The Republican Party took another step toward chipping away at our freedoms by passing the Concealed Carry Reciprocity Act this week. This bill would strip state and local governments of the power to enforce their own firearm laws. Instead, if this thing becomes law any right-wing yahoo from Alabama will be able to stroll around Manhattan with a concealed firearm. Which, I assure you, is something the large majority of New Yorkers do not want.
States rights? What a joke. “States rights” arguments only apply to laws and policies right wingers don’t like, such as desegregation. They like laws that impose their twisted values on blue states just fine.
We’re not just talking about New York, of course. The Los Angeles Times:
Under the proposed reciprocity law, anyone with a valid permit from another state would be able to carry a concealed firearm in California, even if they do not meet California’s more stringent standards. This is a highly objectionable infringement on the responsibilities of state and local law enforcement to maintain public safety, and is clearly aimed at undermining gun control efforts nationally. What’s more, it will put guns into the hands of more people who shouldn’t have them.
Right-wing myth to the contrary, there is a strong correlation between higher gun violence and loose gun control laws.
The rates of gun violence in the 10 states with the weakest gun laws are more than three times higher than those in the 10 states with the strongest gun laws. That’s one of the major findings of a new report from the Center for American Progress (CAP) that analyzes 10 indicators of firearm violence—including suicide, murder, fatal gun accidents, and mass shootings—in all 50 states and finds a “strong†correlation between gun violence and weak gun laws.
On Wednesday, the House of Representatives passed a bill that would make it impossible for states to do anything about people who carry in guns from other states.
We have seen this idea, known as “concealed carry reciprocity,†before. It basically says gun owners only have to follow the laws of the state they hail from. Some states will give a permit to carry a concealed weapon to an 18-year-old. Some don’t care about a record of stalking. Some don’t have any rules at all — you’re O.K. to pack a pistol if you can breathe.
“The Republicans yell states’ rights all the time, but they’re hypocrites,†said Representative Jerrold Nadler of New York. He claimed, in a phone interview, that the last time Congress passed a bill to impose the laws of one state on a different state “it was the Fugitive Slave Act.†We can look forward to more of this discussion since Nadler is now the top Democrat on the House Judiciary Committee. It used to be John Conyers, but then there was that sexual harassment matter.
Jerrold Nadler is a good guy, and I only wish he were chair of the House Judiciary Committee. Maybe some day.
Gun nuttery takes away our freedom. Gun nuttery puts us all at the mercy of hotheads with more testosterone than sense. A guy waving a gun can disrupt your children’s play in a public park, and there’s nothing you can do about it but go home, because his right to wave a gun around overrides yours. Strangers can walk through residential neighborhoods, or near schools, or anywhere else, carrying guns, and nothing can be done until they start killing people.
And if you don’t like it, expect your public demonstration to be menaced by goons with guns. Speak at your own risk.
This is clearly unenforceable. It is not unusual for states to add additional requirements to federal laws; a “states rights” thing.
I got so disgusted that I put up a sign listing "We believe" and some things like Black Lives Matter, Science is Real, Climate Change is Real, etc. in the front yard out near the road. I have been a little surprised not to find it shot up, stolen or crushed. I do think carrying a gun will make some more likely to decide that they can do such things around the nation.
Tge right to peaceable assembly is subservient to the right of a nut waving a weapon around, I guess.
"Speak at your own risk."
THAT'S the whole point!
Having a gun on your person means that you don't have to listen to anyone, or take any shit. Just flash your gun, they quickly shut-up, and YOU WIN!
And in non-Red(neck) States, you don't have to worry about the other person having a gun and talking back, because chances are, the vast majority of people in that BLue Staate not only don't carry a gun, but don't even have one at home.
Conservatism is a cancer that is killing our country.
And with tRUMP, it's killing us faster. He's a malignant malinoma, spreading his cancerous, bigoted, hate-and-fear-filled views all around the country.
And the Republicans in Congress are acting like an accelerant, helping to quicken the spreading of cancerous conservatism all around the country. They have been slowly trying to kill representative democracy for decades, and now, tRUMP has shown them that with him, they can kill it faster.
In reality, tRUMP is just the now visible tumor of a long-growing cancer.
Can they get 8 dems in the senate to go along?
Mahchin? Anybody else?
