XPost: rec.scouting.usa, sac.politics, alt.rush-limbaugh   
   XPost: talk.politics.guns   
   From: trumpmeister@latimes.com   
      
   His left-wing mommy put him up to this shit and he paid the   
   price.  When he grows up, he will learn the truth and piss on   
   her grave.   
      
   When Ames Mayfield’s Cub Scout den met with a Colorado state   
   senator last week, the 11-year-old came prepared with a long   
   list of typed-up questions. He excitedly raised his hand to ask   
   his first one.   
      
   Ames pressed the Republican state senator, Vicki Marble, on an   
   issue he knew was important to her: gun legislation. The Cub   
   Scout in Broomfield, about 20 miles north of Denver, asked her a   
   slew of questions about previous bills she had sponsored in   
   support of the right to bear arms, and he wasn’t shy about   
   inserting his opinion.   
      
   “I was shocked that you co-sponsored a bill to allow domestic   
   violence offenders to continue to own a gun,” Ames said,   
   according to a video posted to YouTube by his mother. “Why on   
   earth would you want someone who beats their wife to have access   
   to a gun?”   
      
   After Ames’s questions went on for more than two minutes, a   
   leader in his group cut him off to allow the state senator to   
   answer.   
      
   Both the senator and the leader commended him for his “thorough”   
   list of questions.   
      
   But after the meeting, the leader of Ames’s Cub Scout pack,   
   which oversees various dens, requested a meeting with his   
   mother. The leader told Ames’s mother, Lori Mayfield, that her   
   son was kicked out of his Cub Scout den, the mother said in an   
   email to The Washington Post.   
      
   The son’s den leader was apparently upset over Ames’s questions,   
   particularly the one on gun control, Mayfield said. The mother   
   was told her son’s question was disrespectful and too political.   
      
   “I had to go home and tell my son he was kicked out,” Mayfield   
   said. “My son was heartbroken because he really liked this den   
   leader and couldn’t understand why his question was   
   inappropriate.”   
      
   Ames was less than four months away from transitioning from the   
   Cub Scouts to the Boy Scouts, his mother said.   
      
   The Scouts did not explicitly say he was kicked out of the den.   
   In a statement to The Post and local media outlets the Denver   
   Area Council of the Boy Scouts said only that he remains a   
   member of the larger pack,  and that the organization is working   
   with the family to offer him options that will “allow him to   
   continue his Scouting experience in a way that fits his and his   
   family’s needs.”   
      
   The Boy Scouts and the Denver Area Council are “committed to   
   working with families interested in Scouting to find local units   
   that are the best fit for their children,” the statement read.   
      
   But local news reports of Ames’s apparent removal from his den   
   drew anger across social media, with many arguing that Ames was   
   punished for asking tough questions of a state lawmaker. After   
   all, the den had specifically assigned the scouts to prepare   
   questions for the senator.   
      
   Ames’s story drew the attention of gun control advocate and   
   former Democratic Rep. Gabrielle Giffords of Arizona, who was   
   shot in the head by an assailant in 2011, suffering a severe   
   brain injury.   
      
   “This is exactly the kind of courage we need in Congress,”   
   Giffords tweeted Thursday. “Ames, call me in 14 years. I’ll   
   campaign for you.”   
      
   Giffords’s husband, astronaut Mark Kelly, called Ames and his   
   mother Thursday night to talk about what happened, according to   
   Fox 31.   
      
   In a statement to the Denver Post, Marble said that decisions   
   about “who is in or out of a den are internal organizational   
   matters that I won’t second guess.”   
      
   “I don’t blame the boy for asking the questions, since I believe   
   there was an element of manipulation involved, and it wasn’t   
   much different from the questions I normally field in other   
   meetings,” Marble told the Denver Post. “The invitation to meet   
   with the Scouts was never intended to cause friction and   
   controversy.”   
      
   The focus of the Cub Scouts’ assignment, Mayfield said, was to   
   meet with a government leader and discuss an important issue   
   facing the community. Cub Scouts were instructed to decide on   
   one or two questions, and to be prepared to ask the official   
   about an issue in the local news.   
      
   Ames researched the senator before the meeting and decided he   
   would focus his questions on gun control, his mother said. After   
   all, the majority of the videos on Marble’s site deal with gun   
   rights legislation.   
      
   “Given that the Las Vegas shooting happened, I felt that it   
   should be a reasonable thing to ask,” Ames told a Denver Fox   
   affiliate. “I don’t feel like I did anything wrong.”   
      
   His mother went along to the meeting and filmed it, because   
   “it’s not every day you get to meet with a senator,” Mayfield   
   told The Post.   
      
   Other Scouts asked the state senator about her views on   
   President Trump’s proposed border wall and fossil fuel   
   dependence. One Cub Scout wanted to know “why people voted for   
   Obama just because we’ve never had a president with the skin   
   tone of a black person.” Marble responded that she doesn’t know   
   either, and she wondered about that question herself.   
      
   Ames also asked Marble about controversial comments she made at   
   a 2013 legislative hearing regarding mortality rates among black   
   people.   
      
   According to the Denver Post, in 2013 Marble said: “When you   
   look at life expectancy, there are problems in the black race.   
   Sickle-cell anemia is something that comes up. Diabetes is   
   something that’s prevalent in the genetic makeup, and you just   
   can’t help it.”   
      
   “Although I’ve got to say,” she added at the time. “I’ve never   
   had better barbecue and better chicken and ate better in my life   
   than when you go down South and you, I mean, I love it.   
   Everybody loves it.”   
      
   Marble responded calmly to Ames’s questions by saying the   
   controversial statements were “made up by the media.”   
      
   “We have multicultural foods within the United States and we are   
   very blessed to have it,” she said. “And we all love it and we   
   all eat it. And we just better figure out our genetics and if   
   they aren’t eating properly find out how to do better.”   
      
   After Mayfield posted the videos on YouTube, the website   
   Colorado Pols published a story about the senator’s exchange   
   with the Cub Scouts. It was after this article published that   
   Ames’s pack leader requested a meeting with his mother.   
      
   Mayfield said she was told by the pack leader that Ames should   
   not have brought up the topic of gun control, although Mayfield   
   asserts the Scouts weren’t given any parameters before the   
   meeting. The pack leader, she said, told her words Ames used   
   were disrespectful, such as “why on earth,” the mention of   
   “Republicans” and the phrase, “if you truly represent your   
   constituents.”   
      
   “I completely disagree and felt my son followed the directions   
   of the assignment and asked hard-hitting, but certainly not   
   disrespectful, questions,” Mayfield said. She argued that other   
   students’ questions were just as political.   
      
   Ames “has taken great interest in politics,” his mother said.   
   The fifth grader was so troubled by recent events that he ran   
      
   [continued in next message]   
      
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