Frank Antenori (Tucson), Frank Bruni (NY Times) and Lori Klein

by David Safier

Frank Antenori loves him some gun-toting Lori Klein who is soon, I imagine, to become an NRA icon. Antenori couldn't stand to let her have her gun moment alone. He had to bask in a bit of reflected glory.

“Not to drag in a Lori Klein analogy," [Antenori is quoted as saying in the Yellow sheet, referring to his dislike of IRC Chair Colleen Mathis], "but the gun is loaded and it’s just figuring out what target to point it at and when to pull the trigger.”

It's too bad Frank Bruni, columnist for the NY Times, didn't know about Antenori's statement. If he did, he most likely would have included it in his column about Klein which is online and will be in the Sunday Review. After he goes over Republic reporter Richard Ruelas' version of the incident where he found a red laser dot from her gun on his chest, followed by Klein's unlikely excuse that Ruelas walked into the way of the gun when she was pointing it at the wall, Bruni writes,

No matter. Anyone who focuses on where she was or wasn’t aiming can’t see the desert for the cactuses. And that desert spreads beyond Arizona, which may be extreme but is nonetheless illustrative. Massacre after massacre hasn’t changed this nation’s mind-boggling blitheness about guns.

Arizona is definitely on the national map these days. I guess we should be proud. Right?

KLEIN EXCUSE NOTE: I've been thinking about this. Let's say, for the sake of argument, Klein pointed her gun at the wall and Ruelas plopped down on the couch and ended up with the gun pointed at his chest. If Klein had any gun sense and understood you never, under any circumstances, point a gun at someone (unless, of course, you're planning to shoot), she would have quickly turned the gun away from him. He wouldn't have had time to look down and see the dot on his chest. But apparently, she held it there. Even if we accept her unlikely scenario, she showed she lacks the training and common sense any responsible gun owner should have.