Is the Right to Carry and Bear Arms Absolute? Or Situational? Or Depending on the Arms Bearer?
I am probably not the only one to suspect that no matter how Second Amendment Friendly your local white-owned Southern retail establishment might be, there might be a little frisson (a Cheese Eating Surrender Monkey word) of fear when this group of “responsible gun owning” citizens simply exercising their Second Amendment Rights to open carry long guns came marching in the door.
Christ the entire Right Wing Media apparatus got freaked out about New Black Panther Voter Intimidation after two members showed up with a nightstick. At a predominantly black precinct. But suddenly sphincters tightened in wingnut households nationwide. White men with AK 47s – valuable public safety volunteers. Black men with nightsticks – existential threat to American Democracy.
Aw, don’t you see? In America now being crazy is the same as being right.
Bruce:
You never know, the situation may arise where you still might have to kill the food that comes out on a plate at Chipotle.
There are special regulations which are written to apply only to voting sites. We are are all supposed to follow the rules.
Can’t steal The Red Man’s land and keep it unless ya gotta gun. (He may want his property back)
Enslaving The Black Man by whatever means is available, including vote removal, is a traditional national pastime.
STR there are or were “special regulations” that restricted gun possession in bars, courthouses, state capitols, college campuses, and plenty of other places. On what evidence are you basing your claim that Open Carry folk would willingly given up their “right” to enforce “ballot integrity” by having election observers open carry?
Because if you don’t have such evidence you are advancing the most naked case of special pleading since, well maybe since the last time you desperately sought out post facto arguments to “prove” your claims since 2008 that Obamacare was “doomed, I tell you doomed!”. Only now to have transformed themselves into the full equivalent of Commie suggestions that capitalism would collapse under it own contradictions and State Socialism would flourish. Any day, month or year now.
I would also note that the picture in the post is not at a polling place but on the steps of an apparent public building where in ALL cases Open Carry advocates insists their rights should not be impaired.
The second amendment says “regulated militia”.
The term has been interpretted to include all white people no matter how deranged, while any black people are not eligible for a militia.
See the CSA law concerning federal soldiers who happened to be African American.
One way to protest the situation is to refuse to patronize businesses that allow weapons on their premises. I don’t know about other states but Illinois allows businesses to post signs banning weapons inside. The Starbucks and McDonald’s of the country could make a difference.
Nocera at the NY Times has a good column on this issue of 2nd Amendment rights. He refers to a recently published book by Michael Waldman which discusses the issue in depth. Read the Nocera column. It makes sense. It is only since Scalia decided to reinterpret the Bill of Rights that the two clauses have been disconnected so that the so-called right to bear arms is no longer embedded in the states need to maintain a militia. http://www.nytimes.com/2014/05/27/opinion/nocera-right-to-bear-arms-means-this.html?_r=0
What is interesting is seeing the reaction to the callouts being made by the “pro-gun” advocates to various comments made concerning the most recent tragedy. Off of one, facebook thread:
Alice: “Santa Barbara shooting is another obvious fake….the grieving father another examle of bad acting and r=official rhetoric……yawn.”
This is in response to a grief stricken father Martinez. And then there is Joe the Plumber:
“As harsh as this sounds — your dead kids don’t trump my Constitutional rights.”
And then the Gun Lobby; Bob Owens in reply:
“In his grief, Mr. Martinez lashed out at politicians and the NRA. Even though his attack was a non sequitur, most were understandably willing to give him a pass as his deals with the unspeakable trauma of his son’s murder.”