My home state only gets in the New York Times when it does something stupid.
Missouri’s Republican-controlled Legislature voted Wednesday to override Gov. Jay Nixon’s veto and enact a wholesale retreat from gun safety in the state.
The law will let citizens carry concealed weapons in public without a state gun permit, criminal background check or firearms training. It strips local law enforcement of its current authority to deny firearms to those guilty of domestic violence and to other high-risk individuals. And it establishes a dangerous “stand your ground” standard that will allow gun owners to shoot and claim self-defense based on their own sense of feeling threatened. …
… Republican legislative leaders, who cut short debate on the override vote on the last day of the session, were ebullient in overriding a variety of the governor’s vetoes beyond the gun measure, including one that will force voters to show a government photo ID.
That’s right; they also overrode a veto of a voter ID law. That one is problematic, however —
Even though the veto was overridden, the bill won’t become law unless voters decide in November to amend the state’s constitution to allow a photo ID requirement. That’s because the Missouri Supreme Court deemed voter ID unconstitutional in 2006, ruling that the law amounted to a “heavy and substantial burden on Missourians’ free exercise of the right of suffrage.”
If voters reject the constitutional amendment this fall, voter ID remains unconstitutional and the enacting legislation voted on Wednesday is moot.
We’ll see. Anyway, regarding the “Shoot-Me State’s” new Derp Gun Law, most of it won’t go into effect until January 1. This gives residents with any sense more than three months to clear out.
The Guardian has a half hour documentary video up called Gun Nation, “A revealing and unsettling journey to the heart of America’s deadly love affair with the gun.” It’s a genteel British guy interviewing gun owners about why they insist on keeping guns. Several of them mention “freedom,” but these people are not free. Nobody that obsessed with the Awful Dangerous Things That Could Get Me is free.
Why has Missouri gone so crazy, Maha?
There’s a pretty strong correlation, I believe, between states that have seen substantial in-migration and states that have trended blue. Virginia and North Carolina are good examples. Conversely, states that don’t attract outsiders are redder than red. What’s the situation in Missouri in regards to migration? DO places like St. Louis and Kansas City have dynamic economies that are attracting folks from outside?
“DO places like St. Louis and Kansas City have dynamic economies that are attracting folks from outside?” I don’t know about Kansas City, but regarding St. Louis — not that I’ve noticed.
MO is, I suspect, one of the most racially segregated states in the Union. St. Louis still has mostly racially homogeneous neighborhoods, and the rural areas are white as the driven snow, so to speak. So there’s that.
“And it establishes a dangerous “stand your ground†standard that will allow gun owners to shoot and claim self-defense based on their own sense of feeling threatened.”
Clarification: It will allow white gun owners to shoot black folk and claim self-defense based on their own sense of feeling threatened. It might make it somewhat harder to prosecute whites shooting whites and blacks shooting blacks, but that is obviously not the intent of the law…
Wanna vote?
FUCK YOU!!!!
Wanna carry a (steel-penis) automatic weapon (dick-substitute) in pubi…
Public?
BE OUR GUEST!!!!
EVERYONE:
Sing along:
‘Be our guest!
Be our guest!!!
Shoot yourself or some other poor motherfucker,
In the fucking HEAD!
Be out guest!……………..”
The town nearby had its annual festival this weekend. The event was crawling with people wearing Trump/Pence T-shirts or carrying signs. The Libertarian Party and the Republican Party had booths, but the Democrats didn’t bother. Our county will go overwhelmingly for Trump. I would bet the party affiliation corresponds more closely to race in our county than it does in most areas. Wearing a HRC T-shirt would be the same as wearing a target on your back.
So far, I have only seen one open carry event, But, it seems reasonable to interpret the preoccupation and passion for SYG and open carry as more evidence of of a longing to return to the days when white privilege could be savored and flaunted. For an African American person, carrying a gun, even the most responsible, legal manner, is far more of a risk than a safeguard. For white guys? No problem. The whole thing smacks far too much of the “old South.”
States that have enacted SYG laws have seen a 7% to 9% rise in gun deaths, while the rates remained level for states that have not. If George Zimmerman had been African American and Trayvon Martin had been Caucasian things would have been a different story.
I was naive enough to think that the election of “Dubya” and its sequelae was a bad as it could get. But, lately the “this can’t be happening” moments seem to be adding up. If Trump gets elected that will be the granddaddy of them all, and he’ll get a healthy bump from the bombings in NJ/NY. Maybe things were uglier during the struggles of the civil rights era, but things haven’t stopped getting uglier yet.
Still “awaiting moderation?”
Wha’d I say or did? or din’t!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?
Groan. My wife’s brother who stands about 6’4″, weighs about 275; he’s a big boy.He recently bought a handgun and got his carry permit. The dude is afraid of his own shadow, which bothers me to no end. Last week, my wife and I headed down US 41, from Naples to Islamorada in the keys. I told my brother in law about our plans ,and he said he made that trip the previous week, but took his gun “just in case”. I don’t know what the problem would be. The alligators, bears, and panthers stick to the wilds. Any humans you come across are either kayakers, fishermen, or people in a hurry to get through the ‘Glades. The “bad Guys” are over on the Miami side on I-95, where the highway signs are full of bullet holes. There seems to be this rampant paranoia that I don’t understand.
Another state on my DO NOT VISIT list!
2/3 of all gun deaths are suicides. So gun culture is deplorable, but it’s even more pitiable.
I just finished watching the “Gun Nation ” clip. Very disturbing on so many levels. I know several people who are “arming up”, worried about the results of the Presidential election. The level of paranoia is absurd. Worried that your babies are going to contract leprosy from Armadillos. Lawd a Mercy.
Erinyes – It does seem ironic that so often the open carry enthusiasts are physically imposing, but fearful. Maybe it’s retrieval bias on my part, or maybe they are just drama queens who are so eager to step into the role of warrior/knight that they are desperate to get everyone else playing along.
A single add for Trump keeps popping up on youtube. I’m sure you’ve all seen it. “Trump’s America” is safe, strong and secure. It brings back the early days of my childhood when I was still afraid of the dark . But, there seems to be a lot of hideous things bubbling up from the infernal regions, if only to remind us that that sort of hateful ugliness never goes away.
Maybe I can cheer things up with a little banality. I was thinking about the concept of the CEO president, the tough taskmaster who delegates authority and gets the job done. I’ll go Godwin by recalling a BBC doc that I saw about Hitler. Evidently, he wasn’t a policy wonk, but, he had visions of making Germany great again. So he employed a management style that “empowered” his ministers and gave them goals. (That sounds familiar doesn’t it?) The problem is that that sort of management style naturally leads to corruption and an “end justifies the means” mindset. The most ruthless and despotic rise to the top, because they get results at any cost along with the most adept cheaters. If Trump is elected, I think that it what will sink us, along with the theocrats wanting to lead us off into the “shining city on a hill.”
Trump will try to make it greater until he gets distracted or bored. See what happens if he gets in and has to deal with a hostile congress.
If you want to see a documentary that scares you, watch the History Channel’s Caligula: 1400 Days Of Terror. He was a narcissist. He used his wealth to erect monuments to himself. He demeaned, humiliated and punished anyone who criticized him personally or politically. He approved of torture. Trump or Caligula? Hard to tell.
E.A. — I was freaked out enough by John Hurt’s portrayal of Caligula in I, Claudius.
Caligula had the best words also. Seems history does repeat itself, huh?