Print
E-mail
Share
digg
Newsvine
Facebook
Stumble
Technorati
reddit
Fark
twitterWhen politicians and guns get together …
Steve Marcus
Nevada Governor Jim Gibbons, center, listens to speakers behind Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV), left, and Nevada State Senator Joh Lee (D) during the dedication of the Clark County Shooting Park at the north end of Decatur Boulevard Tuesday.
Wednesday, Aug. 26, 2009 | 2 a.m.
Related stories
Beyond the Sun
When Nevada’s politicians gathered Tuesday to dedicate Clark County’s 2,900-acre shooting park, they all said pretty much the same thing: Guns are a constitutional right and shooting is an American pastime.
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid held up his childhood rifle, recalled eating his mother’s rabbit stew and introduced National Rifle Association CEO Wayne LaPierre (who in turn praised Reid as a staunch defender of Second Amendment rights).
Sen. John Ensign said that although his earliest gun memory is a bad one — a 12-year-old relative getting shot in the chest while playing with a rifle — he takes his son hunting and that “Nevadans really do love their guns.”
Gov. Jim Gibbons said, “You can have all the guns you need, but you never have all the guns you want.”
And Clark County Commissioner Rory Reid gave monotone praise to the gun owners’ passion.
The closest the morning came to a dissenting note was sounded by Rep. Shelley Berkley who said she did not have any gun stories of her own but that she stands behind her gun-loving constituents.
Far more revealing was the body language of the politicians.
Ensign, who’s inching back into public events after a sex scandal involving a former staff member and a close friend of his wife, listened to most of the speeches with an expression on his face like a sheep with a secret sorrow. He gazed into his lap, fiddling with his wedding band, turning it this way and that, slipping it off and putting it on different fingers.
Ensign departed not long after helping to unveil the park’s dedication plaque.
The only politician to leave earlier than Ensign was Gibbons, who was not seated in the front row of speakers. He was in the second row, behind both a Democratic state senator and Rory Reid, a declared Democratic candidate for governor. When the first row of politicians stood up to unveil the plaque before the cameras, Gibbons stayed in his seat, staring off into space until an aide nudged him. The other politicians waved to him that yes, as governor, he was welcome to help dedicate a county park.
After the unveiling, while gun owners and politicos mingled, Gibbons stood apart, mostly ignored. Rory Reid did wander over to shake the governor’s hand and say a few words to him. (One imagines, given the governor’s standing in the polls and the raft of Republican challengers Gibbons faces, that Reid said something like, “Good luck in the primary. I’m rooting for you.”)
Another person who stopped to talk to the lonely Gibbons was a woman in a T-shirt, the front of which said, “Do you want to live in slavery?” The back of the shirt featured labeled portraits of Adolf Hitler, Fidel Castro, Muammar el-Qaddafi and Josef Stalin, plus the words, “The experts agree: Gun control works.” The woman asked for and received the governor’s autograph.
But there was one bit of body language all of the politicians agreed on:
Absolutely none of them wandered over to the range to take part in the free skeet shooting.
Discussion: 11 comments so far…
Post a comment
- Most Read
- Discussed
- Most E-mailed
- Franchione potential early candidate for UNLV football post
- Police: 3 arrested in officer’s death have gang ties
- Big fight headed for a New Frontier?
- Mayor: Morale not good among LV city employees
- Hotels rein in risque advertising campaigns
- MGM Mirage (finally) makes George Strait show official
- $60 million to stabilize neighborhoods buys five homes
- Creditors want to expand probe of Station Casinos deal
- Las Vegas condo hotels remain a tough sell — just ask Trump
- Reserve Rebels didn’t have time to panic
Blogs
Elsewhere
Marquardt v. Sonnen scheduled for UFC 109
Bloggity, Bloggity, Bloggity
Will a fourth consecutive title by Jimmie Johnson be good or bad for NASCAR? (1 Comment)
Top Chef: Las Vegas
The Jet Stream: And then there were four
Top Chef Episode 12: On keeping it simple
Miech Again
Chilly start for Chace, but Stanback says he'll warm up (1 Comment)
Elsewhere
Harvard Poker Pro: Texas Hold 'Em skills can help traders
Oscar De La Hoya wants to see Pacquiao/Mayweather
- Live chat
- Tuesday, noon PST
- Chat with Krista Creelman
- Problem Gambling Center executive director Krista Creelman will answer questions about gambling addiction from Las Vegas Sun readers from noon to 1 p.m. Tuesday, Nov. ... Submit question
Calendar »
- 21 Sat
- 22 Sun
- 23 Mon
- 24 Tue
- 25 Wed
-
UFC 106 at Mandalay Bay Events Center
Mandalay Bay Events Center | 7 p.m. to 11 p.m.
