Gun Reform Groups React to Mississippi Law Allowing Guns in Church abcnews.go.com‘s headline proclaims. Before passing on the glad tidings of the Magnolia State’s transition to full Constitutional Carry (no permit required) and “allowing” church members to undergo firearms training to provide armed security for their congregations, a quick word about ABC’s word choice. Gun reform? Are we to assume that guns go bad and that they can be reformed? No. Of course not. But rebranding gun control as “gun reform” is the worst kind of agitprop. The kind to which George Orwell gave his name. OK, so, let’s celebrate gun control groups’ freak out at Mississippi’s gun rights restoration via the enactment of HB 786, the Church Protection Act . . .
In a statement to ABC News, the Mississippi chapter of Moms Demand Action for Gun Sense in America called the law “extreme” and accused the governor of “dramatically expanding the right to carry” guns.
“Our Governor failed us today….” said volunteer chapter leader Shirley Hopkins Davis. “Dismantling the system that requires a permit to carry a concealed handgun in public flies in the face of public safety and common sense.”
Davis said she fears Mississippi will “go back to the wild, wild West.”
Wait. Is Mississippi even in the West? Not according to the U.S. Census Bureau. Back in the day, but not for a whole lot of years, anything west of the Mississippi River was called “the West.” As Mississippi lays to the east of the Mississippi River, I’m thinking nope, it’s a southern state and a southern state only.
Not to mention the fact that the “wild, wild West” wasn’t nearly as “wild” as the urban hellholes on the East Coast [see: Gangs of New York]. Hellholes to which racist Southern gun control was transplanted and found fertile ground – to no appreciable positive effect. Save the loss of individual liberty. Which the South is busy reclaiming for all its citizens regardless of race or creed. Where was I? Right. Gloating.
Everytown for Gun Safety said in a statement: “There’s simply no good reason to pass a law that makes Mississippi less safe from the threat of gun violence.”
Everytown Survivor Network member Arnita Spencer, whose 20-year-old son Lamar was shot and killed in Jackson in 1996, said there are some people who are in “no position to carry a concealed handgun” in public.
“Families like mine know all too well what can happen when a dangerous person has his hands on a loaded gun,” Spencer said.
Everytown’s right! There is “no good reason to pass a law that makes Mississippi less safe from the threat of gun violence.” Which is why Mississippi got rid of the gun control laws that do exactly that. Clearly, Everytown doesn’t “do” irony.
The law even drew opposition from a Mississippi police association. Ken Winter, executive director of the Mississippi Association of Chiefs of Police, told the Associated Press on April 1 that the provision lowering requirements to carry concealed guns would make it harder for law enforcement to stop people who appear to be engaged in wrongdoing. He also said the law could raise the “threat level” to officers.
Good to see that ABC is happy to re-fight a lost battle after it’s lost. While I don’t expect a “nothing happened” follow-up to this story in, say, a month’s time, at least they end with a quote from the NRA.
“Gov. Bryant stood strong for the Second Amendment by signing this significant bill, in spite of billionaire Michael Bloomberg’s attempts to spread lies about it,” said Chris W. Cox, executive director of the National Rifle Association’s Institute for Legislative Action (NRA-ILA). “It’s a great day for law-abiding gun owners in Mississippi. This will allow them to carry firearms for personal protection in the manner that best suits their needs.”
Can I get an amen?