Mike DeBonis reports on one of the key items on the National Rifle Association’s wish-list in House panel votes to expand right to carry concealed guns in victory for NRA. If the bill were to pass the full House, which seems almost inevitable, and the Senate, where it may run into trouble, people allowed to carry a concealed weapon in their home state would be allowed to carry it into any states that issue concealed-carry permits.
Critics of the legislation argue that the bill would lower standards for permits to the level of states with the least restrictive laws and could create additional risks for police officers:
The bill, which requires states to honor concealed-carry permits issued elsewhere, is the first firearms-related law to advance on Capitol Hill since mass shooters in Las Vegas and Texas killed a combined 84 people. The House Judiciary Committee approved the Concealed Carry Reciprocity Act on a 19-11 party-line vote. [...]
The bill is strongly supported by the National Rifle Association, which this week called the issue its “highest legislative priority in Congress.” The group says mandatory reciprocity would prevent “abuses” in states with strict firearms laws and allow gun owners “to exercise their rights nationwide with peace of mind.” [...]
John Feinblatt, president of Everytown for Gun Safety, called the bill a “ploy to weaken state gun laws and allow untrained people and people with dangerous histories to carry hidden, loaded handguns across the country” in a statement released before the committee vote.
The bill was introduced by Republican Rep. Richard Hudson of North Carolina. It has 213 co-sponsors, three of whom are Democrats—Rep. Henry Cuellar of Texas, Rep. Collin Peterson of Minnesota, and Rep. Sanford Bishop of Georgia.
Britain Eakin reports:
Advocates of gun-permit reciprocity argue that the same logic allows licensed drivers to travel between states, but the researchers at Johns Hopkins call this comparison inapt. Though all 50 states require licensed drivers to demonstrate driving proficiency, only 23 of the right-to-carry state require at least some firearm training to obtain a permit, the school found.
Johns Hopkins notes that 12 states don’t require a permit at all to carry concealed weapons, and just eight states allow for some discretion in deciding who gets a permits. In these “may-issue” states, police chiefs can deny permits to applicants deemed to pose a risk of violence, regardless of whether the applicant has a criminal history.
If the NRA wants to use the motorist example in this instance, why not support it across the board. If it did, gun owners would be required as motorists are to have a license they obtain with written and driving tests, must license their vehicle and renew it annually, and must insure themselves against liability for accidents.
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”Climate change is no longer some far off problem; it is happening here, it is happening now.”
~Barack Obama, August 2015
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On this date at Daily Kos in 2010—Cancun: Modest Expectations:
A 12-day conference on climate change begins today in Cancun, Mexico. It's the 16th such conference since 1995. The consensus view? Don't expect any big breakthroughs in curbing greenhouse gas emissions. Perhaps this is some kind of magical thinking. You know, if we don't raise our public expectations too high, maybe something remarkable will emerge by the time the delegates head for home.
After the rotten outcome at the Copenhagen conference a year ago in which an anticipated comprehensive agreement on curbing greenhouse gas emissions was not reached, caution is certainly called for. Even if something major were to be achieved, whatever the Obama administration signs off on in Cancun is almost certain to be shot down in Washington given that Republican ranks in Congress are now overflowing with climate-change deniers. Sen. Jim Inhofe, who has called climate change a hoax, was once viewed even by most of his own party as pretty much of a kook in this matter. A fair chunk of the elected GOP now apparently see him as a prophet.
So, 15 years after the process began, with predictions of dire consequences from climate change more dire than ever, small steps – so-called "building blocks" - are the best that can be hoped for. This myopia is so despite the prediction of the Tyndall Centre for Climate Change Research that there will be a billion people who lose their homes because of climate change and 3 billion who lose access to clean drinking water supplies.
On today’s Kagro in the Morning show: What a morning! Fires broke out everywhere, and it was all Greg Dworkin and Joan McCarter could do to help keep track of … about half of them. Trump’s racist retweets. Lauer’s firing. Moore tightening the race. The tax bill. Net neutrality. Russia. CFPB.
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