February 12, 2015
By Robert W. Hunnicutt
In his musical persona as gansta rapper EB Da Iceman, 26-year-old Elton Badoo represents everything I suspect most readers of this site deplore about hip-hop culture: the crass vulgarity, the unceasing resort to obscenities, the obsession with cash, cars, jewelry, blunts and loose women. And most importantly, a disregard for safe gun handling that equals a disdain for the King's English.
In a video for a catchy little ditty called "Pull Out The Stick," Badoo and a fellow "artist" wave around a variety of AKs, pistols and shotguns while rapping in terms that can't be reproduced on a family website. Those of you who are sticklers for proper muzzle control just better not watch.
So you might think SGN readers would universally approve of a SWAT raid that went wrong when Badoo shot one of the officers assaulting his mother's North Miami house. Fortunately, Badoo was using a pistol, not one of the AKs, so the policeman's protective vest saved his life. To their credit, North Miami Beach Police Department personnel didn't take the shots fired as a reason to hose down the house, and after a brief standoff, Badoo and his mother were taken into custody without other injuries on either side. He's now in jail, charged with attempted homicide of a law enforcement officer.
Pretty cut and dried, right?
Advertisement
It is until you read the reason the cops were there in the first place. It wasn't because of the guns: Badoo had a clean police record, and so presumably was just as eligible to own them as anyone reading this. It wasn't the pot, although Badoo's music videos showed him consuming plenty. Let's let the Miami Herald explain:
"Friday's shooting was related to a federal investigation by North Miami Beach and Aventura police, who are part of a joint task force into unemployment fraud. Police wouldn't go into detail about the investigation and refused to publicly release the contents of the search warrant or say what was found as a result of the search."
Unemployment fraud? They sent a SWAT team for unemployment fraud ? You don't have to be Al Sharpton to ask whether it's really necessary to send in the guys in the ninja suits for a paperwork crime. You don't have to be Louis Farrakhan to ask if the same level of force would have been brought to bear in a white neighborhood for the same offense.
Advertisement
Ask yourself where your sympathies would lie if it were the BATF breaking down the door of some gun collector with Badoo's clean criminal record. Remember the name Kenyon Ballew? He was universally regarded as a martyr to over-aggressive BATF tactics when he was shot in the head during a 1971 raid on his apartment that stemmed from someone seeing a dummy grenade on his shelf. Ballew tried to fend off what he thought were robbers with a blackpowder revolver and took a bullet to the skull that left him partially paralyzed.
I don't know all that much about Badoo. His mode of self-expression is not to my taste and I deplore his gun-handling antics. But if I'm going to get exercised when law enforcement uses heavy-handed tactics on people like me, I can't look away when they're used on the likes of Elton Badoo.
It's not a question of being anti-police. Law enforcement responds to cues from elected officials, judges, prosecutors and the public at large. If we tell them it's OK to break down someone's door for an administrative crime, we can't be surprised when it happens. We can't then be hypocrites and protest if it happens to people like us, but condone it for those who aren't.
No one wants cops to go back to the days when they were armed with a Smith Model 10 and a forceful tone. But we need to find some happy medium between that and a country where chicken inspectors have machine guns.
Still don't like hip-hop, though.
Previous Feds Consider Gun Show Spying The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) took the side of gun owners after it was uncovered that the Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) had recently considered spying on gun shows.
Get the
full story here .
Students Suspended for Photos with Airsoft Guns Two students at Bristol-Plymouth Regional Technical School in Taunton, Mass., were suspended for posing with airsoft guns in one of their own homes.
Read here for the full story.
Luxury Gun Clubs Becoming More Popular "Guntry clubs," or luxurious shooting facilities offering the same sort of amenities one would find at a golf course: comfy lounges, food and drink, pro shop, locker rooms, professional instruction, etc., are becoming much more popular. Is this good or bad for the shooting community?
Read here for more.
Young Girl Loses Control of an Uzi, Kills Firearms Instructor A Lake Havasu City, Ariz., firearms instructor was killed when a nine-year-old girl lost control of an Uzi submachine gun and a bullet hit him in the head. How young is too young when it comes to automatic firearms?
