One day after the horrific mass shooting at Chardon High School in Ohio, a lesser-noticed event occurred that yields equally important insights about the current state of America. On February 28, a man in Grand Rapids, Michigan walked into a polling place -- that also happened to be a public elementary school -- while openly carrying a loaded handgun. Nicholas Looman wanted to vote in the Republican presidential primary, and he also "wanted to make a point that he should be allowed to carry" a gun while voting. Looman was asked to leave after he voted. Now he's demanding an apology and threatening to sue law enforcement, claiming that his "rights" were violated.
His rights? Let's be clear... The landmark Supreme Court decision on the Second Amendment from 2008, District of Columbia v. Heller, found that the right to keep and bear arms is about individuals protecting "hearth and home." And that there certainly is no right to carry firearms wherever and whenever one wants -- much less at a school or voting site. The idea that there is a right to "vote and carry" would be laughable if it did not expose a dangerous ideology that, if left unchecked, will fundamentally change our democratic system.
Our Founders drafted our Constitution explicitly to prevent force -- or the threat of force -- from influencing the political system. "Freedom" was understood as the ability of the government to abide by the rule of law without interference from an unelected monarch or a frothing mob. In fact, the duty of the Militia, as defined in Article 1, Section 8 of the Constitution, is to "suppress Insurrections," not to foment them. Carrying a gun into a polling place or a legislative body turns that history on its head by making the statement that "The guys with the guns make the rules." Our country declared its independence under the banner of political equality. We must have the freedom to exercise our right to vote without being exposed to a show of force by someone who might disagree with us politically. And it's entirely possible that Looman's behavior alarmed and or/intimidated other voters on Tuesday.
Looman admits that he regularly "open carries" a firearm. Open Carry is not necessary for self-defense--just about every state that allows the practice also has liberal Concealed Carry laws. Open Carry is instead a political statement in the best tradition of John Wilkes Booth, Timothy McVeigh, Sharron Angle and Ted Nugent. The message is, "Voting is peachy, but if we can't get what we want through the ballot, we reserve the right to administer 'Second Amendment remedies.'" Such insurrectionist ideology has been spoon-fed to right wing Americans for years by the National Rifle Association (NRA) and its Executive Vice-President, Wayne LaPierre.
And now it seems that insurrectionists and their allies are losing patience altogether with the voting part of the equation. Virginia State Senator Janet Howell was on to something when she recently observed that, "It's going to be harder to vote in Virginia than it is now to buy a gun." She was commenting on voter suppression legislation that is making its way through the Virginia legislature juxtaposed with the repeal of the state's longstanding One-Handgun-a-Month law.
And Virginia is not alone... Many GOP-controlled state legislatures across the nation are now moving to implement voter suppression laws before the 2012 elections. Of the eight states that require residents to show photo identification before voting -- Texas, Georgia, Mississippi, Tennessee, South Carolina, Kansas, Indiana and Wisconsin -- all allow residents to purchase firearms through private sales without undergoing any type of background check or showing any form of identification. These sales are cash and carry, and no paperwork is required. 23 other states require residents to produce some form of identification before voting (though not necessarily a photo ID). Of those 23, only Rhode Island prohibits all private sales of firearms (Connecticut requires background checks for private sales of handguns only). Finally, in a development that may or not be coincidental, some states are now allowing residents to use a concealed handgun permit as an acceptable document to verify identity when voting, but not a student ID card issued by a public university.
This has pro-gun extremists excited. Just last week, one Tweeted at my organization to tell us that "votes are more dangerous than guns." Another pro-gunner from North Carolina then added, "They are. Just ask Bell, Douglas, and Breckinridge [Abraham Lincoln's opponents in the 1860 presidential election]."
