During a recent city council meeting in Poughkeepsie, N.Y., Democratic councilman Joe Rich appeared to lose his cool with residents who opposed restrictive gun legislation, telling them to “shut up” and stay out of his city.
Representatives for the Shooters Committee on Political Education (SCOPE) gave a presentation to the council on the negative impacts of an ordinance requiring mandatory storage of firearms.
After defending the ordinance on the grounds that someone might break into your house and use your own gun against you it isn’t locked safely away — a mind-numbing defense of the concept of mandatory firearm storage —Rich accused the group of not wanting gun laws to work because they would cause Second Amendment supporters “a lot of trouble.”
He accused those in the audience of not even being from the city and not “loving” Poughkeepsie.
One person at the meeting spoke up and said there are certainly people at the meeting from the Seconnd Ward that Rich represents, including himself.
That’s when Rich snapped:
Quiet! You’re not recognized! Shut up! You’re not recognized…, I’m tired of having people from the audience interrupt me! I’ve listened to all you people from 5 p.m.! Shut up!
He told the pro-gun group to “leave us alone.”
What caused the furor, according to Rich?
“I didn’t mean to lose my temper,” he told the Poughkeepsie Journal. “But felt it was abusive for them to come there in large numbers, wearing their shirts [advocating Second Amendment rights].”
So, a large number of shirts with a message he finds disquieting is enough to cause Rich to go ballistic? Whatever happened to the right to dissent and debate in a free and open society?
At one point, someone in the crowd yells out “Oh my God, the man needs help!”
Watch the fiery exchange below:
https://youtu.be/-XF8tmCXWWg
Cross-posted at the Mental Recession