Read here for the full story of the incident.
Guns & Pot: An Uneasy Combo Is there any overlap between gun owners and those in favor of legalizing marijuana?
Check out the
full story here. New House Bill Targets SMG-Toting Bureaucrats Rep. Chris Stewart (R-Utah) has introduced the Regulatory Agency De-militarization (RAD) Act, a bill intended to force agencies not involved in law enforcement as that term is generally understood to disband their police forces. Do non-law enforcement agencies such as the USDA really need automatic firearms?
Read the
full story here. Only the Polarized Are Actually Polarized? Are politics too polarized, or is polarization what you get when people actually believe in something?
Read here for more.
Why You Can't Always Trust the Police A police scandal in the British city of Rotherham, where a gang abused more than 1,400 girls while authorities looked the other way, illustrates why you can't rely solely on the police for your protection.
Read here for the full story.
The Straight Dope on Kalashnikov Sanctions Kalashnikov Concern products have been banned from further importation into the U.S. as part of sanctions against Russia for its actions in Ukraine. What do the new sanctions mean for gun owners?
Read here for the full story.
Smart Guns: What the Antis Won't Admit A California gun store that had planned to offer pistols with so-called "smart gun" technology scrapped the idea after receiving backlash from gun owners.
Read the
full account here. Anti-Gun Initiative 594 Passes in Washington While the November 4 election was somewhat of a victory for gun owners with (mostly) pro-gun Republicans gaining seats in the Senate and the House, anti-gunners have scored a big win in Washington. What does this new initiative mean for gun owners in the Evergreen State?
Read here for the full story.
Open Carry Protests: Our Internal Dilemma Open Carry Texas (OCT), a group campaigning for gun rights in Texas, has stirred controversy among pro-gun groups such as the NRA and left the issue of open carrying of rifles up for debate. Where do we draw the line on what is reasonable in terms of achieving political goals?
Check out the
full story here. The Scourge of Toy Guns A New York professor says the cure for police shooting people with toy guns is to boycott toy guns. Is that the answer?
Read the story
here .
Wolverines? Michigan Nixes American Sniper The University of Michigan temporarily cancelled a scheduled viewing of the film
American Sniper following criticism from some of the school's Muslim students.
Get the
full story here .
Front-Yard Pistol Range: Bad Idea A Florida man built a gun range in his front yard with an impromptu dirt backstop, which would be fine if he lived in a rural area. That simply wasn't the case.
Read the
whole story here. Pot Clubs Fund San Francisco Gun Buyback In what was inevitably dubbed a "joint effort," San Francisco police conducted a gun buyback funded by local marijuana dispensaries.
Find out more here. Maryland Stockpiles Pistol Brass: To What End? For the past 15 years, every pistol sold in the state of Maryland has had to come with a fired case that is submitted to the state's registry of fired pistol brass for reference. Now the state is running out of warehouse space to store the cases.
Find out more here. Legislator Wants to Ban Silhouette Targets A Pennsylvania legislator wants to ban the use of silhouette targets on shooting ranges in the state.
Check out the
full story here .
Campus Concealed Carry: The Toga Party Fallacy The group Students for Concealed Carry is making increasingly stronger pushes to allow law-abiding citizens to carry concealed on college campuses. Unfortunately, some still hold the mistaken belief that all college students are wildly irresponsible.
Find out more here .
Feds Consider Gun Show Spying The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) took the side of gun owners after it was uncovered that the Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) had recently considered spying on gun shows.
Get the
full story here .
Students Suspended for Photos with Airsoft Guns Two students at Bristol-Plymouth Regional Technical School in Taunton, Mass., were suspended for posing with airsoft guns in one of their own homes.
Read here for the full story.
Luxury Gun Clubs Becoming More Popular "Guntry clubs," or luxurious shooting facilities offering the same sort of amenities one would find at a golf course: comfy lounges, food and drink, pro shop, locker rooms, professional instruction, etc., are becoming much more popular. Is this good or bad for the shooting community?
Read here for more.
