posted
(CNSNews.com) - The president of the Springfield, Ill., chapter of the Million Mom March faces charges of having drugs and an illegal handgun in her home. Press reports said the gun's serial number had been scratched off.
Annette Stevens became a gun control activist after her son was shot to death several years ago. She told a newspaper the gun belonged to her late son, and when she found it, she didn't know what to do with it, so she put it in a drawer.
Police reportedly found the gun and illegal drugs while executing a search warrant at Stevens' home in connection with a spate of drive-by shootings in the area. Stevens insists the search was illegal.
Second Amendment groups were quick to note the irony of a gun control activist being arrested on gun charges.
The Illinois State Rifle Association (ISRA) called it a classic case of "liberal elitists" who "cannot walk their own talk."
"I find it incredible that someone representing an organization that pushes legislation that only punishes law-abiding gun owners would possess such an illegal weapon," said Richard Pearson, ISRA's executive director.
"Surely she must be familiar with US gun laws and those in Illinois, considering the position she holds. Does she think the law does not apply to her due to anti-gun affiliation? It's the height of hypocrisy!"
Press reports said Stevens did not have the ID card required of Illinois firearms owners.
The Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms called it ironic that "this poster mom for gun control" has admitted keeping an illegally altered handgun in her home while she's campaigned to deprive other citizens of their firearms.
"If Stevens is so convinced guns don't belong in society, then why didn't she immediately turn that gun over to the police when she found it more than two years ago?" asked CCRKBA Chairman Alan Gottlieb.
"Why did she keep it? What's wrong with this picture? Ms. Stevens is about to learn that supporting gun control is like keeping a vicious dog. They sometimes bite the hands that feed them."
"In the kind of Draconian anti-gun society Stevens and her cohorts are trying to create," Gottlieb continued, "it wouldn't matter if she were innocent as she claims. Under the laws her group supports, gun owners are essentially considered guilty until they prove themselves otherwise."
CCRKBA said gun laws supported by activists such as Stevens do nothing to prevent crime - but go a long way in eroding the rights of law-abiding citizens.
How is this woman an elitist? I AM an elitist, and I am deeply, deeply insulted by the suggestion that any elitist would voluntarily live in Springfield.
posted
As far as I can tell from the remarkably biased article, she didn't scratch the serial number off the gun, either.
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It comes from the perception that she believed that the rules applied to everybody else, but not to those like her that are making the rules.
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posted
But that's not "elitist." That's "hypocritical." The words are spelled and pronounced differently.
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posted
Yes, the artical is biased, but the reality is that the woman is a hypocrite. Like the artical pointed out "why didn't she immediately turn that gun over to the police when she found it more than two years ago?"
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quote:But that's not "elitist." That's "hypocritical." The words are spelled and pronounced differently.
Her saying that people should not own firearms but owning one herself is hypocritical -- she did not live what she professed to believe.
But another way of looking at it is that she viewed herself as part of a class of people to whom the rules don't apply. This is elitism. I don't think that's what happened here, but one could look at it that way.
edit: Is it incorrect grammar to say "Her saying that..."
posted
Elitism is not the sense that rules don't apply to oneself (or a group that includes oneself).
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"But another way of looking at it is that she viewed herself as part of a class of people to whom the rules don't apply."
Like the Executive Branch, you mean? *laugh*
Seriously, based on the article, I don't get that sense at all. Heck, I don't even get the sense that she's really all that influential a person in the anti-gun movement, much less that she's a massive firebrand on the issue of turning in every gun without a serial number.
The mere fact that she jammed a "hot" gun into a drawer for years should indicate how uncomfortable she is with the subject.
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See, this is why I'm a "liberal" elitist: I like people to use words correctly, and believe I am better than people who do not.
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I'd be interested to know why the search was conducted - was there a tip?
And what about the drugs? Is she claiming those also belonged to her late son and she just didn't turn those in either?
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quote: The mere fact that she jammed a "hot" gun into a drawer for years should indicate how uncomfortable she is with the subject.
LOL...
Sort of like a teenage boy, being uncomfortable with the subject, hiding porno between the mattresses?
Seriously, Tom, she is "president of the Springfield, Ill., chapter of the Million Mom March." That does make her a spokeswoman for the cause. She is not that uncomfortable with the subject.
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If I believe, as the organization she belongs to does, that guns are dangerous and shouldn't be just lying around in homes, I don't shove it into a drawer - I turn it in and get it out of my house ASAP.
If she blames the death of her son on handguns, why would she keep such a reminder in her home?
That's why I say it just doesn't make sense - not at all.
Edit: hit post way too soon
[ March 02, 2005, 01:42 PM: Message edited by: Belle ]
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posted
I'm a grammar nazi in addition to being an elitist, yes.
But no, Belle, I'm pretty sure she's owning up to the illegal drugs, whatever they happen to be.
That said, I know too many people in Springfield; in my experience, anyone who is in any way affiliated or active with the government in that cesspit can be safely expected to have a bag of the green stuff -- at the very least -- in a tin in the bottom of their underwear drawer. The whole friggin' town is like a trailer park with suits.
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"Sort of like a teenage boy, being uncomfortable with the subject, hiding porno between the mattresses?"
Not unless she takes it out now and then to drool over, no.
"Seriously, Tom, she is 'president of the Springfield, Ill., chapter of the Million Mom March.' That does make her a spokeswoman for the cause"
Sure. In the same way that a "president of the Springfield, Ill. Young Republicans" speaks for the White House. Have you heard her name before today?
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She may very well have been much too embarrassed to turn in the gun in the first place though. I think that is what Tom mean by uncomfortable. She was worried that exactly this kind of thing would happen. Of course, if she'd turned it in as soon as she found it, then it could have been a bragging story for her instead.
