This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2013, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.
Val Lambson is attending a conference, so this week Bagley will be doing Behind the Lines solo:
I really can't take credit for this cartoon. No, the real authors are the Utahns who swagger around in public with AR-15 semiautomatic rifles strapped to their backs. Lke Joseph Kelley at the Midvale J.C Penney, who was there to protect shoppers from "criminals, cartels, drug lords" and other "evil men."
And the Cedar City employer, Terry Lee, who is angry at something he calls "Obongocare" because he's convinced it will have a negative impact on his business. He fired two of his staff because he suspects they may be Obama supporters. Given all the information he divulged to The Tribune, however, it's tough to make the case Obamacare would affect his bottom line at all.
And George Burnett, who charges liberals extra at his "I Love Drilling" smoothie shop in Vernal. He is somehow making the point that Social Security is a Democratic program.
And the Utah Sheriff's Association, which promises to save us from Obama's plan to grab people's guns, even though it admits there is no such plan.
And to Representative Brian Greene, who, if there was any doubt that Utahns are taking this whole Dixie thing way too seriously, is showing his solid support for the Old South by resurrecting "nullification": the pre-Civil War legal theory that state law trumps federal. The state's own legal counsel has advised Greene that his proposed legislation, granting Utah Sheriffs the power to arrest Federal officials, is clearly unconstitutional and would waste millions in the courts. Greene is undeterred.
But I want to especially thank Clark Aposhian, chairman of the Utah Shooting Sports Council, who at a Gun Appreciation Day rally in from of the state capitol, made clear he has a final solution for me and my ilk.
"If I could tell one thing to these bedwetting, hand-wringing liberals out there, it's that Thomas Jefferson anticipated you and called you a tyrant," Aposhian said. "And there's already a method of taking care of it, if not by the First Amendment, then by the Second."
I'm having trouble imagining Aposhian or his guns are really at risk from limp-wristed despots, but it sounds like he's ready to shoot fellow Americans over it. All in the name of Liberty. And Freedom.
Maybe I should get a gun.