Does anyone seriously believe that this was the vision of our Founders? That guys who carry a gun on their hips 24/7 are somehow "super-citizens" with greater political rights than senior citizens, minorities, the impoverished, those trying to better themselves through education, or others without immediate access to identification documents? Wasn't it Second Amendment author James Madison who once criticized state legislators for catering to the interests of powerful constituencies at the expense of others, stating that "so far from being the Representatives of the people, they are only an assembly of private men, securing their own interest to the ruin of the Commonwealth." Seriously, when you can buy a trunk-load of AK-47s without government-issued identification but you can't vote - something is seriously wrong with our democracy.
It's certainly not representative of the compact that was created by the ratification of the U.S. Constitution, of the country that risked everything to preserve the rule of law in the Civil War. As Lincoln famously wrote, "Among free men, there can be no successful appeal from the ballot to the bullet; and that they who take such appeal are sure to lose their case, and pay the cost." Let's hope he is still correct.
Follow Josh Horwitz on Twitter: www.twitter.com/CSGV
Factually incorrect. The founders and subsequent congresses routinely carried their side arms with them to the US Congress.
History. It is a wonderful thing.
Not to be too much of a nitpicker, but the 15th prevents voting discrimination "on account of race, color, or previous condition of servitude". Of course it excluded women, so.... The 19th amendment adds women. And voting in primaries wasn't a right until the 1964 (XXIVth).
You may have noticed that often amendments refer back to the Article and Section it modifies. But these to do not. The reason is the right of the people to vote is nowhere in the Constitution. In fact it only talks about electors and representatives. The right to vote didn't exist in this country for almost a hundred years.
Deal. With. It.
They won't be happy until kindergartners are forced to carry weapons.
My god, the humanity!
Last item on this list: guns for younger children.
ALEC and NRA exposed:
Spotlight on Gun Bills
http://www.alecexposed.org/wiki/Guns,_Prisons,_Crime,_and_Immigration
For many years, until this spring, the National Rifle Association (NRA) actually co-chaired the ALEC "Task Force on Public Safety and Elections." (The election bills are discussed in the section of this site titled "Democracy, Voter Rights and Federal Power.") ALEC bills include "model" legislation that advances the constitutionality of an individual's right to bear arms, an argument vindicated by a recent ruling of the U.S. Supreme Court. The legislation also would likely benefit the firearms industry closely connected to the NRA.
Bills or resolutions in this area:
Oppose bans on semi-automatic firearms like the one used in the shooting in Arizona that killed nine people and seriously injured Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords.
Oppose waiting periods for criminal and mental health background checks for firearm purchases.
Support concealed-carry gun laws see also here.
Oppose efforts by law enforcement to use their purchasing power get gun manufacturers not to market guns or ammo likely to be used against police, like "cop killer bullets" that pierce armor.
Prohibit local counties or cities from enacting firearm restrictions, or emergency measures that could be abused.
Encourage guns on campus, and for younger kids.
For a full list of bills from this section, click here.
All children should be taught safe gun handling skills.
I think we have a lot of work to do to protect our democracy here at home in order to have the liberty to pursue "happy" for any day of the year ... Have you seen the wording in this resolution written by ALEC and the NRA in support of corporate money, both foreign and domestic, corrupting our elections?
The gun lobby is closely wedded to corporate power: ALEC + NRA
ALEC Public Safety and Elections co-chair NRA
Resolution in Support of the Citizens United Decision
Summary
This Resolution emphasizes the importance of first amendment protections of
corporations’, non-profit advocacy groups’, and labor organizations’ speech. The
resolution warns that mandatory disclosure and disclaimer requirements,
particularly relating to an organization’s source of funding, can be intimidating to
such organizations and inhibit free speech.
