House GOP Floats Tax Credit for Armed Vigilantes Who Prowl Schoolyards

[babylonsister]

https://nymag.com/daily/intelligencer/2018/02/gop-floats-tax-credit-for-gun-owners-who-prowl-schoolyards.html

February 27, 2018 10:01 am
House GOP Floats Tax Credit for Armed Vigilantes Who Prowl Schoolyards
By Eric Levitz


The GOP’s plan A was to sit tight until the dead of Parkland got buried by the ever-turning news cycle. But the theater kids of Marjory Stoneman Douglas refused to take thoughts and prayers for an answer. And so, Republicans moved on to plan B: Find a way to “do something” on gun violence that didn’t just leave AR-15 manufacturers and far-right firearms enthusiasts unscathed, but that actually benefited those constituencies.

To that end, President Trump called last week for arming America’s teachers – which is to say, for the government to either give gunmakers a lucrative public contract, or else subsidize mass gun-buying by promising bonuses to educators that pack heat.

Alas, liberals, teachers — and every American who can distinguish between reality and Clint Eastwood films — deemed this proposal insane. You don’t stop school shootings by increasing the number of guns in American classrooms — even armed school security guards have been known to leave their firearms unattended, while some teachers have been known to physically attack their students. Lifelong cops and soldiers can freeze or shoot erratically when confronted with life-threatening violence; a teacher who did a couple weeks of training to get a bonus would be unlikely to win a shootout with a heavily armed psychopath — and could very well make any given mass shooting more lethal in the process.

Fortunately, House conservatives took these critiques to heart. And on Monday night, Freedom Caucus chair Mark Meadows floated a compromise:

Link to tweet

This proposal gives something to both sides: It leaves teachers unarmed, just as liberals requested, while also giving a targeted tax cut to any patriotic American with a gun, too much free time, and a longing to legally pump bullets into another human being — or, in conservative parlance, to “a well-regulated militia.”

Democrats could try to obstruct this measure. But they would do so at their own political peril. After all, what suburban swing voter wouldn’t want heavily armed, underemployed vigilantes prowling the hallways and playgrounds of her daughter’s school? Granted, liberals could argue that the tax credit is inherently regressive, as prospective vigilantes who don’t earn enough to pay federal income tax (but who still pay sales and payroll taxes) would be ineligible. But that issue could be resolved by simply making a portion of the tax credit refundable!

Meadows has presented progressives with a clear choice: They can be ideological purists, and insist on far-left reforms like, say, making it illegal for teenagers to buy military-grade weapons without a background check — or, they can put the lives of America’s children above their ideology’s bizarre superstitions, and embrace a common-sense, evidence-based solution to gun violence, like surrounding every school in the country with a ring of “good guys with guns.”

[spanone]

1. YES let's pay folks who bring more guns to schools

[50 Shades Of Blue]

2. Every time I think they can't get more vile they top themselves!

[nocalflea]

3. Hmm...

A backdoor strategy to promote homeschooling ?

[Raven]

4. I know some gun owners who

I wouldn't trust guarding an outhouse. One, in particular, was recently arrested for waving a loaded handgun at 3 teenagers in a road rage incident. He'd be the first to volunteer and get a tax credit. Oh, and this guy was also arrested for poaching deer.

[Frustratedlady]

5. And, who determines which guys are the good guys?

We have a self-declared "good guy" in the Oval Office. Would you approve of him to guard a school? Would you even want him to have a gun? Could he pass the mental portion of an application?

Just sayin'.

[Wednesdays]

12. And how are the "good guys" going to determine who are "good guys" or not?

I'm led to believe that these armed people are supposed to stroll around the school grounds, watching out for "bad guys" approaching the grounds. Any word on the extent of training these folks get? What happens if a child's father comes toward the school and the vigilante decides he looks a little too "shady" (usually meaning, a little too dark-skinned) for his liking?

[haele]

16. Or the "good guy" sees his ex dropping the kids off at school, and there's a protective order...

Or doesn't like the fact the ex's new spouse can pick up "his kids" when he can only see them supervised or over the weekends.
And starts an argument that escalates into aiming that big old firearm in his hands and he pulls the trigger as the ex or ex's new spouse starts running for the car.

Domestic violence is an issue in the "authoritarian" culture. And it spills out in public too often

Haele

[angrychair]

14. They are good guys, they have guns

i mean why would you question the integrity of an unemployed healthy male that wants to to play soldier around a bunch of little kids?
I mean many states require no background checks or even a concealed carry and allow people to walk around dressed and armed like their in a war zone.

I mean no job and a poor education and heavily armed, what could possibly go wrong?

[Iliyah]

6. Yes, give racist's a tax break.

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

7. What could possibly go wrong?

[Eliot Rosewater]

8. But people had to hold their noses and whine.

[Fresh_Start]

9. I get nothing for my volunteer time other than mileage to travel to the site

why should these idiots receive more than that for their volunteer time?

[Jacoby365]

10. I can see the likes of George Zimmerman

lining up for a job like this.

[babylonsister]

11. Now there's a scary thought. nt

[ismnotwasm]

13. And todays news makes this even more unpalatable

[Angry Dragon]

15. stupid, stupid, stupid

[Proud Liberal Dem]

17. Satire