The Daily Banter has a long history dealing with Sandy Hook Truthers, not to mention their Truther-in-chief, Alex Jones. At one point, a couple of us actually ended up getting one of these disgusting goblins tossed in prison for harassing the families of the victims as well as ...read more
According to right wing firebrand Tomi Lahren, the fact that people who want gun control don't know what the 'AR' in 'AR-15' stands for means they cannot demand gun control. She tweeted this breathlessly idiotic statement on twitter yesterday: Lahren was then correctly raked ...read more
In the wake of the Parkland school shooting in Florida, Trump and the Republicans have scrambled to find the right tone. Sensing a changing public sentiment in regards to gun control, they have done their best to appear "open to ideas" on how best to deal with the murderous ...read more
Early Wednesday morning, DICK'S Sporting Goods announced that it would no longer sell assault-style rifles, high capacity magazines, and that it would be raising the age limit to purchase firearms to 21 regardless of what state laws allow: We at DICK’S Sporting Goods are deeply ...read more
According to Florida law, it is illegal to use exploding or flying fireworks that include: shells and mortars, multiple tube devices, Roman candles, rockets and firecrackers. Adult Floridians are only legally allowed to use sparklers that have been approved by the Florida ...read more
After 17 children were slaughtered at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, by former student Nikolas Cruz, parents in America must now take matters into their own hands. There is now no other way. With shooting after shooting after shooting, it is ...read more
As of this writing, 22 people, mostly teens and younger, are dead at the hands of suicide bombers in Manchester, England. ISIS has already claimed responsibility and many are mourning the loss of so many young lives. Meanwhile, as the police are still sorting through the ...read more
Author's Note: I published the following article at the end of 2013, right around the one year commemoration of the Sandy Hook massacre in which Adam Lanza used an AR-15 assault rifle to kill 26 people -- 20 children and six teachers -- in cold blood. Elsewhere, AR-15 style ...read more
Last week marked three years since the rampage at Sandy Hook Elementary School, which left 20 children and six of their adult caretakers dead. If you somehow disagree with this fact -- if you believe there was nothing to remember last week because there was, in fact, no massacre ...read more
The Sandy Hook Elementary massacre was the worst day for this country since 9/11 and it remains that, three years later. When the news broke of the shooting, which left 20 small children and six of their adult caretakers dead, it was 9/11 that I immediately compared it to; not ...read more
There's a thesis that's popular with people who value reason over bronze age superstition, a formula known as the "Argument from Evil" whose aim is to call into question one of the central tenets of Christianity. It goes something like this: God cannot be both omnipotent and ...read more
In the wake of national tragedies there is always a battle in the media to attach a particular narrative to it. In the wake of the awful shooting in Charleston, South Carolina last night that saw nine African Americans shot in a church, you can bet that a huge frenzy of blame ...read more
Ever since the massacre at Sandy Hook in which Adam Lanza used an AR-15 to murder two dozen women and children, the AR-15 has become the most popular rifle in the United States. As we've covered here, it's basically a fetish -- one that's even extended to members of Congress. ...read more
Photo: Herndon Police Department You can't really call this a "happy" ending, but it's a satisfying one and in this case that's the best you can ask for. Today two officers from the Herndon Police Department in Virginia returned the two signs stolen from separate memorial ...read more
The problem with being paranoid is that it's not the kind of thing you can just turn on and off. If you're someone who sees invisible threats around every corner and who warns that vigilance and suspicion is what's always necessary to avoid becoming one of the hapless sheeple, ...read more
You Know Who You Are, I have a five-year-old daughter. She has blond hair that falls in little ringlets and a smile that feels as if it radiates warm sunshine against my soul. She remembers anything she's ever said to me that I laughed at and every once in a while she'll remind ...read more
Grace McDonnell was one of nearly two-dozen children killed by rounds of ammunition fired from Adam Lanza's AR-15 at Sandy Hook Elementary. Since then, a memorial playground was established with a commemorative sign featuring Grace's photograph and the message: "Celebrating the ...read more
With the situation in Murryville, Pennsylvania still unfolding, CNN anchor Carol Costello and contributor Dr. Jeff Gardere injected the debate over gun violence into the mass stabbing at Franklin Regional High School that has resulted in 20 wounded, seven of them critically ...read more
In the aftermath of 9/11, imagine if various American Muslim organizations held contests in which the grand prizes were box cutters, the tool-turned-weapon used by terrorist hijackers aboard those four doomed flights. Now imagine if a U.S. congressman held not one but two ...read more
An clearly sociopathic ghoul named Ryan Jake Lambourn created a video game in which players re-enact the Sandy Hook massacre -- as the shooter, Adam Lanza. The game begins by shooting Lanza's mother with a Glock and gets more grotesquely tasteless from there. Hearst Connecticut ...read more
This isn't going to get more than maybe a couple hundred hits. I'll be fucking shocked if it gets even that many, actually. And yet I feel like I have to post it because even though we don't claim to be the paper of record here at the Banter, when a teacher is killed and two ...read more
Newark Mayor Cory Booker sailed to victory in the Democratic primary last week, which surprised no one though about four people voted and that's always a bit sad so now he is on to the general which will be on October 16, 2013. So who is his GOP opponent? So glad you asked! I ...read more
A kitten yes, but how about an abortion? It has been six months since the Newtown shooting and while we are no where near passing any gun safety bills, the US House of Representatives is poised to take up the "Pain-Capable Unborn Child Protection Act," which would ban the ...read more
I feel like the gun control debate often comes down to something eerily similar to that old beer commercial where fans of the beverage either supported the first or second claim and argued about it. The Second Amendment reads: A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the ...read more
Welcome to this week's edition of The Daily Banter Mailbag! Today, Bob, Ben and Chez discuss the loss of momentum in the gun control debate, endless presidential campaigns, and the White House drone memo. The questions: 1) It feels like the momentum gun control advocates had ...read more
Really, it should be. Last week I adopted a kitten. To do this, I filled out an application in which I included information on all the cats I have had for the last ten years and contact information for the veterinarians that treated them. They interviewed me on how I raise ...read more
