-martens"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/54538","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=54538"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/54538\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":54568,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/54538\/revisions\/54568"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=54538"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=54538"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=54538"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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