Young Girl Loses Control of an Uzi, Kills Firearms Instructor A Lake Havasu City, Ariz., firearms instructor was killed when a nine-year-old girl lost control of an Uzi submachine gun and a bullet hit him in the head. How young is too young when it comes to automatic firearms?
Read here for the full story of the incident.
Guns & Pot: An Uneasy Combo Is there any overlap between gun owners and those in favor of legalizing marijuana?
Check out the
full story here. New House Bill Targets SMG-Toting Bureaucrats Rep. Chris Stewart (R-Utah) has introduced the Regulatory Agency De-militarization (RAD) Act, a bill intended to force agencies not involved in law enforcement as that term is generally understood to disband their police forces. Do non-law enforcement agencies such as the USDA really need automatic firearms?
Read the
full story here. Only the Polarized Are Actually Polarized? Are politics too polarized, or is polarization what you get when people actually believe in something?
Read here for more.
Why You Can't Always Trust the Police A police scandal in the British city of Rotherham, where a gang abused more than 1,400 girls while authorities looked the other way, illustrates why you can't rely solely on the police for your protection.
Read here for the full story.
The Straight Dope on Kalashnikov Sanctions Kalashnikov Concern products have been banned from further importation into the U.S. as part of sanctions against Russia for its actions in Ukraine. What do the new sanctions mean for gun owners?
Read here for the full story.
Smart Guns: What the Antis Won't Admit A California gun store that had planned to offer pistols with so-called "smart gun" technology scrapped the idea after receiving backlash from gun owners.
Read the
full account here. Anti-Gun Initiative 594 Passes in Washington While the November 4 election was somewhat of a victory for gun owners with (mostly) pro-gun Republicans gaining seats in the Senate and the House, anti-gunners have scored a big win in Washington. What does this new initiative mean for gun owners in the Evergreen State?
Read here for the full story.
Open Carry Protests: Our Internal Dilemma Open Carry Texas (OCT), a group campaigning for gun rights in Texas, has stirred controversy among pro-gun groups such as the NRA and left the issue of open carrying of rifles up for debate. Where do we draw the line on what is reasonable in terms of achieving political goals?
Check out the
full story here. The Scourge of Toy Guns A New York professor says the cure for police shooting people with toy guns is to boycott toy guns. Is that the answer?
Read the story
here .
Wolverines? Michigan Nixes American Sniper The University of Michigan temporarily cancelled a scheduled viewing of the film
American Sniper following criticism from some of the school's Muslim students.
Get the
full story here .
Front-Yard Pistol Range: Bad Idea A Florida man built a gun range in his front yard with an impromptu dirt backstop, which would be fine if he lived in a rural area. That simply wasn't the case.
Read the
whole story here. Pot Clubs Fund San Francisco Gun Buyback In what was inevitably dubbed a "joint effort," San Francisco police conducted a gun buyback funded by local marijuana dispensaries.
Find out more here. Maryland Stockpiles Pistol Brass: To What End? For the past 15 years, every pistol sold in the state of Maryland has had to come with a fired case that is submitted to the state's registry of fired pistol brass for reference. Now the state is running out of warehouse space to store the cases.
Find out more here. Legislator Wants to Ban Silhouette Targets A Pennsylvania legislator wants to ban the use of silhouette targets on shooting ranges in the state.
Check out the
full story here .
Campus Concealed Carry: The Toga Party Fallacy The group Students for Concealed Carry is making increasingly stronger pushes to allow law-abiding citizens to carry concealed on college campuses. Unfortunately, some still hold the mistaken belief that all college students are wildly irresponsible.
Find out more here .
Feds Consider Gun Show Spying The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) took the side of gun owners after it was uncovered that the Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) had recently considered spying on gun shows.
Get the
full story here .
Next Go to slide 1 Go to slide 2 Go to slide 3 Go to slide 4 Go to slide 5 Go to slide 6 Go to slide 7 Go to slide 8 Go to slide 9 Go to slide 10 Go to slide 11 Go to slide 12 Go to slide 13 Go to slide 14 Go to slide 15 Go to slide 16 Go to slide 17 Go to slide 18 Go to slide 19