WHEREAS, allowing shareholders to file a civil cause of action against a
corporation in dispute of the corporation’s political activity functions as a legal
threat designed to silence corporate speech; and
WHEREAS, barring independent expenditures from domestic subsidiaries of
foreign corporations would unnecessarily duplicate existing federal laws
prohibiting foreign influence in federal, state, and local elections; and
For more whereases:
http://alecexposed.org/w/images/f/f2/7G4-Resolution_in_Support_of_the_Citizens_United_Decision_Exposed.pdf
Have a great evening and a wonderful weekend.
e45
http://bsun.md/yXm5x3
Maryland is now Shall Issue for Carry Licenses (Conceal Carry). Rumor has it that the issuing agency is hanging up on people who mention the case.
This is the makings of a circuit split…
http://delegatemike.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/03/Motion-for-Stay-Final-as-filed-11.pdf
Constitutional Law Professors unanimously believe Maryland will lose appeal. Story here:
http://articles.baltimoresun.com/2012-03-06/news/bs-md-gun-law-appeal-20120306_1_gun-ruling-gun-rights-state-police
The gun control lobby must really hate Gura, LOL
A well regulated militia, composed of the body of the people ......
That clause was dropped as a matter of style not as a matter of principle. In my estimation Madison wasn't referring to lawful gun owners exercising Constitutional rights, but to the ever increasing numbers of well funded organizations like yours and the academic think tanks that seek to undermine those rights.
Is buying a gun easier than voting? I think not. The right to vote is not a fundamental right that
was enumerated in the Bill of Rights. The right to keep and bear arms is. Ideas of an absolute right to vote is a modern invention for political expediency.
It actually is for Josh...he can't reach the lever without standing on a box.
Somebody named Josh has an FFL, at least. I forget if it was Horwitz or Sugarmann.
YMMV.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/03/07/arizona-house-gun-free-school-zones_n_1327811.html
Perhaps you dumb anti's have not figured it out, but people keep shooting up schools because they know that they're DEFENSELESS "Gun free zones."
Criminals ignore your laws. It is only the law abiding who pays any heed or credence to a "gun free zone."
All "gun free zones" do is ensure that once a criminal goes on a rampage, there is no one present that is capable of stopping them. That's some real genius right there.
new second amendment Article on KOS
THR > Social Situations > Legal > new second amendment Article on KOS
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Aristodemus
June 13, 2008, 04:55 AM
Haven't read the whole thing or comments -- somebody should. It's thesis is that the relative strenght of the opinion will affect the fundamnental approach of each part to the election.
Folks should read comments, especially, work on talking points, jurprudence etc. Check with CZfan and Legal Eagle 45 as resident scholors. Register to Kos so you can comment. Learn what you can, do mischief when you can't. I'm probably gonna have to sit this out, but a powerful point to make to all these Dems is the Angry Mouse article -- Dems shoot selves in foot by getting too cozy with Brady Bunch (Why liberals should love the second amendment (http://http://www.dailykos.com/story/2008/4/21/19133/5152/392/496931).)
But you knew that already, EL45.
;-)
"PistolaBandera" spams pretending to be someone other than who he is. He is not an advocate to prevent gun violence, but one of the pro-gun team. Please see below and also his other duplicitious comments in his profile. Thank you.
Flagged
Commented Feb 22, 2012 at 11:29:25 in Politics
“As a violence policy advocate, it’s important to note that none of what I write is personal conjecture but instead comes from the study of statistics, polls, and opinion found through research of web sites on the Internet. It’s come to my attention that gun owners belong to the NRA and are Tea Party Insurrectionists Extremist Gunophile Fetishists. It’s also notable that they will often give up their families, careers, and even their life to have “Wild West” type shootouts over minor disputes such as parking spots or to compensate for some other shortcoming. Again, this is not personal conjecture but consensus among the public as verified in the Comments sections of several web sites ...
This information comes from recent polling and a quick search will show that to you. Of course we shouldn’t overlook high power, armor penetrating , 9mm ammunition as well. I would like to join my peers and urge legislators at every level to Dis the Deadly Myths and Reclaim the Constitution, by proposing sensible and reasonable policies that register and eventually disarm the public though no one is talking about handgun bans.”
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