Gun Control
ALEC: We will stop being gun nuts now
Right-wing legislation drafting house refocuses on business issues following bad press and boycotts
George W. Bush speaks to the American Legislative Exchange Council in Philadelphia in 2007.
(Credit: Chris Greenberg) The American Legislative Exchange Council, or ALEC, is a group that helps major industry players write their own legislation that Republicans then pass in state legislatures across the country. Traditionally, ALEC would draw up and promote bills limiting labor organizing rights and weakening workplace safety regulations and environmental protections, because those things anger the Market Gods. Fewer of those things means more money for ALEC’s funders! Recently, though, ALEC also began dabbling in things that wouldn’t make anyone any money but that happened to be right-wing political priorities.
ALEC is now shutting down its “Public Safety and Elections” task force. ALEC’s Public Safety and Elections task force’s goals were twofold: to improve “public safety” by making it easier for citizens to carry guns everywhere they go and to shoot certain people without fear of arrest or prosecution, and to improve elections by making it harder for politically undesirable types to exercise their right to vote. (Why were gun rights and voter disenfranchisement the purview of one task force? Those two issues really have very little in common besides being of supreme importance to paranoid white people.)
What happened is, people suddenly noticed that self-defense laws had recently become much more “robust” (slash-”insane”) in lots of states after this guy in Florida named George Zimmerman shot and killed an unarmed black teenager named Trayvon Martin and then somehow was not arrested. These new self-defense laws were widely blamed for the police reaction, or non-reaction, and while the NRA had predictably lobbied for them in the various states where they passed, it turned out that ALEC had been instrumental in drafting these laws and others like them that had nothing to do with being “pro-business” but everything to do with quietly remaking the nation into a right-wing paradise.
So major corporations began abandoning ALEC, because they hadn’t signed on for the full right-wing culture war. While Coca-Cola has a vested interest in, say, stopping public health initiatives, there’s no compelling profit-based reason for it to support the dismantling of gun control legislation. People do not get thirstier when they are carrying concealed firearms, as far as I know. Kraft does not, as a company, have any interest in making it more difficult for poor people to vote.
So! ALEC is giving up on the items of its agenda not directly related to helping giant corporations make as much money as possible without fear of lawsuits or union agitation. Because those are less “hot-button” issues.
Alex Pareene writes about politics for Salon and is the author of "The Rude Guide to Mitt." Email him at apareene@salon.com and follow him on Twitter @pareene More Alex Pareene.
The NRA’s silent motive
Fewer Americans own guns now than in the 1960s. Is that why the lobby wants to make them more accessible?
(Credit: iStockphoto/Sean_Warren) America has witnessed the proliferation of gun-happy laws in recent years, especially laws making it easy for citizens to carry concealed handguns, and the now widely discussed “stand your ground” laws. The spread of such legislation would lead you to believe that Americans are fonder of guns than ever before, but in fact fewer citizens own firearms now than in the 1960s. Why have America’s gun laws loosened even as guns themselves decline in popularity?
Behold the political power of the National Rifle Association. The gun lobby’s muscle in Washington is famous. But critics often overlook the NRA’s motivations. There are more than Second Amendment principles at stake. The NRA confronts an existential threat to its recruitment base: declining gun ownership and use among Americans.
Continue Reading CloseRobert J. Spitzer is Distinguished Service Professor and Chair of the Political Science Department at SUNY Cortland. He is the author of four books on gun control, including the recently published fifth edition of "The Politics of Gun Control" (Paradigm Publishers 2012). More Robert J. Spitzer.
Arizona’s very Arizonan armed library guard debate
Do libraries really need to be guarded by private security officers with guns? One county says yes!
Mari Morneau, of Gilbert, shoots at Caswells Shooting Range Tuesday, April 6, 2010 in Mesa, Ariz. On Monday, April 5, 2010, Gov. Jan Brewer has signed into law two bills supported by gun-rights activists. One of the bills signed Monday would broaden the state's current restrictions on local governments' ability to regulate or tax guns and ammunition. The other bill declares that guns manufactured entirely in Arizona are exempt from federal oversight and are not subject to federal laws restricting the sale of firearms or requiring them to be registered. (AP Photo/Matt York)(Credit: Matt York) Do libraries in Maricopa County, Ariz., need to be guarded by private security officers with guns? Yes, probably, because everyone should be armed at all times, especially when they are defending our library books or collecting late fees. Only then will we be free, and safe.
Apparently Maricopa County has guards — private security firm employees, not county employees, with guns — proper guns — at most of its libraries.
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Alex Pareene writes about politics for Salon and is the author of "The Rude Guide to Mitt." Email him at apareene@salon.com and follow him on Twitter @pareene More Alex Pareene.
Police scour Va. Tech campus after gunman reported
Children say they saw a man with what might have been a gun this morning, though no further sightings were reported
<p>Virginia Tech was locked down Thursday after three children attending a summer camp said they saw a man holding what looked like a gun on the campus where a 2007 massacre left 33 people dead.</p>
<p>The university issued an alert on its website at 9:37 a.m. telling students and employees to stay inside and lock their doors. Text and phone messages were sent to more than 45,000 subscribed to the school’s alert system, along with an email sent to the entire campus, said school spokesman Mark Owczarski. The school’s outdoor sirens also sounded, he said.</p>
Continue Reading CloseRick Perry bans guns! (From prayer festival)
The Texas governor denies the rights of Christians to protect themselves while worshiping
Texas Gov. Rick Perry speaks during the 28th annual National Association of Latino Elected and Appointed Officials conference, Thursday, June 23, 2011, in San Antonio. Perry is considering a run for president. But he received a tepid reception Thursday following speeches by Democratic Hispanic leaders. They denounced some of Perry's most prized policies as openly hostile to Hispanics. Among those issues is a requirement for tougher enforcement of immigration laws. (AP Photo/Darren Abate)(Credit: Darren Abate) Why doesn’t Rick Perry respect the Second Amendment rights of his constituents? The Texas governor and possible 2012 candidate is having a huge prayer-and-fasting party at Reliant Stadium in Houston, and despite the governor’s avowed support for the right of law-abiding citizens to protect themselves with firearms, guns will not be allowed at “The Response.”
Reliant Stadium apparently has a blanket ban on “weapons,” as if a handgun were a common cigarette or outside beverage.
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Alex Pareene writes about politics for Salon and is the author of "The Rude Guide to Mitt." Email him at apareene@salon.com and follow him on Twitter @pareene More Alex Pareene.
6-year-old brings gun to Texas school, 3 hurt
Gun accidentally discharged after falling out of child's pocket
Officials say three students have been injured after a 6-year-old brought a loaded gun to his Houston elementary school that accidentally discharged when it fell out of the child’s pocket.
Houston Independent School District Public Information Officer Norm Uhl tells Fox News that none of the injuries appears to be life-threatening.
Officials say Ross Elementary school was placed on lockdown Tuesday.
Images taken from Houston television KPRC’s news helicopter show three children being wheeled to ambulances on stretchers.
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