ArizonaShooting.com

ROSSINGTON: We just believe in gods and guns. We’re just that way, being from the South. Most southern people are religious and also have the mindset of the right to bear arms. A lot of people down here live in the country and have to protect themselves.

GW: But “Gods & Guns” is certainly coming from a different place than “Saturday Night Special” [from 1975’s Nuthin’ Fancy], which is probably the strongest gun control song ever written.

ROSSINGTON: Well, we believe that, too. I think handguns were just made for killing, and I don’t think anyone needs one, but a shotgun to protect your family is different. And I’ve lived in places where you need a gun to protect yourself. We just believe in the right to bear arms and the constitutional thing.

MEDLOCKE: I’m not sure what Ronnie was thinking when he wrote that [“Saturday Night Special”] or what he believed in. I for one heavily believe in taking guns out of the wrong hands. I am all for background checks before anybody’s able to own anything. I happen to have a concealed weapons permit, and I’ve had background checks on me. I don’t have a criminal record. As for assault weapons, get them off the street. There are certain steps we could take to make it right for everybody, and I’m all for them.

To portray Skynyrd as a bunch of “gun nuts” would be incorrect, according to Van Zant. “I’m kind of like Ronnie, ‘handguns are made for killing,’ and I’ve never seen anybody shoot a deer with a .38,” he says. “I do own a bunch of rifles, I live out in the swamp, and you’ve got to protect yourself.”

Later in the article (titled “America’s Kick-Ass Sweetheart”), she tells RS writer Josh Eells that when she is done with her next movie she is “thinking about buying a house. And a big dog. And a shotgun.”

“I should say it wasn’t real, for PETA,” she said. “But screw PETA.”

Who remembers Braves pitcher John Rocker? He got in trouble years ago for saying NY was a shit hole and that he'd never play there. well, he's back....

http://msn.foxsports.com/mlb/story/Ex-p ... ama-060412

While most of the entertainment world reacted to Thursday's massive shooting spree at a Colorado theater with urgent calls for gun control, one music star had quite the opposite message. Big Boi (real name Antwan André Patton), one half of the rap outfit OutKast, took to Twitter and defended individuals' right to bear arms.

They trying take outta the hands of the American people #yup
— Big Boi of OUTKAST (@BigBoi) July 20, 2012

Presumably, the is an image of a gun specific to his Twitter app, Echofon. Patton then went on to quote lyrics from an OutKast song:

" We slum , kept all the guns , I GOTTA protect my family " Big Boi from Da art of storytelling pt. 1
— Big Boi of OUTKAST (@BigBoi) July 20, 2012

Unlike insular journalists such as Piers Morgan and Roger Ebert, Patton understands there are dangerous places in this world and dangerous people for whom the only effective suppressant is superior force. When criminals would take the life of innocent families, no amount of feel-good dialogue and negotiation has been statistically proven as effective as gun ownership to prevent those murders.

Patton later retweeted a follower who points out that historically, the purpose of gun control was to oppress free blacks.

Gun control laws. started with racists disarming freed slaves RT @BigBoi They trying take outta the hands of the American people #yup
— JJBOOGIE (@therealjjboogie) July 20, 2012

As Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas declared in his McDonald v. Chicago opinion, gun control laws were part and parcel of white-on-black oppression during the Reconstruction era. So if the left wants to squeal that voter ID laws are Jim Crow reborn, let's have this conversation.

Why do Piers Morgan, Salman Rushdie, Roger Ebert, DL Hughley, Michael Moore, and John Leguizamo want to take away blacks' right to defend themselves? Why do they want black Americans defenseless in high-crime areas? Why would they pass laws that have historically led to higher rates of gun crime, knowing that black youths are already disproportionately affected by gun violence?

This same follower sent out another link detailing the racist history of anti-gun laws.

#yup RT @therealjjboogie: HIstory of racist gun control lawsfirearmsandliberty.com/cramer.racism.… @BigBoi #mustread
— Big Boi of OUTKAST (@BigBoi) July 20, 2012

Of course, famous as he is, Patton is bound to attract criticism, which he handles with dry humor:

Deer Hunters RT @kenjiberry: @BigBoi what civilian needs automatic weapons tho?
— Big Boi of OUTKAST (@BigBoi) July 20, 2012

Its called Sarcasm...graduateRT @spartantown: @BigBoi @kenjiberry if you need an automatic weapon to hunt with you suck as a hunter.
— Big Boi of OUTKAST (@BigBoi) July 20, 2012

Yes, the old, "You don't need [x type of weapon]." Nobody needs to run their own newspaper, either, but that extreme manifestation of speech is protected by the First Amendment. And, while he may not have meant it that way, Big Boi's "Deer Hunters" quip cuts to the heart of the issue: the Bill of Rights isn't meant for the government to allow us to do what we need. It's meant for the government to protect us doing what we can. And if you want to hunt deer with an assault rifle, by gum, it's your constitutional right (after jumping through all the hoops required to buy Class III weapons, that is).

Patton then retweets another follower who uses the example of Switzerland to demolish the myth that private citizens owning automatic weapons results in more crime:

For every 100 homicide in us Switzerland has 1 but has more automatic weapons per capita than us - two per household @bigboi @kenjiberry
— rawdawgbuffalo (@rawdawgbuffalo) July 20, 2012

And finally, Patton reveals that he entered this conversation not for any pet issue of his but for the rights of everyone.

Im not Pro GUNS , but I am 100% Pro Freedom , and 1000% PRO LOVE for all --RT @MrBryanBarber: @BigBoi so what you tryna to say?!
— Big Boi of OUTKAST (@BigBoi) July 20, 2012

On a day when progressive celebrities responded to a national tragedy with their sanctimonious default position -- that elites must make more decisions for the unwashed masses -- it was a satisfying end to the day discovering Big Boi's Twitter missive. For all the typos and neologisms, his was the entertainment industry's most eloquent defense of liberty against aggressive statists out to exploit death.