Gunny Marilyn

Musgrave Watch links to the New York Times's smackdown on Marilyn Musgrave:

The rate of firearm death for children 14 years and under is almost 12 times higher in this country than in 25 other industrialized nations combined, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Yet there was the law-and-order majority caving in to the gun lobby.

Representative Marilyn Musgrave, the Colorado Republican who dared to put this proposal on the floor, offered a shabby logic: Locks on weapons don't stop the slaying and maiming of children, they only make "personal protection more costly."

She drew 42 Democrats to join 188 Republicans in the majority with an argument that summoned an old skit about a sleazy toy dealer peddling lethal toys to children.

Here's another editorial smackdown:

The competition is stiff, but Rep. Marilyn Musgrave may have earned the dubious distinction of introducing the most inane measure on Capitol Hill this year -- and offering up the most inane rationale for it.

Ouch.

According to Musgrave, the trigger law is "burdensome" and drives up the cost of guns. "Lawn mowers can be dangerous," she argued -- out loud -- on the House floor. "Should we mandate that all lawn mowers be sold with a blade lock?"

Shamefully, the majority of her colleagues found her silly argument -- bolstered, as always, by fond memories of campaign donations from the gun industry -- persuasive.

So proud.