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Bank Run Burr gets even more bizarre
Submitted by James on Tue, 11/17/2009 - 8:32am
That's why it's somewhat bizarre that North Carolina Sen. Richard Burr is standing behind legislation he introduced last March that would restore gun ownership rights to veterans designated by the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs and the U.S. Department of Justice as "mentally incapacitated" or "mentally incompetent."
Senator Burr's beef appears to be that the standards used by the VA for determining mental incapacity were developed from concerns over whether certain veterans can be responsible for their personal finances. If they could not manage their VA benefits, they made the list that, in turn, is used to flag gun purchases under the Brady Act's background check.
Anyone can agree that the VA standard may not be perfect, but as the Baltimore editorial points out:
If Senator Burr objects to the VA's standards, he should seek to change them, not gut the Brady Bill.
Is it too much to ask for a Senator who isn't a routine source of embarrassment? Maybe Mr. Burr should call his wife and tell her to go out and buy all the guns he can before someone declares him to an incompetent veteran. Oh, I forgot, he's not a veteran at all, incompetent or otherwise. He just pretends like he cares about those of us who are.
For the record, my father, a veteran with chronic depression who killed himself with a gun he shouldn't have been able to buy.
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I know this has been blogged already
but the story of Burr's poor judgment cannot be told too often.
Knowledge Gap
Obviously, the vast majority of NCers are not as attuned to every twist and turn in the political game as the ardent commenters on BlueNC are, but stories such as this must be pushed strongly.
Regardless of whoever takes on Burr next year, it is very clear that his highly visible transgressions (bank runs, vote against Franken amendment and now this bill, to name a few) will resonate clearly and distinctly in voter's minds. No amount of constituent work - and there has been preciously little of that, judging from my talks with folks around the state - can overshadow and nearly 2 decade legacy of revanchist voting and lazy legislating.
-- A liberal originally from Yadkin County. Did I just blow your mind?
Burr continues to lie