Yep. North Carolina is considering a constitutional amendment against gay marriage, so what does this redneck do? He steals a sign urging people to vote against the bigotry, pulls out a gun, and sends a message by shooting it.
Way to defy Southern stereotypes, guy.
(via Joe. My. God.)
…That’s very educated indeed. Shoot shit you disagree with, that is the american way!
Maybe he is related to that guy that shot his daughter’s laptop?
I hope they pursue him for possession of stolen property.
Why do they have to pass a law againstgay marriage? Does it already exist?
Yeah, that’s convincing! :eyeroll:
Studied rhetoric under Ted Nugent.
Yep, that’s about the mentality. Here in Durham, several signs less than a mile from our house had the word “AGAINST” spray-painted out (so the signs just said “Vote Amendment One May 8”). We cleverly wrote “AGAINST” on suitably-sized pieces of paper and stuck them over the vandalized spots on each sign (both sides).
A week later, the signs were taken completely.
We replaced the two missing signs with four. (One on each corner.)
…and that, folks, is how we do things.
(I should put up a regular blog entry about this, but for now here’s my G+ post, for those who like myself have been assimilated by the Googleborg.)
This past weekend my brother and sister-in-law visited me in Raleigh, NC. As we were driving through town we saw quite a few “Vote No on Amendment 1” signs. I was pleased as the signs were seen in relatively poor, middle-class, and wealthy (“inside the Beltline”) sections of the city.
Sadly, just after I mentioned that I had seen many “Vote No” signs but no “Vote Yes” signs, we rounded a corner and saw two in adjacent front yards. Oh well… I guess the signage count is 100-2 instead of the preferable 100-0. Much better than the reverse.
@ginmar – Yep, gay marriage is illegal in NC, but the thumpers can’t take the chance that a state court may call the law unconstitutional. So, they wrote a POS that is so restrictive that many believe the Federal courts would overturn it if it passes.
I’m voting against it, but if it passes I will be contributing towards it being overturned.
Why is this the only developed nation where people consider this type of deranged egregious behavior “protest?”
The more time passes, the more I am becoming ashamed to live in this state. I just kind of feel like I am swimming in a terrible cocktail of uber-religion and jingoism.
Moreover, this guy has his facts wrong. The amendment does _not_ state that marriage is between one man and one woman. It says that the only union to be recognized in the state shall be heterosexual marriage. Gay marriage is already outlawed; the amendment bars civil unions (gay or straight) from being recognized. Admittedly, it’s also extra insurance against gay marriage, which implies to me that proponents of the amendment expect the anti-gay-marriage law to be ruled unconstitutional.
Anyone who is in favor of gay civil unions, regardless of your stance on gay marriage, should vote against this amendment.
Most towns and cities have ordinances against discharging firearms within a certain distance of homes. This bozo was probably in violation of such an ordinance.
Apparently, the video is now private. Apparently, someone didn’t like publicity.
PZ, the video in your OP has been removed. Is this the same video?
And now it is removed entirely. Also, an edit button would be nice, so that I don’t spam up comments.
@15: Probably — someone with the same username that uploaded the video you link posted in the JoeMyGod thread asking how to mirror YouTube videos. She eventually found a site called SaveVid, which is of the tags for the video.
I mean, the video you linked.
Seriously, there needs to be like a five-minute edit window or something for these comments.
Russell Robinson (grandson of the dude who drafted the original NC Constitution) and his wife, religious conservatives both, have come out against the amendment. All kinds of public officials are coming out against it. WRAL went looking for a corporate CEO who would speak in favor of it, and couldn’t find one.
We can only hope that this thing fails miserably… and then maybe in another year or two we can roll back the anti-gay language that was already in the NC constitution. (…and, hey, how ’bout getting rid of that religious requirement for office, while we’re at it?)
My article about the amendment is here.
And now our comments seem out of place since PZ updated the original post with a new video embed.
I just watched the video.
They don’t even pretend that it’s about anything other then religions bigotry, the ad they run on TV just say it outright, we don’t like gay marriage because it say so in the buybull.
From Joe.My.God:
UPDATE II: I have spoken to the Kannopolis, North Carolina police department and they are looking into what will be classified a crime if the shotgun was fired onto property that includes a home or business. Kannopolis is 20 minutes outside of Charlotte, so let’s also get this on the radar of local media.
Buybull? Win!
God, what fuckery.
Because things like this are something only commie pinko liberals do ?
I think they were a bit annoyed that all their firepower didn’t actually do anything to obscure the message :)
Something about the resilience of ideas…
It’s been rather weird. I haven’t seen a single yard sign supporting the amendment where I live. Though that may be because I live in an unusually liberal area.
This is why we need to start challenging the wingnuts when they talk about freedom.
That’s one tough sign.
Now we know why they need their guns!
#29 – YES… I enjoyed how impotent the gun was against the mighty signboard.
I love that the sign is perfectly legible after he finishes shooting it. So that’s how they deal with it, eh? Violently, but completely ineffectualy?
I just wish he’d finished up by throwing the gun at the sign like a villain on Superman.
What kind of gun was that?
A Daisy BB?
An equally effective statement could have been made with a Nerf gun.
Raleigh, Durham, and Chapel Hill – the Triangle – are some of the gay-friendliest cities in the entire South. This guy’s in for a serious disappointment come May 9th. The “liberal bubble,” as I like to describe us in the Triangle, will rise… Can’t wait to vote against turds like this dude.
