Guns for Thee But Not For Me

It appears that Mark Kelly, wife of ex-Congresswoman Gabby Giffords, victim of the mass shooting in Arizona, and vociferous gun rights opponent, was caught attempting to buy an assault scary black rifle:

Kelly reportedly bought the AR-15 and a 1911-style semi-automatic pistol at a gun store in Tucson, Arizona. Breitbart News received a tip on this when Neil McCabe, editor of Guns & Patriots newsletter, contacted us on March 7 and said:

Mark E. Kelly, made purchases which included an AR-15--sometimes described as an "assault rifle"--at 3:30 pm on the afternoon of March 5 at Diamondback Police Supply, 170 S. Kolb Street, Tucson, AZ.

According to McCabe, witnesses to the purchases claimed Kelly purchased "high capacity" magazines as well.

So far, so good.  Buying the AR-15 is completely legal, and given the Gifford-Kelly experiences, self defense is a perfectly legitimate reason to want to have an AR-15 on hand.  It does reek of hypocrisy, however, to try to get one for one's self while attempting to deny them to the rest of us.  Unless of course, they really believe that as an ex-Senator and ex-astronaut, they believe they deserve rights privileges denied to the rest of it.

However, once it came to light, Kelly backpedaled and claimed it was all about making the point that assault scary black guns were widely available and easy to get:

Suddenly, Kelly announced on his Facebook page that he was not going to keep the AR-15, which he has yet to pick up from the store.

Days after making the purchases, Kelly wrote on Facebook:

I just had a background check a few days ago when I went to my local gun store to buy a .45. As I was leaving, I noticed a used AR-15. Bought that too. Even to buy an assault weapon, the background check only takes a matter of minutes. I don't have possession of it yet but I'll be turning it over to the Tucson PD when I do.

Should it take longer for an officer in the United States Armed forces to obtain a commonly owned rifle rarely used in crimes?  Of course, there is the matter of the brain damaged individual living in the same residence with him.  Perhaps she cannot be trusted with such powerful weapons.

And is it good practice to give weapons to the Police Department?  Police departments around the country have misused assault scary black weapons around the country with no-knock SWAT raids.

Kelly has not commented on whether he will also return the .45 caliber semi-automatic pistol he purchased.