Bill O’Reilly is a gun rights advocate like Adi Himelbloy [not shown] is a Jenny Craig spokesperson. It kinda makes sense—until you think about it. Adi is way too sexy for Jenny’s target market and O’Reilly hearts gun control. The Foxenator wants background checks on anyone who even thinks about buying a gun, supports an assault weapons ban and considers firearms training a must. In other words, O’Reilly’s happy to erect “common sense” barriers for Americans seeking to exercise their allegedly un-infringable Constitutionally protected right to keep and bear arms. Why? Because the Foxpopulist doesn’t trust the people with guns. He believes in gat gatekeepers. In this the anti-spinmeister is hardly alone . . .
In Alabama—yes, Alabama—the editorial board of the Gadsden Times are uncomfortable with new legislation that would remove local sheriff’s discretion over the firearm permitting process.
Now, a person applies for a permit and undergoes a background check. County sheriffs have the final say-so, however, and can reject a permit even if the applicant checks out.
The new proposal would remove that discretion and force sheriffs to issue permits to any applicant who passes the background check. It also would make pistol permits valid for five years instead of one, adjust the fee structure for permits and allow an issued pistol permit to be used as a background check when a gun is purchased.
An NRA official said giving sheriffs the final call on pistol permits is “subjective.” Sheriffs across the state aren’t happy with the idea and say they’re in the best position to know who in their jurisdictions doesn’t need to be toting a gun.
Well they would say that wouldn’t they? I wonder how many African Americans living in the Yellowhammer state—past and present—would disagree with both the sheriffs’ decisions and, more to the point, their power to make those decisions.
In these enlightened, post-racial (or overly racially sensitive) times, you’d fully expect the Gadsden Times to argue against the O’Reilly-esque gatekeepers. If so, you’d be wrong.
We agree, not because we think sheriffs should have more clout (this issue aside, it can be argued that they already are the most powerful political officials in their respective counties), but because we support local control in such matters. And unless supporters of this plan can document specific cases in which sheriffs have abused their discretion, we see no reason to change the status quo.
Lest we forget, American gun control’s roots lie in Southern racism. After the Civil War, the whites working the political levers of power created gun control laws to disarm African Americans. And thus suppress their freedom. Again. Still.
So far as I’m concerned, the Gadsden Times has it exactly backwards. The system whereby Alabama sheriffs control gun permits is guilty until proven innocent.
Which it can never be because it isn’t. Whenever you have someone deciding for someone else whether or not they should be able to exercise their Constitutionally protected rights, the system, and the person promoting it, is inherently corrupt.
I’ve said it before, I’ll say it again: an American citizen should be able to walk into Walmart, buy a gun, buy some bullets, put those bullets in the gun and walk out of Walmart. Anything less misses the entire point of the Second Amendment.
That said, I understand O’Reilly position on gun control; a position he adopts because he doesn’t want to seem “extreme.” But a word to the man and those who share his [cleverly disguised] elitist views: “reasonable” doesn’t mean what you think it means.