Well, the bright side of this is that he was at least able to control himself enough to shoot the sign and not gay people. I hope!
Er, if the sign was on public property, it would be illegal in many places to shoot or deface the sign (at least prior to the election). If the sign was on private property other than the shooters, it would be illegal pretty much everywhere. Which may explain why the video tried to vanish.
What is it with rednecks and thinking videotaping themselves shooting something is the answer every time they don’t get their way?
Reminds me of the aphorism:
The scariest phrase in th English language is “Here, hold my beer”.
Nice to see I’m not the only fucking person on earth who thought that was a bad thing to do. >.>
We’re sure that this nutbar STOLE the sign, right? It wasn’t planted in his property to troll him or something?
Aren’t there laws against removing political campaign signs?
How nice of the guy to basically try to intimidate anyone who would vote against the amendment by indicating he will get armed and get shooting to “protect marriage.”
This goes nicely with your “white guys can be terrorists too” post. I can only imagine what the gay people and their allies think knowing this guy feels gun-shooting strongly about this legislation.
I like how he doesn’t say the sign was ON his property. Sign-posters have to ask, first, at least around here.
He says they should have known not to post it around him. Who is he, then? Captain Joe Asshole, well-known bigot?
Maybe they did post it on his property, (perhaps to annoy him,) and maybe he just can’t speak coherently.
It takes him bloody forever to get off that first shot. Shouldn’t he have been loading up while he was talking, and jacking in the round? Or was he just really slow to aim?
And yeah, the sign didn’t show the damage at all.
Legally, he’s on shaky ground.
Politically, he’s in over his head.
I like how he says “these people should know not to put a sign near my house”. Does that imply that he is already a well known hateful bigot that everyone already tries to avoid like the plague?
Oooh, let me just check the bigot radar. Yup there’s one in the vicinity. Better use the reinforced sign.
He didn’t say it was on his property, he said it was near it. So, you know, the crime is that it was put somewhere he could see it, apparently.
Of course the guy is in favor of One Man One Sister Marriage. If they outlawed that, he would be illegitimate.
As a native of this state, I am very disappointed in this thinly veiled attempt by the religious right to prevent the introduction of potential legislation approving of gay marriage. Unfortunately, the “southern gentleman” you see in the video is all to common in the area in which I live. Almost every church has “Vote For..” signs and many are conducting campaigns within their churches and within their communities. In addition, the scheduling of this vote during the primary is an obvious attempt to ease its passage, since mostly the Republican base will be out to vote. I’m voting against the bill of course, but I fear I will be a very small minority, perhaps the only vote in my precinct. We need all rational Tarheels to come out and vote next week!
Azkyroth, can I join the club?
Yes, I live in NC and Yes, we have more than a few such idiots. This is one fool imitating another fool.
Just wondering if he is overcompensating for something “unfortunate” he found out about himself when he was about 12 or 13.
Don’t use <abbr> and <a> around the same word. The alt-text doesn’t show up. Use <a href=”” title=””> and put the alt-text into title=””.
Anyway, yay for vuvuzela!
Fourthed!
In fact, didn’t we have a thread here about this?
yep
I don’t get why fundamentalists are so damn keen to stop us sinning. Alright, we heard you already – being gay is a sin and we’re going to hell! Thanks for the warning. I’ll take my chances.
After all, fundies clearly don’t like gays, so wouldn’t heaven be a little better without any queers? Seems win-win to me.
[Just to be absolutely clear, I’m using “queers” ironically]
It’s good to see so many like minded individuals in NC!
Someone mentioned the ‘Vote For’ ad they’ve been running, did you notice that she speaks as if she’s speaking to children, all syrup and sweet? Ugh… disgusting. You would think being talked down to like that would insult the right…
I wonder if his parents had any children that lived.
Joe of Joe.My.God received this lovely e-mail.
If only we were nice and quiet and did not agitate, these people might be reasonable.
Well, he sure showed them gays and libruls, didn’t he?
Showed that he’s a big tantrum-throwing baby.
A big tantrum-throwing baby who’s armed and can vote.
Eep.
As another resident of Durham, be assured this asshole doesn’t speak for me, and I fully plan on voting against the amendment on the 8th.
It’s not a stereotype when it’s true. Not all southerners are that dumb, but enough of them are; considering voting records, I’d even say that a good majority is that dumb…
The e-mailer who wrote “scum-sucking” may or may not know that “scum” means “semen” in urban black slang. A “scumbag” is a condom.
The further insult may be intentional. Still, it amuses me to see a rural white using urban black terms.
Or what I assume is a white person …
Freak.
Wow. The bar for ‘hero’ seems set awfully low in some places.
So much for the image of the tough redneck.
Using “social misfit” as a insult says a lot about the insulter.
Why do they have to pass a law againstgay marriage? Does it already exist?
Yeah, but it has to extra-special not exist or God gets confused.
Never underestimate the power of redistricting to monopolize local politics.
I wonder if a “let me marry my boyfriend/girlfriend and I’ll support your right to marry all of your guns AND your truck” campaign would get any traction.
Imaginary Simpsons’ scene:
Homer shoots sign.
Homer shouts “stupid sign!” when it does not disintegrate.
Homer tries to set the sign on fire.
Homer runs in circle shouting “Help! I’m on fire!”