Wednesday, July 22, 2009

Maybe it would be simpler to just list who DOESN'T Suck

The vote was 58-39 in favor of the provision establishing concealed carry permit reciprocity in the 48 states that have concealed weapons laws. That fell two votes short of the 60 needed to approve the measure, offered as an amendment to a defense spending bill.

Here it is. Neatly summed up in two sentences, a clear description of what's wrong with our Congress, our Press Corps and our entire legislative process.

1. It's utterly wrong about what happened. The American Congress operates on majority rule. That is, it takes a simple majority to pass legislation. Up until recently, the filibuster was an obscure procedural tactic in place to protect the minority but seldom used. Now, we have arrived at a situation where the accepted wisdom is that ANY legislation requires a super majority in the Senate to pass. It should be noted that this is glaringly incorrect. When cloture is invoked, 60 votes are required to end debate and bring a bill to a vote. So once again, this bill, however you might think about it, wasn't "defeated" with 58 votes, it was prevented from being voted on at all. Had it been voted on, it would have passed easily. I happen to think this is bad legislation and was glad to see it did not become law, but I would much prefer to see a reduction in arbitrary veto-points in the American legislature, and would gladly accept the passage of any bill with the support of 58 Senators. This new set of rules for the operation of the Senate strongly supports the status quo, and no matter what your political worldview, I don't know anyone who actually prefers the status quo over some kind of significant change.


2. The Bill itself is so incredibly stupid and misguided that for any representative to actually support it is an indictment of that representative's priorities. Gun possession and concealed-carry laws are the province of the individual states. Absolutely no one disputes that. The Second Amendment guarantee of a right to keep and bear arms is enshrined in the Constitution, but the local rules about how that right is implemented and regulated is left up to the various statehouses. A law like this one would essentially strip those regulations in the worst possible way, standardizing all state gun laws on the bases of the weakest state's rule set. What's interesting is that the 2nd Amendment zealots that favor legislation like this don't seem to be cognizant of the potential for unintended consequences. The law would have applied to 48 states, as Illinois and Wisconsin do not allow citizens to carry concealed weapons under any circumstances, so one has to wonder how many additional states would repeal their concealed carry laws if required instead to accept other states weaker regulations.

3. Once again, the blatantly corrupting power of interest group money is on full display. And nobody is even slightly embarrassed. There was no large constituency clamoring for the right to carry their handgun outside of their home state. It was nothing more than an arbitrary and needless expansion of the law that found voice in the legislature for two reasons. First, the gun lobby is so wealthy and so powerful that they regularly use that wealth and power to bring to congress ANY legislation that weakens firearm regulation. They use it to force elected representatives to publicly support virtually unregulated firearms ownership in the US, preventing Members of Congress from avoiding the issue, and giving pro-gun candidates leverage over gun-control advocates in many, if not most districts. And for the Republican Party, so badly damaged after 8 years of Bush/Cheney they are left with nothing but fear, hate and bigotry, this was nothing short of a political windfall, a win-win opportunity of the first order. If the law was enacted, they had a rare legislative victory. If the law failed or was vetoed, they had the opportunity to further scare-monger the President as a socialist out to take away their guns. Either way, they would be happy with the outcome.

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