Hijacking the usual summary – act accordingly.
Y’know I can comprehend (but not sympathize) why Texans are like that. Living up to all that Texas-Ranger-Alamo-Davy-Crockett-John-Wayne thang, playing cowboys for the better part of the last century, all that gun-totin’ and shootin’-iron stuff is part of their, for lack of a better term, culture.
But, really, how does that play into Michigan culture?
The state Senate just passed two bills that would — get this — ban open carry firearms in polling places and surrounding areas, including temporary early-voting sites. These two bills now have to pass in the state House before our beloved Gov Whitmer may sign them into Michigan law with her mightier-than-the-sword fountain pen. Apparently, these proposed bills may meet some GOP resistance.
What I want to know is, and I’m asking the as-of-today 256 subscribed members and also non-subscribed visitors of this community, the answer to one thing…
Why would anybody ever realistically need a firearm in a voting booth?
Is the hunting good? Are there bats or owls in the rafters? Is Frank Miller in town? No, not that coincidentally-named Frank Miller, the emotionally-stunted adolescent-fiction writer/illustrator. Maybe you heard there’s gonna be skeet afterward? Maybe just to be “prepared for anything”? Or you’re just paranoid.
All snark aside, someone has got to explain this to me and/or why the state House of Representatives would ever try to block a no-brainer set of bills from passing.
It less about needing a gun in a polling place and more about it being a hurdle to carrying in general.
So you have to leave the gun in the car, but what if the parking lot is in range? Now you have to leave your gun at home or risk a charge that could lose all your guns. Generally the goal of legislation like this is to effectively ban open carrying by making it impractical to ever do so.
While obviously there are flaws to the original text, it did have pretty specific timeframe and location restrictions. Near polling places and ballot drop-offs, for a period of 40 days during an election.
This sounds like you see this as a problem. Do you carry going to Kroger for milk?
I don’t carry, but I don’t care to restrict others from doing so.
So you don’t have a problem with someone else packing while, say, shopping at Meijer’s?
Nope. I’ve had friends that carry open and concealed, it’s not really any of my business. Personally I think normalizing the sight and handling of guns would be good for everyone involved. Gun safety classes as part of school would probably save more lives than banning access.
Okay, cowboy. Tell that to the Crumbleys. Or the families of Madisyn Baldwin, Tate Myre, Hana St. Juliana or Justin Shilling. Or maybe Anthony McRae and his victims…oops, too late. How about Halisa Lloydnette-Christine Brown and Sturlin Markese Minion? They certainly could have used a lesson or two. Y’know, before their five-year-old blew his face off with their unsecured gun. I imagine Michael Tolbert is thinking, “gosh, I could’ve used a couple of gun safety classes.”
It’s gun culture that’s killing us. We are desensitized to it and will never admit it. By the way, nobody is talking about banning access.
You can punish someone who doesn’t secure their gun after the fact, but that doesn’t save lives. Teaching kids about guns so they don’t accidentally shoot themselves or others, could save lives. You could probably even come up with a way to charge someone with endangerment if you really wanted.