National Rifle Association still armed and dangerous

[question everything]

National Rifle Association still armed and dangerous

May 12, 2005

Among the favored few and special interests who raise huzzahs to the Bush administration, none can feel more beholden than the National Rifle Association. The competition may be keen. But no Bush beneficiary – no cost-plus contractor in Araby, no offshore tax leech, no pulpiteer in the revival tents down Dixie way – can be happier at this moment than the gun lobby.

(snip)

Would the lobby now let up? With its guys clearly calling the turn in Congress, nothing's needed there beyond the normal courtesy calls. So how might the NRA's small army of legal talent be kept usefully employed? The question answers itself. Those lawyers have fanned out like locusts into the legislative halls of every state capitol. Their goal is to widen the beachhead for gun laws that won't stop until every American packs a pistol as casually – and yes, as lawfully – as his cell phone.

(snip)

Take Florida. Under a law enacted there in late April, a person feeling threatened by anyone, anywhere, anytime – say, a kid with a toy gun on Halloween – need give no thought to asking questions or to getting out of the way. Just reach for the S&W from an inside pocket and fire away. No court henceforth will have a right to convict, thanks to new rules that Gov. Jeb Bush was happy to sign into law. "I felt threatened" is all a judge or jury need hear to acquit. In Northern Virginia, working behind its newly organized Citizen Defense League, the lobby is pressing for ordinances opening virtually every public place to concealed weaponry.

(snip)

Arizona's legislature went along happily, but Gov. Janet Napolitano vetoed a restaurant gun bill just three weeks ago. It would be an inappropriate choice of words, I think, to suggest the NRA will henceforth be gunning for this lady. Chances may look brighter in Georgia, where the lobby's eager pigeon, House member Robert L. "Bobby" Franklin, offers moot reasoning for his bill to arm cafe patrons: "People visiting Atlanta would feel safer if allowed to carry pistols when going out to eat."... Concealed weapons have achieved their ultimate enshrinement in Kentucky, whose lawmakers decided that even church congregations need protection.

An equally perplexing question arose in Utah, whose state university adopted a campus-wide gun ban. Sensing a possibly dangerous trend, one state senator quickly introduced a bill asserting that weapons regulation is a province of the legislature alone. "The university cannot secede from the State of Utah," he asserted solemnly, as if making sense. And inasmuch as the legislature is a source of university funding, we can guess how this one will play out.

(snip)

Find this article at:
http://www.signonsandiego.com/uniontrib/20050512/news_lz1e12vandeer.html

[Bonhomme Richard]

1. Funny. I haven't heard a peep out of them regarding.........

the national ID card. Curious...........Hmmmmmm.

[losdiablosgato]

2. I read quite recently the Gov. Bill Richardson

Just signed a bill endorsed by the NRA concerning the right to carry.