The More things Change, The More They Stay the Same
February 16, 2016 11:25 AM   Subscribe

Ramon Casiano is a name you won't likely recognize. At a show this weekend, the Drive-by Truckers debuted a song called, Ramon Casiano, which you can listen to here. (it's track 18. I couldn't find a way to link directly to it. It tells the largely forgotten story of Ramon's murder in Texas in 1931 by Harlon B. Carter, who went on to become head of the NRA, and is largely responsible for changing the organization from one that promoted hunting and sportsmanship to one that focuses on combating anything that smacks of "gun control."
posted by dortmunder (14 comments total) 17 users marked this as a favorite
 
At the Thursday show they debuted another song, What It Means, also about gun violence. Patterson intro'd the song with a story about a black man who lived across the street from them in Athens back in the late '90s early '00s who was gunned down by police. That experience and recent police shootings are the song's inspiration.

It's listed as track 15 from the February 12 show. (Ramon Casiano was the opening song from that show, btw.) Some googling brings up a page with a different performance of What It Means.

I'm guessing (hoping) both songs will be on a forthcoming album. Great stuff.
posted by cyclopticgaze at 12:55 PM on February 16, 2016


LEADER OF RIFLE GROUP AFFIRMS THAT HE SHOT BOT TO DEATH IN 1931

Anyone know where you can submit OCR corrections for the NY Times archive?
posted by zamboni at 1:11 PM on February 16, 2016 [2 favorites]


Further convincing me that the organization is actually the National Murder Association.
posted by Joey Michaels at 1:27 PM on February 16, 2016 [3 favorites]


At a certain point, I think we have to stop looking at people's activities from 80 years ago as somehow saying something about their organizations. Margaret Sanger was a racist, that doesn't mean Planned Parenthood shouldn't be supported. Same with the NRA.
posted by corb at 1:29 PM on February 16, 2016 [4 favorites]


Corb: If PP supported Eugenics, it certainly would be fair game to talk about Sanger's racism.
posted by el io at 1:36 PM on February 16, 2016 [8 favorites]


That being said, Scientology really twisted the phrase Fair Game into an ugly meaning, so much so that I might be well advised to avoid using that phrase in the future.
posted by el io at 1:38 PM on February 16, 2016


For those of us who have long wondered why the NRA went from a hunting and safety organization into the leading force of Constitutional absolutism and politician-buying in modern America, the fact that it's largely due to a known murderer is at least somewhat illuminating.
posted by Etrigan at 1:39 PM on February 16, 2016 [15 favorites]




At the Thursday show they debuted another song, What It Means

They played that one all three nights, and if I had it to do over again, I would have mentioned it in the FPP.
posted by dortmunder at 1:57 PM on February 16, 2016


Absolutely relevant when said murderer went on to change the scope of the organization away from hunting towards gun rights at any cost (you know, with the cost being more dead kids).
posted by Ruki at 2:54 PM on February 16, 2016 [3 favorites]


corb: “Margaret Sanger was a racist, that doesn't mean Planned Parenthood shouldn't be supported. Same with the NRA.”

Probably should be noted that Margaret Sanger was emphatically not a racist, and if you've been told she was, you've been lied to. She was rather classist, but that's another thing entirely.
posted by koeselitz at 3:07 PM on February 16, 2016 [13 favorites]


This bit of history about the man who "made the NRA what it is today" is not surprising or ironic in any way. Just a little bit of the background of what made the U.S.ofA. what it is today.

I've said it before here (and don't care what kind of 'permanent record' it leaves), but I do support The Right to Bear Arms Commit Murder and while guns are pretty crappy as "Defensive Weapons" (THAT's an oxymoron), they are pretty much the best as Offensive Weapons. And if I should ever feel the need to premeditatedly murder somebody (which I never have come close to, so far), I will go to whatever trouble required to acquire and familiarize myself with a big-ass gun.
posted by oneswellfoop at 3:17 PM on February 16, 2016


That will not Wendell.
posted by octobersurprise at 4:13 PM on February 16, 2016


The society I want to live in sees "pro gun" as admiring Chris Evans' physique, and no one looks askance at the members of Notoriously Ripped Arms. Sadly, I live in the grimdark timeline.
posted by maxwelton at 6:38 PM on February 16, 2016 [3 favorites]


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