It didn't occur to me that with this last election we would also get Republicans--apparently a great deal of them--pushing for, as I said above, guns, guns and yet more guns.
This last week I heard on KCUR/NPR that one Forrest Knox in Kansas was going to push for college students to be able to carry firearms on campuses. I'm sure he means it as a way to prevent others from shooting them, as though that happens all the time:
TOPEKA (AP) -- A state lawmaker said he'll try again to push through a law allowing concealed firearms to be carried on college campuses.
The effort to allow guns on campus was supported by the House during the 2010 legislative session, but died in the Senate.
Republican Rep. Forrest Knox said he intends to try again to push through such legislation when the 2011 session begins in January. His proposal would allow Kansans with concealed carry permits to bring their weapons into public buildings if those buildings aren't equipped with security measures such as metal detectors and guards.
Right. Forget that one thought that "an eye for an eye and next thing you know, we're all blind."
Then, as if that weren't enough:
In Oklahoma, where Republicans won all eight Democrat-held statewide offices, GOP lawmakers are planning to bring back firearms bills vetoed last year by outgoing Democratic Gov. Brad Henry. They include a bill to allow the open carrying of firearms.
A move to legalize concealed weapons is expected in Wisconsin, where the Republicans scored their most dramatic victory, seizing control of both the legislature and the governor's office.
So here we go, America. If you didn't get enough guns with Ronald the Ray-gun, we may well get still more now.
As if more guns is a solution for anything.
Links: http://www.gctelegram.com/news/AP-Guns-on-campus
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20101126/ap_on_re_us/us_pushing_social_issues
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4 comments:
Is there any reason why a college campus, or other government buildings (other than ones like jails or courts) should be different than Walmart? Without metal detectors and guards, the people you need to worry about won't obey in the first place, so where's the benefit?
Jesus said 'if you don't have a sword, sell your cloak to buy one'. I don't think either that quote nor turn the other cheek can be taken in isolation. Although I'm not Christian, I see the combination of Jesus words as prohibiting violence for offense or revenge, and to not use force trivially even against an aggressor--and I agree completely. But if decent people are against even measured violent defense, the aggressive and violent will rule. I do not believe that hiring a policeman to be violent for me is morally superior to protecting myself.
I've lived for 30 years in open-carry states, and other than at gun events I've seen 2 brief glimpses of someone walking from their car to inside, and a guy with a tiny holstered gun. Again, what is the benefit from banning it?
Wisconsin and Illinois are the remaining states without concealed carry. Wisconsin's governor has vetoed a carry law at least once (and I think twice), and almost every Illinois county other than Cook/Chicago has passed a non-binding pro-carry resolution. Pretty hard to count matching the other 48 states as extremist.
If we are going to have our freedoms restricted, there should be a good reason--not just unreasonable fear of guns, but actual evidence that increasing the rights of the law abiding is going to cause a problem.
I figured if I were going to hear from anyone on this post, it was going to be Sevesteen.
I say again, the answer to guns and the idiots who use them isn't more guns.
We have a sick, violent, gun-centered culture and have for too long. Worse, it's growing as gun-nuts must have "more, more, more".
That's my view. You no doubt know it is.
It's not that we're having our freedoms restricted, to me. To me, the fact is, too many people--including and especially legislators keep going out of their way to add more and more laws so people can take their guns more and more places. In recent past, it was the National Parks--like that's a good idea--and now colleges and universities.
Really, it seems the gun lobby won't be happy until guns are completely, totally and utterly pervasive.
You say it's "Pretty hard to count matching the other 48 states as extremist." I have to respond by saying no, it's not difficult to count matching the other 48 states as extremist because as a country, compared to the rest of the world, we are extremist. We have more people killed by firearms than all but 3 other countries. The US is violence personified and the proliferation of firearms feeds that.
I think the guns are a cause. You think it's an effect or a cure or an answer.
We will never agree on this.
But thanks for writing.
Link: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_firearm-related_death_rate
We have a section of society that is sick, violent and loves guns. But the legal 'gun nut' culture that I am a part of finds it insulting that you (and other liberals) lump us in with this thug culture. People who start violence to get their way are our enemy.
Most of our gun violence is contained within the thug culture, both as perpetrator and victim.
Pacifism would be great, but only if you can convince everyone, including the thugs--ALL of them. A tiny fraction refusing to give up offensive violence ruins the whole thing.
A philosophy of 'no instigation of violence' would be identical if you had 100% adoption--but has a distinct advantage if a small fraction refuses to give up thug culture.
The country would also be much better off if we could get the rest of you to match the rate of violence of carry license holders. The notion that if we give up our guns, the thugs will give up their violence is silly.
I've said this before but I have to repeat: I'm not calling for zero guns and no one else is, either. No one is saying guns go away.
What we're calling for is not a further proliferation and increase of them, as has happened, reports have shown, since, for instance, this president was elected in 2008, among other things and times. The adding them, a year or two ago, as I mentioned here earlier, of adding them the National Parks--further proliferation--and now this, legalizing them for college and university campuses.
Fine, I'll separate you from the unlawful culture but I have to absolutely include you, apparently, in that gun culture that wants them to proliferate into all corners or our world.
And that's both crazy and unnecessary to me.
But that's me.
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