The first question that comes to mind about the massacre in Connecticut Friday morning would be directed to the dead mother of the triggerman (if she could talk).
The AP says three rapid-fire weapons used in the assault were registered to the mom.
Why in the world would a single affluent schoolteacher mom with an autistic son entering adulthood keep three high-powered killing machines in the home shared with that son?
The mom’s ownership of two pistols that shoot bullets at a rate of five per second and a thousand-dollar assault rifle with no practical purpose beyond a battlefield should be the focus here. Anybody around her who knew this arsenal existed while she cared for a young adult afflicted with autism should probably offer an explanation to the parents of the kids who got wiped out by those weapons.
The President‘s tears and hurried oblique mention of “meaningful action” in the wake of this insanity are insulting. He has completely sat on his ass on gun violence post-Giffords.
All you can really hope for is the kind of local assertiveness you see out of a guy like Mayor Mike. Legal possession of assault rifles doesn’t fly in this jurisdiction. While illegal guns flow in from elsewhere, penalties for carrying or possessing such weapons are so harsh here, most rank and file citizens wouldn’t consider for a second keeping rapid-fire weapons around the house.
Obama’s tears didn’t seem real. Yeah, ok, people with kids are saying they’ll do the extra hug and this incident hits home because young people were taken out. But the tears you saw should be seen as tears of regret for accepting the notion that a woman up in Connecticut owns something called a “Bushmaster .223 caliber assault rifle.”
-State government flashed a little unexpected efficiency my way this week when I went to renew my driver’s license. The DMV office on 34th between 8th and 9th processed my once-every-eight-years renewal in ten minutes. Fellow licensees expecting a bad experience could be heard marveling openly at the speed and effectiveness of a government bureaucracy with a bad reputation. This particular office was staffed by about two dozen state workers who exerted great energy, attentiveness and skill despite the repetitive nature of their duties. The cost of extending the license another eight years was 80 bucks. The only other requirement for renewal was accurate recitation of a single line of letters on an eye chart. I don’t own a vehicle and I go years at a time without driving. I wouldn’t have even realized my driver’s license was nearing expiration if it weren’t for a red flag rising when I recently attempted to renew my airport identification.
-The Babies visited KEXP-FM for an in-studio performance the weekend before last in between club stops in Seattle and Olympia, WA. DJ Stevie Zoom was the host. Zoom has long had the most enjoyable show on that great radio station just a few blocks from the Space Needle. While Zoom’s brief Q and A with Kevin Morby and Cassie Ramone was of the dull, predictable variety, the band’s set of four tunes off the new record sounded great. The audio release of the performance can be found here. KEXP’s level of professionalism and influence makes it near impossible for invited bands with tour stops in the Seattle area to turn down such an opportunity. The sessions are captured, broadcast and recorded in a high-fidelity setting and stored in on-line archives accessed by music fans across the world. This was the first time The Babies had done a KEXP in-studio visit. The Vivian Girls have two KEXP sessions (2008, 2009) to their credit. Woods has none. Perhaps the most enlightening media session to surface from The Babies’ effort to publicize the new record was a sit-down with veteran New York-based music reporter John Norris. Recorded at Daddy’s on Graham just before The Babies left town on the current tour, Norris went beyond the usual “is-this-a-side-project” probe. Edited down to 25 minutes and posted on the web site noisevox.org , Norris’ enthusiasm for the band garnered an interesting reaction from Morby on the question of his quick and successful ascent to primary singer/songwriter in a great band. When asked if he had longed to be a front-man to supplement his supporting role responsibilities in Woods, Morby said The Babies came together without any kind of a grand plan. “I had no expectations from The Babies. We started the band as this joking band on the way to a party as a band to play parties. And then immediately people started writing about it on the internet. I never had any expectation of being a front-person or being this guy. It just naturally began to happen, which is cool. I like being that guy.” Norris asked Ramone to update the status of the Vivian Girls given its relative lack of activity in recent months. Ramone said Ali Koehler has returned (Fiona Campbell out) as the Viv’s drummer and that while the band lacks a “concrete” timetable, she said work on some new songs may happen next year.