This seems like a perfectly rational response to tragedies like the Sandy Hook Elementary School massacre or the Aurora, Colorado movie theater slaughter.
Gov. Nathan Deal signed legislation today that would vastly expand where Georgians can legally carry firearms, a proposal that has drawn heaps of praise and scorn from outside groups.
“People who follow the rules can protect themselves and their families from people who don’t follow the rules,” said Deal, adding: “The Second Amendment should never be an afterthought. It should reside at the forefronts of our minds.”
House Bill 60, which passed in the final hours of this year’s legislative session, allows Georgians to legally carry firearms in a wide range of new places, including schools, bars, churches and government buildings. A recent analysis also said it could let felons use the state’s “stand your ground” rules to claim self-defense if they feel threatened.
In an interview this week, Deal said voters shouldn’t forget what got left out of the bill. Among the controversial proposals that didn’t survive were the “campus carry” provision, which would have legalized the carrying of guns on campus, and changes that would have required houses of worship to allow guns unless leaders ban them. (Instead, religious leaders can “opt-in” to allow guns into their congregations).
The Republicans’ idea of restraint is to allow pastors and ministers to decide whether or not they will permit their parishioners to bring weapons to church.
I think it depends on what you believe should and shouldn’t be limited/regulated – there’s a fairly interesting parallel between gun rights on the right with abortion rights on the left when it comes to “appropriate” restrictions.
Depends. I’m an “extremist” at both ends. I won’t support any single piece of legislation on abortion rights unless it expands them. I’d prefer no regulation at all and leave it to the doctors discretion. On guns, I don’t believe in an individual right to own a gun, and I want to ban all hand guns, and keep a good chunk of other guns locked up in a public setting where you can get them if you’re going hunting or sport shooting. Exceptions being certain rifles and shotguns for people in the boonies to fend off wildlife.
The difference between me and my Republican brethren is that my positions on these issues are not widely supported among the Democratic electorate, let alone elected Democratic politicians. Second, the right to an abortion according to Roe v Wade doesn’t even support my position as a “right” so the two are not comparable when Roberts’ court effectively said any type of gun control is unconstitutional.
And I’m the opposite, relatively “Meh” on both issues. On both issues I see it as objecting to or advocating for more water in the ocean – banning all gun sales won’t remove the millions of guns and billions of bullets that are already accessible, and while I’m Pro Life I realize that there is no political will to do anything substantive to minimize or eliminate abortions.
Well I meant ideologically. The gun culture here would never make my position workable regardless. If you wanna get real, I don’t want cops to have guns either.
You seem to be ignoring very serious restrictions being placed on abortions in red states nationwide.
They’ll be overturned once it makes it to the Supreme Court, and there’s more to the issue than restricting the supply side – nothing is being done to reduce demand either.
The Constitution clearly says that firearm possession is to be “well-regulated,” but has no similar provision related to how a person decides to manage his or her health care.
In any case, does the new Georgia law extend the affirmative right to carry one’s bang-bang into the legislative chamber, the governor’s office, or any state courthouse?
A right to privacy has been read into the Constitution even if it isn’t explicitly stated, so there are Constitutional bases for both issues even if we don’t agree with all of the Constitutional interpretations. I think the 2nd Amendment relates solely to the National Guard (i.e. not in the National Guard? No gun for you.), formerly state militias, but the Supreme Court doesn’t agree with me. I think privacy rights pertaining to abortion are akin to property rights as they pertained to slavery – the validity of the argument depends on denying or minimizing the humanity of the victims – but the Supreme Court doesn’t agree with me.
Since the best test of any absolute policy is to take it to its logical extreme ….
I have a dream. A dream of 20 million AK-47s with extended magazines and enough ammo to last a year. Distributed to 15 million black teenagers. And since white wingnut America is obviously scared shitless about random crime, I also dream that the 15 million hang out on the street corners and outside the houses of those white wingnuts as protectors.
I wonder how Scalia et al would interpret the 2nd amendment if that actually happened.
Go look up some history: The Black Panthers, and CA Gov. Reagan’s pants-wetting response to it.
Guns and alcohol. What could go wrong?