Seeing Loose Gun Laws as Still Too Tight (New York Times)

[GarandFan]

Even though this is an AP article, it gives me great pleasure to see it published in the New York Times. Maybe they've realized that readership is important after all ...

 

And what's better ... they even include the hysteria of the VPC ... "literally writing a death sentence." Literally unbelievable.

 

“That’s sheer insanity,” said M. Kristen Rand, legislative director for the Violence Policy Center. “If you remove the background check requirement, you’re literally writing a death sentence for law enforcement officers, family members, just people in the street.”

 

 

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/31/us/31arizona.html

 

Seeing Loose Gun Laws as Still Too Tight

 

By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

Published: January 30, 2010

 

PHOENIX (AP) — Arizona’s permissive gun laws gained national attention last year when a man openly carried an AR-15 rifle to a protest outside a speech by President Obama.

 

Now, gun rights advocates are hoping for even fewer restrictions on where they can have a firearm. Among their top goals is to make Arizona the third state where it is legal to carry a concealed weapon without a permit. Bills in the House and the Senate would also eliminate background checks and training classes for people to carry hidden guns.

 

“That’s sheer insanity,” said M. Kristen Rand, legislative director for the Violence Policy Center. “If you remove the background check requirement, you’re literally writing a death sentence for law enforcement officers, family members, just people in the street.”

 

But supporters say criminals will carry concealed weapons regardless of the law, so gun restrictions affect only law-abiding citizens.

 

“All we’re doing is handcuffing good people, restricting their constitutional, God-given right to carry and perhaps their ability to defend their families,” said State Senator Russell Pearce, a Mesa Republican sponsoring the bill.

 

The bill comes a year after Arizona eased restrictions on gun owners, most notably giving people the option of carrying a weapon into a bar or restaurant that serves alcohol unless the establishment has banned firearms.

 

It also comes amid a national trend of states loosening gun laws. In 2009, states passed 47 laws easing restrictions, more than three times the number of new laws tightening them. Forty-eight states allow people to carry a concealed weapon; all but Alaska and Vermont require a permit.

 

In Arizona, carrying a concealed weapon without a permit is a misdemeanor. Mr. Pearce’s bill, and an identical one in the House, would make the permit and background check optional. It also would eliminate a required firearms safety class for permit seekers.

 

“It doesn’t make much sense why someone would have to go through a background check, training, etc., simply to carry their weapon,” said John Wentling, vice president of the Arizona Citizens Defense League, a gun rights lobby group that is promoting the bill.

 

Police departments worry that making permits optional might encourage more people with bad motives to carry concealed weapons, said John Thomas, a lobbyist for the Arizona Association of Chiefs of Police. It also could lead to more accidents by people not adequately trained, Mr. Thomas said.

 

“I’m not aware of any law enforcement agency or association that supports this bill as introduced,” he said.

 

House and Senate committees were scheduled to hear the bill last week, but the sponsors pulled it to try to address some of the concerns of law enforcement. A similar measure failed last year amid strong opposition from police agencies.

 

There would still be an advantage to obtaining a permit; carrying a gun into a bar or restaurant that serves alcohol would require one, and the permit would be valid in some other states. Permit holders can also buy new guns without a background check.

 

In all, Arizona lawmakers have introduced about a half-dozen bills aimed at loosening gun laws, including one making it legal to carry a gun in a public park without a concealed-weapons permit. Another would allow college faculty members with permits to carry a gun on campus.

 

The gun rights bills follow a string of new, less-restrictive gun laws passed last year. They were helped make possible by the elevation of Gov. Jan Brewer, a Republican, to replace Janet Napolitano, a Democrat who vetoed efforts to loosen gun laws until she resigned a year ago to join the Obama administration.

 

Ms. Brewer last year signed the bill allowing guns in bars; Ms. Napolitano vetoed a similar measure four years earlier.

 

Ms. Brewer also approved a law allowing gun owners to display a firearm if they feel threatened and another allowing them to keep guns in their locked vehicles while parked at businesses that ban weapons.

[ilphil]

To the anti's any gun law short of total prohibition is too loose.

[GarandFan]

To the anti's any gun law short of total prohibition is too loose.

 

True ... but Arizona is ranked by the Brady's near the lower quartile of states with "loose" gun laws. So from sitting inside the New York Times office building, Arizona's laws would seem "loose."

[Bill Matio]

Not trying to hijack this thread but I've been reading a book that I picked up the other day.

 

"Gun Control", Gateway to Tyranny by Aaron Zelman and the Jews for the Preservation of Firearms Ownership, which compares the Gun Control Act of 1968 with the Nazi Weapons Law of 1938.

 

If you haven't heard about this, or read about it, I would suggest that you do. It's shocking to say to least.

[Xwing]

Even though this is an AP article, it gives me great pleasure to see it published in the New York Times. Maybe they've realized that readership is important after all ...

I'm not sure why it gave you pleasure to see the article. It was a completely biased piece, which tried to portray Arizona’s move to actually follow the constitution in a bad light.

 

I'm pleased to hear about this possible new law, but not so pleased with the article...