Taunting The Nervous Nellies
by digby
You have to hand it to the right wing. They don’t back down, even in the face of a slaughter. They see it as an opportunity:
Arizona has become a national leader in the gun rights movement in recent years as the state enacted law after law to protect the people’s right to bear arms nearly anywhere, at anytime. The shooting rampage that wounded Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, a former legislative colleague, has done nothing to slow down the Legislature. Gun rights bills were introduced in the days after the shootings last week, and more proposals are to come. “I don’t think it really changes anything,” Republican state Sen. Ron Gould said of the mass shooting. “I don’t see how gun control could have prevented that shooting unless you take guns out of the hands of law-abiding citizens.”[…]Arizona Republicans remain adamant that the shooting will not dissuade them from pushing their pro-gun agenda. They want new laws allowing college and university faculty members to be able to carry concealed weapons on campus, an issue that gained attention after the 2007 shooting at Virginia Tech University. Only Utah has a law allowing concealed weapons on college campuses while 24 states have bans, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures. “There are going to be some nervous Nellies, so to speak, but I think that it will be overcome,” said John Wentling, a leader of the Arizona Citizens Defense League, a gun owners advocacy group active at the Capitol. “We still have an obligation to protect constitutional and civil rights.” Bills already introduced this year in Arizona in the Republican-controlled Legislature include barring landlords and homeowner groups from restricting the right to bear arms in self defense, and expanding the current law that allows gun owners to display a weapon in self defense. And Wentling said his group’s priority bill, which he wouldn’t discuss, hasn’t been unveiled yet.
What more do they want? The legal right to shoot first and ask questions later? Immunity from prosecution for killing someone with a gun? Mandatory gun carry laws in all public places? It seems to me that once you’re allowed to carry guns in bars, you’ve pretty much got it covered. Unless they want to change the law to allow you to be armed and plastered. That would certainly be a big blow for freedom — and exactly what the founders had in mind, I’m sure.
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