Half-Assed "Heroes"

Because Sen. Joe Manchin (D-WV) and Sen. Pat Toomey (R-Pa) agreed to a "compromise" amendment on background checks, the Senate will at least take up a possible gun bill and will engage in "debate", a.k.a. posturing and sound-bite messaging.  Believe it or not, this is a good thing and another small step in the right direction.  Cautious optimism, anyone?

Some are even calling Toomey a "hero" for his "courageous" stand -- a Republican breaking from the NRA orthodoxy of complete opposition to any background checks.  Ooh, how ballsy!  I appreciate his help, but his heroism is half-assed:  the Toomey compromise still allows casual gun sales between family and friends to occur without any checks or restrictions.  (Yes, what could be more "casual" than selling a fucking gun to your neighbor?)  Toomey said extending background checks to such circumstances would be unnecessarily "inconvenient."  Inconvenient?  It's a lethal weapon, for chrissakes!  A tiny bit of inconvenience when obtaining one is not a bad thing.

It's like when some called Robbie Portman a hero for reversing his position on DOMA and gay marriage.  Good, but it took him two years after his gay son came out to change his mind, and he still says the issue of gay marriage should left to the states.  Totally half-assed! 

Of course just recently, Portman showed his true nature as a spineless worm by voting against allowing the gun debate to even make it to the Senate floor.  Pathetic.  The vast majority of Ohioans and Americans are strongly in favor of true universal background checks, but Robbie doesn't want to discuss it.

They don't make heroes the way the used to.