This Should Go Over Well...

The Georgia General Assembly has decided to consider a bill exempting itself from the gun control laws it imposes on everyone else. You might think they are chiefly interested in being able to carry a firearm to work during days when the Legislature is in session. No, actually, that's the one thing they're omitting. The exception to the law is structured as follows:
Current and former members of the General Assembly who possess a valid weapons carry license issued in this state; provided, however, that no member of the General Assembly shall be authorized to carry a weapon within the chamber of the House of Representatives or the chamber of the Senate.
Special privileges for the government, the law for the little people. Well, we'll see if they have the guts to go through with it. I gather it's getting a pretty hot response from the citizenry.

UPDATE: See the comments for a list of email addresses of the committee members considering the bill. I noted there that we can't be sure how many of them support it, so letter writers should not assume that they are writing to opponents.

UPDATE: Rep. Kevin Cooke, one of the committee members, has gotten back to me to clarify that he personally opposes the bill. He writes to express strong support for a strict-constructionist reading of the 2nd Amendment, and the right to bear arms. So we have at least one friend on the committee!

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

You live in GA, right? You should investigate the bill's sponsors:

Sponsored By
(1) Hill, Calvin 22nd(2) Powell, Alan 32nd(3) Taylor, Darlene 173rd
(4) Talton, Willie 147th(5) Hitchens, Bill 161st(6) Weldon, Tom 3rd

Get their names out there. And addresses and stuff. Things people should know and be aware of.

Grim said...

Here are the email addresses -- you can derive the names -- for the committee currently considering the bill. I'm not sure which of them are leaning against it, or for it, so if you write them don't assume they're supporters.

alan.powell@house.ga.gov; darlene.taylor@house.ga.gov; alex.atwood@house.ga.gov; bill.hitchens@house.ga.gov; dustin.hightower@house.ga.gov; eddie.lumsden@house.ga.gov; gerald.greene@house.ga.gov; jay.neal@house.ga.gov; kevin.cooke@house.ga.gov; willie.talton@house.ga.gov; calvin.hill@house.ga.gov

Grim said...

Also, if you're interested in these issues, try signing up with Georgia Gun Owners. They're Georgia-focused, and pretty rabid.

douglas said...

Wouldn't a law like this be as against the 14th amendment, perhaps a bit in reverse of the way that would normally be perceived (usually a law targeting a person or group), but surely it's disallowing equal protection under the law. It grants a class of citizens (the legislators past and present) to have a right that the rest of the citizenry would be denied.

Grim said...

You would think so, but so far nobody's made that argument successfully. They're just adding themselves to a longstanding law that gives special exceptions to certain classes (e.g., district attorneys).

Anonymous said...

Off the topic, has anyone seen the "no more hesitation" targets being supplied to the Government? Like something that would be supplied to the "Einsatzgruppen". They are disturbing on a visceral level.
Unlike all other official government products, they are uniquely non-diverse. Just an oversight, surely.
Love to hear your comments on them, Grim-they represent a sort of "anti-chivalry".



Grim said...

Yes, I should really write about them. I've been avoiding it because I don't wish to antagonize some of our readers further following certain recent heated discussions, but I suppose you're right: it really ought to be considered in just that light.