After his daughter was murdered, Andy Parker has made reforming gun laws his mission.

After his daughter was murdered, Andy Parker has made reforming gun laws his mission.

Late Tuesday, Parker sent this message to Sen. William M. Stanley Jr. (R-Franklin), via Facebook: “I’m going to be your worst nightmare you little bastard.”

“I take this very seriously as a threat against the safety of my family,” said Stanley, who has received an A rating from the National Rifle Association. He said he contacted Capitol Police and the Franklin County Sheriff’s Office, and picked up applications for concealed handgun permits for himself and his wife because of the message. “We are proud firearms owners, but I never felt the need for a concealed-carry permit until now,” Stanley said.

Pro-NRA politicians are among the wiltingest of flowers in the world. Case in point: the father of murdered Roanoke news reporter Alison Parker has been coming down on anti-gun-reform politicians in his state like the proverbial ton of bricks. Andy Parker blames lax gun laws for the shooting of his daughter on live television and for the other shootings America is now subjected to on a daily basis, and in-between cutting commercials and making appearances in support of reforming gun laws he has also been saying very, very mean things to those politicians on Facebook Stanley, who is Parker's state senator, has never before been subjected to such a harsh critique. His immediate reaction? That this can only mean that the pro-gun-reform Parker is threatening violence against him, and so he needs to pick hisself up some more guns.Perhaps it is because I have been on the Internets a long, long time now, but on the unhinged threat-o-meter scale I'm going to be your worst nightmare Does Not Rank. If a grieving father whose daughter was murdered on a live television broadcast because America cannot get its head out of its ass on the whole issue of distributing murder weapons to crazy people says he is going to be your worst nightmare after you've made remarks to the effect of murders are bad but whachyagonnado, I would find the political implications of that fairly obvious. Mr. Parker is going to run ads against you. Mr. Parker is going to call you bad names to the press. Mr. Parker is going to point out that we are giving murder weapons to crazy people because other crazy people have an abiding fear of having their own murder weapons taken from them, and he is going to point to you as one of the politicians that is doing that.

No sir, I would say on the scale of zero to having your daughter murdered on live television, being told that your pro-guns-everywhere stance is going to make a grieving father your worst nightmare, you little bastard ranks slightly below getting the wrong pizza delivered on the trauma scale.

But again I'm intrigued by this gut reaction of seemingly anyone who staunchly opposes efforts to reform our nation's gun laws even a little bit. Any harsh language directed their way seems to be judged as a personal threat to their safety (in the Fox News version, criticism is the first step toward rounding up gun owners and marching them into camps); therefore, harsh language equals I should immediately buy another gun.

Toward what end? Defending your Facebook page from rhetorical ambush?

Yes, fine: I agree that Parker's rude remarks are very rude, and that even in the face of our ongoing policy of distributing murder weapons to violent crazy people the only thing worse than that would be calling someone a Little Bastard. But to jump from that to "I think what I need here is to get even more guns, and carry them more places" is ... well, it's the endemic response, isn't it? The mean anti-gun people have started to call me names; it's only a matter of time before I have to gun them down.

The best part, though: This isn't the first time State Sen. Bill Stanley has opined on his need to possibly shoot someone. From 2011:



This year, we have a new category of Dano, "Best Gun Threat By a Public Official." The winner is Sen. Bill Stanley, R-Somewhere, for a charming utterance during his re-election campaign. It came in response to a question as to whether anybody had investigated his new rental home in his new Senate district. "Not that I know of, unless they want to get a face full of my Glock," was Stanley's steely reply. Wow. Who knew the good senator from (where does he claim to live now?) was a closet Dirty Harry?

Oh, he's a peach.