It doesn't smell like it's constitutional. The USA isn't taking NRA money or afraid of the gun crowd. I think it would go down in flames. But the House isn't even pretending to represent anyone except the most extreme factions. I suppose the first worry is the primary – don't let anyone run from a further right position than you.
OT, The Burger King.
So count on right wingers to say this is a "full faith and credit" thing, and since they had to recognize same sex marriages then liberals have to recognize a man's relationship with his gun.
The crazy conservative right wing nutjobs' only goal in life is to shove their point of view down the throats of those of us who don't think like them. Not much of an American value.
I'm tired of hand wringing about every crazy thing, and this is crazy, the right does. When we LET THEM DO IT WITH LITTLE OR NO CONSEQUENCE. Where is the outrage and equivalent push back on this from the opposition?
If we don't start educating others on the importance of voting and getting to the damned polls, we can expect more of this.
It makes no sense that in the so-called world's greatest democracy, at any given point, almost half of its eligible voters don't bother to vote.
We need to approach this issue with the breadth and depth on the order of the Marshall Plan. I remember back in the 60s, our national highways were littered with trash. A national effort was started and that changed; it is no longer acceptable to throw trash out the window.
Tom Steyer spending millions of his own money on impeachment is laudable, but its not going to happen unless we get these republicans out. It would be great to spend that level of resources in figuring out how we can get people to understand that, as bad as it is today, we can change this, if we just come out and vote.
There's one guy who owns the gun companies. The right wingers believe in nothing but service to oligarchy.their rhetoric is meaningless hypocritical drivel. They pull a constant game, they have hijacked language to enforce their situational hypocrisy. They believe in nothing.
There's one guy who owns the gun companies. The right wingers believe in nothing but service to oligarchy.their rhetoric is meaningless hypocritical drivel. They pull a constant game, they have hijacked language to enforce their situational hypocrisy. They believe in nothing.
"They believe in nothing."
https://youtu.be/b_29yvYpf4w
Come to think of it they do believe in something, the acquisition of raw power.
NC is an open carry state, but, I've only seen one person taking advantage of this "right," and that was outside the town limits. But, if the CCRA goes through, we wouldn't necessarily have the advantage of knowing who is packing and who is not. As policy, this would be hypocritical, reckless and insane. But, of course it has the advantage of being red meat for the base, a finger in the collective liberal eye and an amorphous sort of terrorism against political opponents. At a time when right wing groups with histories of violence are emboldened and growing, loosening the restraints on lethal force can no longer be regarded as policy, it is a purposive, hostile action.
"Welcome to the eye of the storm."
The other link didn't work. But, you all know what this leads to
"They believe in nothing."
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b_29yvYpf4w
I'm beginning to wonder if the right wing leaders are trying to inflame their base to the point where they will kill "libtards" This is getting into dangerous waters.
I guess that I am in the minority but I do not support the concealed carry position simply because I don't see the necessity. If it is for defense, then one must view that it is not safe to walk around in public without a gun. That puts me at a disadvantage because I do not have a gun. I also do not like to guess who among the people walking past me on the street is packing. That does not make me feel safer. I can understand having a gun in one's home for protection but I want people to leave their guns at home.
I have always been a homebody and as I get older and I see the changes in our culture, the urge is stronger. I do not even own a gun but if anyone ever tried to come into my home my buddy, Mr. Spock, would protect me. Of course, if someone had a gun, he would be in danger also. I am not against the 2nd amendment but I do think it is not interpreted as it was intended. But what do I know? I am not a Supreme Court judge, just a simple 78yo woman who wants my life to be simple.
Erinyes, I am beginning to wonder the same. It seems that they're "sowing the wind."
I spent some time recently reading about Spinoza. There was a sense in the Enlightenment about the "true religion," which many people summarized as "justice and charity." There was the idea that the "Divine" consisted of whatever inspired people towards those ends. But, if you look at the "Christian" right or evangelicals, it's hard to see their connection with either charity or justice. They've been seduced by power. Pearls have been cast before swine.
good article
If I didn't know better, I’d say today’s Christian right is authoritarian, and not necessarily by choice, but by need. Gone are the days of the wise (but doubting ) Thomas or the curious Copernicus. This new breed needs to be told what to think and do. And they'll latch onto any sanctioned authority, even if they contradict scripture.