-
Julio Iglesias at the Las Vegas Hilton
Las Vegas Hilton
-
Natasha Wicks hosts at Hawaiian Tropic Zone
Hawaiian Tropic Zone | 10 p.m. to 11:59 p.m.
-
Tito Ortiz hosts at Tao
Tao | 10 p.m. to 11:59 p.m.
-
Hiroshima at Santa Fe Station
Santa Fe Station
-
Frank Mir hosts at LAX
LAX Nightclub | 10 p.m. to 11:59 p.m.
-
The Four Tops at The Orleans Showroom
Orleans Hotel-Casino
-
Amir Sadollah hosts at Prive
Prive | 10 p.m. to 11:59 p.m.
The Sun
Locally owned and independent for more than 50 years.
The headline should read "harry Reid hunts for the NRA vote by abandoning his left wing partners for the duration of the election".
harry will do most anything for the next year to save his seat and secure office for his son, except restore freedom. Taking orders from Pelosi and Obama will keep harry from representing Nevada and on with his march to socialism, just watch the health care "debate" as he avoids meeting with the voters.
Woah. Harry has left wing partners? What planet are you from?
hey these guys better back gun-rites.its a basic constitutional guarantee.political suicide not 2,especially here out n old west nevada.
Love the dumb woman's t-shirt that says, "Gun control works" Alrighty then....
While, not to be perceived as defending Herr Shecklegruber, Guns were advertised in newspapers and sold to the public in Germany in the 30's. Guns were confiscated from the "wrong" people in occupied countries.
Libya has fairly free gun ownership like Saddam's Iraq. Even today Iraqis are permitted one AK47 per household (full auto) for self-defence.)
Rural residents of the Soviet Union were permitted hunting firearms.
It was ST. Ronald RAYGUN as Governor of California who signed a law banning open carry of firearms after Black Panthers marched with guns. As President, he signed the Brady Bill and a law that restricted the sale of new full-auto weapons to individuals.
These birthers, dittoheads and birchers has a comic book view of historical facts.
Good for Clark County, keep the guns ON the shooting range, and OFF the streets.
There is no real harm in guns for skeet shooting and hunting if you have a real need, but there is an unseen dark side. For those who keep a gun for protection, they act contrary to the law of God which says, "That which you fear shall come upon you." When you think the power is in the gun you have a problem.
We have freedom of speech and can fight any politician or military with words printed in news articles and mailed to politicians and on blogs etc. The moment we carry a gun with us or start to gather weapons, we give the government etc. authority to lock us up or worse. Our major strength is in respecting the person in office and any law that does not command you contrary to the written word of God. Remember, we want repentance and change, not rebellion and confrontation.
Jesus said, "Love your enemies and do good to them that persecute you and dispitefully use you." It disarms them and gives them no power against us. That is how God is our Savior. We should be using that instead of war.
Thank you to Nevada politicians.
We're counting on you here in Illinois (and New Jersey, Maryland, New York, KKKalifornia, Hawaii, etc.) to have the goverment correct our state's errors with some preemption.
"Love the dumb woman's t-shirt that says, "Gun control works" ...
JSpence07 -- one must be a true ass to ignore the history that woman's shirt reminded us of.
"The moment we carry a gun with us or start to gather weapons, we give the government etc. authority to lock us up or worse. Our major strength is in respecting the person in office and any law that does not command you contrary to the written word of God."
MarieD -- you have it backward. The authority we gave our governments is expressed in Constitutions, and the plain terms of those documents spells out the opposite of what governments are doing. And why not? The Herd here is mooing right along with you.
And your "God" wrote nothing.
The second amendment is the only way that the American people can protect themselfs from a tyrannical government.
Anything that promotes the use and carrying of guns can only result in good! If you are concerned about "gun violence" then get rid of the kind of people who cause it, not the guns.