Lawmaker trains kids to use AR-15s as 'weapons for Christ'

To maintain the privacy of a child, I have blurred the face
 in this photo of one of Todd Courser's sons, though the
newly elected representative posted it on both of his Facebook pages.

State Rep.-elect Todd Courser has already revealed himself as a right-wing tea party zealot, a homophobe and a bit of an extremist fundamentalist Christian, but now he has made it clear that he views himself as a survivalist, someone who would have gladly fought in that great American battle at Ruby Ridge.
As first reported by Eclectablog, Courser has posted (on both of his Facebook pages) photos of his kids holding AR-15 assault-style weapons along with a message that said he was training his boys how to fire "modern muskets."

"Funny thing is the gun is just one vital tool to train up my four children as the weapons for liberty that will impact the future both for freedom, but also for Christ," the Lapeer Republican, elected in November, wrote on Facebook. "... Trained children equipped in every aspect of the cause of freedom are the bulwark against tyranny."

Courser, who has unsuccessfully run for office several times before finally winning election in the fall, apparently wants to be a part of government solely for the reason of imploding it.

When he takes office in January, it will be interesting to see how this militia member-wannabe will be greeted in the House after espousing his paranoid survivalist point of view. Last month, Courser wrote that he will be fighting the good fight against evil within the liberal wing of the Republican Party on a "spiritual battlefield."

Here's a portion of Eclectablog's excellent reports:

"For an incoming state legislator to talk about semi-automatic AR-15 rifles as 'modern muskets' and 'weapons for liberty' is frightening. 'Training up' children to use these weapons as a 'bulwark against tyranny' suggests that Courser is advocating a violent overthrow of the very government he is now a crucial part of.

"If you follow Courser’s Facebook diatribes about our government, it’s clear that his threshold for 'tyranny' is very low and he has a long history of describing things such as the Affordable Care Act and expanding the Elliott-Larsen Civil Rights Act as 'liberty-killing' things that strip us of our freedoms. When describing the training he is receiving as an incoming legislator, he wrote, 'I have to tell you it has all made me think about children who are subjected to radical leftist ideology and have not even the slightest notion of how they are being shaped against liberty and freedom and away from God.' Yet, Courser himself appears to be espousing the radical view that our children need to be trained with military-style weaponry so that they can use them against our own government.

"It’s one thing to petition your government to lower taxes or to pursue any of the other items on the tea party agenda. That’s democracy and it’s precious. It’s entirely another thing, however, to be advocating for the use of violence against our government to achieve your goals. When Courser talks about training up his four children to use guns 'as the weapons for liberty that will impact the future both for freedom, but also for Christ,' he has crossed a line."

The AR-15, modeled after U.S. military weapons, is the same type of menacing semi-automatic rifle used by Adam Lanza in Newtown and by other recent mass-killers.

When trying to absorb Courser's twisted/romantic version of reality, it's also important to point out that the Colonialists likely would have found an AR-15 an absolutely terrifying weapon. While this rifle can fire 30 rounds in quick succession, it's my understanding that the muskets used by our Forefathers (one shot at a time) were nearly useless beyond 100 yards and, unlike the AR-15, the ammo could not tear through a human body at nearly any distance.