If you have to license guns, reporters should have to license themselves. Or something.
by digby
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| If I have to be licensed, so should reporters. Tee hee hee |
This is another cutesy gun crusade troll designed to show that the inviolable right to mow down 600 people at a time is just as important and the right to free speech and a free press. (Here’s another one from a couple of weeks ago trolling voting rights advocates.) Still, in this atmosphere you can imagine some people thinking this is a really good idea. If the press is critical of their Dar Leader, they have to do something, right?
An Indiana lawmaker has drafted a bill that would require professional journalists to be licensed by state police.
Rep. Jim Lucas had the measure drawn up earlier this year and said he may file it to drive home a point about his signature issue: gun rights.
“If you’re OK licensing my Second Amendment right, what’s wrong with licensing your First Amendment right?” he said.
The proposal comes as President Donald Trump continues to feud with national news outlets such as CNN and NBC.
“Network news has become so partisan, distorted and fake that licenses must be challenged and, if appropriate, revoked. Not fair to public!” he tweeted Wednesday.
Lucas, a Seymour Republican, has been critical of media coverage of his efforts to repeal an Indiana law that requires a permit to carry a handgun. He said reporters, columnists and editorial boards frequently mischaracterize the idea, which is sometimes referred to as “constitutional carry.”
“If I was as irresponsible with my handgun as the media has been with their keyboard, I’d probably be in jail,” he said.
His proposal would require professional journalists to submit an application to the Indiana State Police. Journalists would be fingerprinted as part of the process and would have to pay a $75 fee for a lifetime license. Those with felony or domestic battery convictions would be prohibited from getting a license.
The proposal is almost an exact copy of Indiana’s law requiring a license to carry a handgun, which Lucas has tried to repeal unsuccessfully for several years. A panel of lawmakers is now reviewing the idea ahead of next year’s legislative session.
Adorbs.
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