Read this: Blues Traveler singer John Popper's 22-tweet screed on gun rights, abortion, spelling
Back in 2007, human harmonica display and Blues Traveler frontman John Popper was pinched for doing 111 miles per hour on a Washington state road. When cops searched his car, they found weed, a taser, a switchblade, night vision goggles, a public address system, siren, and a veritable arsenal of firearms, including four rifles and nine handguns. Popper told police that “in the event of a natural disaster,” “he didn’t want to be left behind.”
Fast-forward six years and, apparently, the “Run Around” and “Hook” singer is still a bit of a gun nut. After The Cleveland Plain Dealer noted that Popper was scheduled to speak on gun rights at Washington’s National Press Club, he sent the paper 22—22!—tweets clarifying his desire to preserve the second amendment. Though his arguments are a little iffy—for instance, he insists that an armed public somehow limited what the KKK did in the old South—they’re an interesting read all the same. A full transcript of the tweets is pasted below. As a bonus, readers get to find out his views on “fetis” [sic] rights and abortion, because who wouldn’t want to know what John Popper thinks about that?
Plain Dealer: Blues Traveler's John Popper, born in Cleveland, is a gun rights activist. He'll discuss those rights at Nat. Press Club in DC next week.
Blues Traveler (Popper, writing on his band's Twitter account): @SteveKoff I'd love to…no one makes the argument of how having an equivelent par of armaments w/the corrupt southern sherriff in the old-
-south kept blacks,jews&catholics from being exterminated at a time when most local law enforcement was infact affiliated w/the-
-KKK…check the data…in the 20's the clan was 4 million strong & clearly the force behind local government at the time… But if-
-one went into someone's back yard to burn a cross let's say, there was a likely hood that one would get one's ass shot off…&-
-the mere likelyhood was standing up to a governmental tyranny…not england…no need for tanks…just equivilently as armed as-
a corrupt local sherrif's drunken hooded brother…& no one ever mentions that need…just like the need for a woman to decide-
-if her fetis lives or dies. I personally believe as in nature that the mother gets to cook&eat her baby untill it can physicaly-
-escape from her…but good luck making that into a lobby.. 😉
It's about the individual having the right to make hard decisions-
-&in this sense,I connect the two issues..individual liberty & responsibility…Backround checks? Sure! Limits on magizines? Never!-
-Why would I want to create a prohibition where only the felonious are better equipped? Guns will always be with us&the answer-
-to the question of "how many rounds should a gun have?" Has always been"as many as it can!"
Since the damn things were invented-
-& that is human nature…I didn't make that up.. 😉 I do recognize people's right to be free from fear which is why we need to-
-endlessly discuss & debate & disagree & compromise & form ideas over liberty v. Saftey… I err on liberty's side..always have. But I-
-know we need each other,&I wish our representatives on BOTH sides weren't so polarized on this issue. I'm spouting off so long-
-on this bc I'll be driving in a van from Rochester NY the day before & may not make the press club as previously arranged…So
-wanted to thumbnail my views… And I fully see the 2nd as an individual right…remember the clan & the black panthers were-
-"well regulated militias"…& I am a very suspicious joiner…be it church or a political party. I'm willing to believe in U if-
-U're willing to do the same for me & that is the society I believe in… 😉 Yes I'm pro choice, pro pot, pro gay marriage & ANTI cap-
-gains tax…now what line do I stand in?… 😉 I really want to do the pressclub, but it's doubtfull…:(
& I'll really try to get there… 😉