[elitist]People really need to think more than one step ahead.[/elitist]
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posted
I was under the impression that nigh upon every baby boomer was a pot smoker. That this particular vice was not reserved for those with wheels on their home.
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posted
Oh, absolutely. I would never dream of implying that drug use is higher in trailer parks than in other forms of housing without linking to something better than anecdotal evidence. Unless I were an elitist, of course.
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quote:"Seriously, Tom, she is 'president of the Springfield, Ill., chapter of the Million Mom March.' That does make her a spokeswoman for the cause"
Sure. In the same way that a "president of the Springfield, Ill. Young Republicans" speaks for the White House. [Smile] Have you heard her name before today?
No. It's more like the way that a "president of the Springfield, Ill. Young Republicans" is a spokesman for conservative issues.
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And exactly how important do you think that spokesperson is, in general? Do you think he'd be able to get a private chat with George Bush if he asked, based on his "leadership" within the Young Republicans?
The woman's a cog. And a cog in Springfield, for God's sake, where the Million Mom March probably has, like, seven or eight regular members. I'm saying her hypocrisy is neither national news nor a representative sample to be used as an example of "liberal elitism."
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Not drug use in general, Tom, but pot in particular. Maybe it's just living in northern california but I REALLY get the picture here that everyone in the generation older than me is a pothead.
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posted
In northern California, you're possibly right. But since we don't know what kind of "illegal drugs" this woman made the mistake of owning, I'm not sure how profitable speculation is.
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posted
I was just following up on your speculation. I assumed by "green stuff" you meant pot. (it's a plant right? so it's green?)
quote: That said, I know too many people in Springfield; in my experience, anyone who is in any way affiliated or active with the government in that cesspit can be safely expected to have a bag of the green stuff -- at the very least -- in a tin in the bottom of their underwear drawer. The whole friggin' town is like a trailer park with suits
posted
Yeah, I was speculating. But getting into a discussion about pot, when for all we know the woman could be a meth-head, doesn't seem useful. Heck, she could have had prescription Viagra, although I don't get that impression.
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posted
I can't think of a single valid reason for keeping an illegal gun in your home for 2 years when you are the leader of an anti-gun organization as extreme as the Million Mom March (they actively encourage lawsuits, for example).
And mixing drugs and guns is something that responsible, legal gun owners never, ever do. In fact, it is an NRA gun safety rule - one that is stressed during NRA training.
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"And mixing drugs and guns is something that responsible, legal gun owners never, ever do."
I think the adjectives applied here transform the sentence in a remarkable way, Mrs. M. Because I know several people who legally own guns who also partake of the occasional drug. But as you point out, this is something that responsible gun owners never do.
In the same way, the nice zombies never eat people.
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posted
Wow, you're on a snotty elitist roll today, Tom. How do you get through doors with a head that big? Do you have to turn sideways or what?
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Maybe she kept the gun as a memento to remind her of her dead son and why guns are bad. She kept it to remind her of her cause. The drugs lead me to beleive this isn't true and she's just another gun totting pot-head but I like to look at all sides of an issue before cooking someone. Posts: 832 | Registered: Jan 2005
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There ARE some responsible gun owners, Tom. It is not a contridiction in terms as you implied with the "Nice Zombies" comment. Further, Gun owners are not mindless undead. Nor are they evil. I'm not sure what you were trying to imply with your analogy, but I'm certain it's not nice. I'm also certain you hold yourself as a better person than a gun owner, both from this post and previous posts. It is an opinion that is delusional at best.
quote: I'm also certain you hold yourself as a better person than a gun owner, both from this post and previous posts. It is an opinion that is delusional at best.
Nope. I think it's likely that I'm a better person than the vast majority of gun owners, as indeed I consider gun ownership a slight debit on the scorecard of life, but I think it's entirely possible that individual gun owners are able to make up for their gun-owning deficiency in other ways. Posts: 37449 | Registered: May 1999
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If she was keeping a gun because she felt unsafe for some reason (being stalked, or she lived in a dangerous neighborhood), then I would use this incident to challenge the anti-gun forces. This speaks directly to the rights at issue.
If she's just a criminal or she actually was forgetful, then it's not extremely relevant.
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Tom, give a special dispensation to those who have inherited their gun, or those who live in the sticks and don't want to get mawled by a bear or a jailbird.
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I'm mostly a gun owner because of my contrarian nature. If it weren't for so many people against gun ownership, I may have never bought one.
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Well, Tom, looks like the pot smokin', Springfield livin', suited trailer chick is representing more than the 7-8 members of the Springfield Million Mommy March.
quote:Last fall, she appeared with other anti-gun advocates at a Statehouse news conference to urge federal officials to renew a ban against semiautomatic assault weapons.
Jonathan Lackland, Midwest regional director of the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence, the march's partner organization, said he was shocked to hear about Stevens' arrest.
He wished to withhold comment on the case until he learned more about it, but he did say he knew Stevens was dedicated to the cause.
"I know Miss Stevens, and I know her character," Lackland said. "I know after the death of her son, it really prompted her to jump full force into activism in terms of gun-violence prevention.
"She has been a staunch supporter of gun-violence-prevention measures," Lackland added. "She has lived by (the theme of) 'I don't want anyone to go through the pain and misery I have gone through. I wouldn't wish this on my worst enemy.'"
posted
"Well, Tom, looks like the pot smokin', Springfield livin', suited trailer chick is representing more than the 7-8 members of the Springfield Million Mommy March."
Where is that stated? Your quote suggests that she's spoken to at least one person who's higher up in a partner organization, who was surprised to learn that she was arrested. What there implies the size of the Springfield chapter?
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