Kyle Mantyla's blog

On today's "Focal Point" broadcast, Bryan Fischer made a passing reference to the PBS series "The Abolitionists," citing it as evidence that Christians did not support slavery and, in fact, it was conservative "evangelical Christians like you and me" that lead the fight to abolish it:

When President Obama unveiled his list of recommendations for combating gun violence earlier this week, a few of the items involved efforts to improve mental health services ... which Bryan Fischer claims is part of an effort to portray supporters of the Second Amendment as crazy:

• PFAW: PFAWF Releases Reports on Outside Election Spending in 21 States, Organizes ‘Money Out/Voters In’ Events Across the U.S.
• Anjali Sareen @ Mediaite: Rick Perry Says Obama’s Actions On Gun Control ‘Disgust’ Him, Claims Prayer Is The Answer.
• Scott Keyes @ Think Progress: Republicans Brag They Won House Majority Because Of Gerrymandering.
• Sergio Munoz @ Media Matters: Drudge And Limbaugh Misrepresent What Obama And The Affordable Care Act Say About Doctors And Guns.
• Eric Lach @ TPM: NRA Warns Members That Confiscation Could Be Next.
• Warren Throckmorton: Was the National Rifle Association started to drive out the KKK?

• Buster Wilson says that most "'Big Gay', homosexual activists, blogosphere [sic] and it’s many blog authors and writers and 'journalists' are really pretty much nothing but mind numbed automatons."
• Gov. Rick Perry sends a shiver down Bryan Fischer's spine.
• Gun control is the real war on women!
• Is Scientology just a massive real estate fraud scheme?
• Finally, this "Stop The Witch Hunt Against Rep. Bachmann" effort might just be the most amazingly hypocritical thing we have ever seen.

Shortly after the Sandy Hook tragedy, David Barton appeared on Glenn Beck's television program where he made the case that the Second Amendment was intended to guarantee to citizens access to any and all weapons that might possibly be used against them in the name of self-defense.  And since citizens might have to defend themselves from the government,  they were entitled to own the same types of weapons that the government possesses. 

Under Barton's logic, the Second Amendment therefore guarantees to citizens the right to own tanks and bombers and attack helicopters and destroyers and even nuclear bombs because that is what the government owns. 

But that seems crazy and he couldn't possibly mean that, right?

Wrong. That is exactly what he means because he made the same point today on "WallBuilders Live":

The Second Amendment is not to arm you less than it is to arm the government. Because what specifically happened was if the Americans had not been able to go home and grab their guns off the mantel over the fireplace, they could not have taken on the British coming after them. 

The British was their government and the Americans had to have equal firepower with whoever was coming after them and that's why they went to Fort Ticonderoga and got all the British cannons and came back and used those. That was just individual citizens doing that.

So the purpose of the Second Amendment was you have got to be able to defend yourself, your rights, period against anybody and that sometimes means it may be your government coming after you.  So if the government has got AR-15s, guess what? The people can have AR-15s ... Whatever the government's got, you've got to be able to defend yourself against. So there was no limitation on what you could or couldn't do with the Second Amendment; it was a self-defense amendment and if everybody is coming at you AR-15s, you don't defend yourself with BB guns, you get AR-15s.

On this week's installment of the "Hagee Hotline," Matthew Hagee weighed in on the issue of gun control by citing the 1890 massacre at Wounded Knee, in which hundreds of members of the Sioux tribe were killed by government forces, as the sort of thing that happens "when the federal government attempts to confiscate firearms and take from Americans their liberty":

2013 is the 150th anniversary of both the Emancipation Proclamation and the Gettysburg Address, and so Liberty Counsel has christened this year a "New Birth of Liberty." As Matt Barber and Mat Staver explained, President Obama is the antithesis of Abraham Lincoln and is systematically working to divide and weaken America and pushing the nation toward civil war:

• Paul @ PFAW Blog: GOP Electoral College Power Play Tests Our Democracy.
• Steve Benen @ The Maddow Blog: NRA launches unhinged ad campaign.
• Timothy Johnson @ Media Matters: New NRA Video Doubles Down On Politicization Of Obama's Daughters, Lashes Out At Media.
• Warren Throckmorton: Did Ronald Reagan oppose James Brady on gun control? No, David Barton, Reagan favored the Brady Bill.
• Texas Freedom Network: Texas Public School Bible Classes Teach Races Come from Noah’s Sons, Biblical Literalism, 6000-year-old Earth.
• Zack Ford @ Think Progress: NOM Spokesperson Claims Anti-Equality Doomsday Testimony Is ‘New Gettysburg Address.’

• Janet Porter celebrates the ten year anniversary of her Faith2Action organization with the most boring video imaginable.
• "Molotov" Mitchell explains to Glenn Beck that he is a pretty big deal which is why Beck needs to change the name of his forthcoming news program to something besides "For The Record," because that is the name Mitchell has been using.
• Bryan Fischer says he will henceforth only refer to "assault rifles" as "sporting rifles."
• James O'Keefe is so very, very courageous.
• FRC says that Louie Giglio's withdrawal is an example of government persecution and prays that it will end: "Just as we were warned, neither tolerance, nor safety were the aim of activists, but a silenced pulpit and silenced Church ... May God's people arise to pray and effectively withstand government persecution over Biblical beliefs about homosexuality!"
• Finally, just how utterly delusional is Glenn Beck?  While discussing Sandy Hook Truthers and the like, he warned that conspiracy theorists are dangerous and cannot be trusted!

Rabbi Daniel Lapin appeared on AFA's "Today's Issues" this morning where he made the case that people are never supposed to retire because the word "retirement" does not appear in the Bible.  In fact, it is because people retire that their health often deteriorates because they are basically saying to God that they are done serving people, and since that is the case, well "then who needs you"?