Firearms, Yes; Voting, No

I got an email today from a group called the Georgia Gun Owners announcing that their pet legislation, the Constitutional Carry Act, has been “pre-filed” in the Georgia legislature. According to the email, the Act will —

  • Eliminate the mandatory intrusive government requirement for background checks of law-abiding Georgia gun owners;

Um, then how would you know they are law-abiding? Because they say so?

  • Eliminate the mandatory requirement for taxes or “fees” be paid to county governments across the state, some of which add up to more than $100;

But if they can’t afford that, how can they afford to buy firearms?

  • Eliminate mandatory government fingerprinting requirements;
  • Eliminate mandatory trips to county probate courts in order to carry openly or concealed;
  • Eliminate mandatory county government-imposed weapons license waiting periods;
  • Leave the current Georgia Weapons Carry License in place as a voluntary license, for the sake of reciprocity; the license will no longer be mandatory to carry open or concealed in Georgia.

So, in other words, never mind if you are an escaped convict or are on a terrorist watch list. If this thing passes (and I have no idea what its chances are), you can waltz into any gun shop in Georgia, declare yourself to be a law-abiding citizen, and get yourself armed.

“Law-abiding citizens should not have to be fingerprinted and cataloged like common criminals just to be able to defend themselves, their family and their property.

In this day and age, with our firearms rights under full-fledged attack from Washington, and even here in the State, it’s time to finally remove the government-imposed barriers to private protection and self-defense,” said State Rep. Jason Spencer.

It must be rough on the mean streets of Marietta these days. But I don’t know what “full-fledged attack from Washington” he’s talking about; there’s been no movement from either Congress or the White House to pass any sort of firearm restriction for some time. The only “attack” has been concocted in the paranoid imagination of Wayne LaPierre.

As I’ve written in the past, in the U.S. there really isn’t a robust correlation between firearm fatality rates and firearm laws, one way or another. However, there is a correlation between firearm ownership rates and firearm fatalities. Higher rates of gun ownership within a state mean higher rates of gun fatalities.

So, while an armed society may or may not be a polite society, it is certainly a more dangerous society than a less armed one, even for the law-abiding citizens.

But while a prospective gun buyer must be presumed law-abiding until he shoots somebody, higher and higher standards of certification are being piled on prospective voters. Kay Dilday writes,

The NAACP will be sending a delegation to the United Nations Commissioner of Human Rights alleging a concerted effort to deny voting rights to black and hispanic Americans. Given how rarely anyone in the United States looks to the United Nations for justice, and how often the United States ignores the UN, this is both a significant and futile effort. But what’s at issue is so egregious that the NAACP has chosen to shout it from a global stage.

You know the story — in order to combat a phony “voter fraud” crisis, states are writing laws demanding that voters jump through more and more hoops to prove they are legitimate voters. And, of course, the populations most affected are poor, black, and latino. And if taxes and fees required of gun purchasers are outrageous, what about requirements to purchase a state ID card (for a fee), for which you need a certified copy of your birth certificate (another fee)?

See also:

League of Women Voters takes on ‘myths about voter impersonation’”

Robert Ehrlich Aide Guilty Of Conspiring To Suppress Black Voter Turnout

Students hit by voter ID restrictions

Voter ID Laws ‘Assault’ On Minority Voters, Says DNC Chair (VIDEO)

Rep. Hank Johnson, “Suppressing Votes Is Not Right