Regular readers will know I’m relocating to Austin, Texas. Rhode Island gun owners may well beat back the tide of civilian disarmament currently under consideration by Ocean State legislators. There’s a chance I’ll be able to continue testing “assault rifles” and “high capacity magazines” and maintain my carry permits. But there’s also a chance I won’t. Bottom line: I can’t afford to take the risk. Besides, I know when I, my guns and my conservative values aren’t wanted. That time is now, more than ever. The question is: will it be any better in Texas? For one thing . . .
I’m moving to Austin, a liberal if perhaps libertarian city in the middle of an otherwise deeply red state. BUT the Lone Star State cherishes gun rights, right? And they’ve got preemption; cities can’t pass gun laws, no matter how weird they aspire to be. Although it must be said that Texas doesn’t allow open carry.
Yes there is that. What me worry? Check this from Chris Ladd’s column in yesterday’s chron.com.
I don’t want my gun purchase to be observed and tracked by some Federal authority. I don’t want my private firearm transaction held up for hours, much less days, by a bureaucratic requirement. I want to be able to carry my gun with me and use it as I see fit. The symbolism of gun ownership is important to me.
Now that’s what I’m talking about! Oh wait . . .
At some point, I have to consider the human toll of my rights. How many corpses am I willing to pile up to avoid being inconvenienced at a gun show? How many additional people should die so I can buy a larger magazine? Is there really, really…I mean in the real world not just in Red Dawn, a reason I need such unlimited access to so much firepower? How much carnage am I willing to generate by my pressing need not to be inconvenienced in any way? My gun is in fact a symbol, but maybe it doesn’t mean what I thought it did.
Ladd walks it back Fagin style (“I think I better think it out again”). But the damage is done. Did someone from TEXAS write that? Someone who LIVES in Texas? Sure, mainstream media liberal bias. But TEXAS?
To which the Armed Intelligentsia will no doubt reply: COLORADO. And it’s true: no place is safe from the civilian disarmament movement. OK, maybe Kanasas, which just enacted The Second Amendment Protection Act:
Any act, law, treaty, order, rule or regulation of the government of the United States which violates the Second Amendment to the Constitution of the United States is null, void and unenforceable in the state of Kansas.
Maybe not. Maybe it’s just empty saber rattling, as per the Civil War. Or maybe it’s reassurance for residents scared that even their deeply pro-gun state could be overrun by the forces of gun control, on the local, state or especially federal level.
Truth be told, they’re should be scared. And remain so.
If nothing else, the immigration bills currently under consideration in Washington are ultimately designed to create millions of new voters; the majority of which are or will be beholden to big government for their citizenship and, of course, social programs. Which way do you think they’ll vote on gun control?
To quote the The Fly’s ad campaign, be afraid. Be very afraid.