PA Bill Number: HB1472
Title: In primary and election expenses, further providing for reporting by candidate and political committees and other persons and for late contributions ...
Description: In primary and election expenses, further providing for reporting by candidate and political committees and other persons and for late contrib ...
Last Action: Referred to STATE GOVERNMENT
Last Action Date: Apr 22, 2024
Op-ed lashes out at "alarmists" over constitutional carry :: 01/11/2022
The gun control crowd sure does seem to like them some dead bodies, don’t they? After all, they use them as soapboxes after mass shootings. They also threaten us with tons more if we don’t do exactly what they tell us when it comes to guns. They’re not threatening to kill anyone, mind you, they’re just being alarmists.
However, as an op-ed from a gun-rights activist in Ohio points out, their alarmism is never right.
For 20 years, I’ve been listening to alarmists predict blood in the streets every time legislators introduce a bill to enable greater freedom for law-abiding gun owners.
The predictions have never come true.
And now that Ohio is considering permitless carry, or “constitutional carry,” the alarmists are at it again. And once again, they’re wrong.
Carrying a firearm without a license is a proven concept. It’s already the law in 21 states, including our neighbors West Virginia and Kentucky. In addition, 34 states, including Ohio, allow open carry without a license.
Opponents say legislation, such as Senate Bill 215, sponsored by Sen. Terry Johnson, R-District 14, would empower criminals to carry guns or engage in dangerous behavior. That is false.
It merely makes licensing optional.
Those who are prohibited from buying and possessing guns would continue to be prohibited.
Areas that are currently off-limits for firearms, such as school zones and posted private property, would continue to be off-limits. And the standard for use of lethal force in self-defense would not change.
All of that is true, but since the author of this op-ed is Dean Reick, executive director of Buckeye Firearms Association, I’d expect him to know what he’s talking about.
But, in the case of the alarmists, facts don’t matter, just fear.
See, they may well know all of these facts. They just don’t care because they know that fear sells. They’re alarmists not necessarily because of any true conviction in what they’re saying, but because they know that a lot of people are driven by emotion.
To be fair, emotion is a powerful tool in political discourse, whether we want it to be or not. That’s why they use it and why they’ve managed to have some success with it.
It’s also why it’s not working now. People are afraid of something other than what they’re told to be afraid of by the alarmists.
True, the fact that they’ve never been right doesn’t exactly help their cause, I’m sure. Nor should it.
See, these people are always screaming about “blood in the streets,” but when the new laws go into effect? Nothing. Absolutely no blood in the streets. None anywhere except in places where they didn’t pass new laws.
Funny how that shakes out.
Look, the truth of the matter is that constitutional carry isn’t going to lead to any such thing. We all know it and I think, on some level, they know it.
But alarmists have to raise alarms, don’t they? It’s just how they roll.
So that leaves it to us to point out the truth and to also remember that people are afraid of something real right now, and that’s the violent crime surge we’ve all seen. Reminding them that if this passes and there is any blood in the streets, it’ll be the blood of those who thought they could prey on the innocent.
Frankly, I’m really OK with that, and I suspect they will be too.
https://bearingarms.com/tomknighton/2022/01/10/gun-control-alarmists-n54201
