ah, how cute. Political organizations are making hay with the pop tart gun kid now

Well, this is depressing.

At a fundraiser for Anne Arundel County Republicans, House Minority Leader Nicholaus R. Kipke presented Josh Welch with the membership, which cost $550, during a tongue-in-cheek presentation that involved a Pop-Tart fashioned into pistol and gun safety tips.
Josh’s March 1 suspension from Park Elementary School for chewing a pastry into the shape of a firearm captured national attention over how seriously students should be punished for such threats.
Josh, who was 7 at time he was suspended for two days, gave the NRA certificate to his parents at the Glen Burnie event and returned to playing games on a cellphone.

Hope it’s not a violent video game, or what the NRA head headed to in explaining Sandy Hook.

“Everyone keeps asking me why I did it,” Josh said. “I don’t know why I did it. … I wish people would stop asking me about it. It’ll probably go on for 45 years or something.”
Josh said he didn’t know what the NRA was or what it meant to have a membership, but chimed in when his parents were asked whether anyone else in his family belonged to the NRA.
“Nope, only me,” he said.

Wait.  Why’d they bring the kid up there then?

Josh also received an autographed photo of himself with David Keene, the immediate past president of the NRA and the keynote speaker at the fundraiser.

‘Cause what eight year old wouldn’t want an autographed photo of himself with David Keene?  Must be the thrill of a lifetime.  Wait.  There’s more!

Anne Arundel County Councilman Jamie Benoit announced he will fund another membership for Welch: the American Civil Liberties Union. Benoit says he wants the boy to have a chance at another point of view.

In theory, there isn’t any conflict between the NRA and the ACLU, though in practice it divides along partisan lines — largely.  And to Jamie Benoit’s credit, his part in the political football with the kid was only in response to the state Republican Party and NRA’s grandstanding here, and further — it’s a cause that better fits the ACLU than the NRA.  (The NRA supporters in the comments section gives it their best shot, though… I do like this comment, in response to one of them:

Can you possibly say “left wing” any more? You must be real fun at parties….

Waiting for PETA to drop the kid a lifetime membership.  (It was a pop tart; he wasn’t eating meat.)  Maybe we get the Syrian Electronic Army while we’re at it.   Who else?  I don’t know…

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