“Most states have no laws regarding guns in polling places, because for the most part, they haven’t really needed to make them,” washingtonpost.com reports with uncharacteristic realism. “The confluence of firearms and polling places isn’t something America has been concerned about on a national scale — until now.” Oh. Oh dear . . .
As we stumble into the home stretch of one of the most divisive presidential elections in recent history — complete with eyebrow-raising rhetoric on guns and voter fraud — many election officials across the country are, for the very first time, bracing for intimidation or even violence on Election Day. And there’s not much they can really do about it . . .
The combination of gun-related Election Day rhetoric and a somewhat confusing state web of gun laws has some election officials worried — especially in swing states with open carry laws and a history of mass gun violence.
This election cycle is certainly not one of the most divisive presidential elections in American history. Nor, I’d like to point out, the first one in which charges of voter fraud both proceeded and followed the final tally. Anyway, cue the anti-firearms freedom fear mongers.
“We’ve never seen this level of concern, this far out from Election Day — poll workers in states across the country being trained to deal with guns,” said Erika Soto Lamb, a spokeswoman with the Michael Bloomberg-aligned gun control group, Everytown for Gun Safety.
Wait. What? Trained how? To do what?
Other than training for how to respond in a mass shooting or studying up on what actions define voter intimidation, state laws about guns and voter intimidation are a patchwork of wildly varying regulations.
So . . . nothing out of the ordinary really. Politely ask an open carrier to stash their gun in their car if the polling place is a “gun-free zone.” Call the cops if someone refuses, or someone enters the polling place and starts shooting. Return fire? Somehow I don’t think that’s on the pre-election briefing. Maybe it should be . . .
But I digress. Mayor Bloomberg’s lackies at Everytown want privately owned guns banned from polling places. And everywhere else in every town in these United States, obvs. As does The Washington Post, who don’t mind mischaracterizing any and all pro-gun positions to further their civilian disarmament agenda. Like this:
This new focus on guns in polling places is also playing out in the context of a battle about who can openly carry guns and where. In the past year or two, pro-gun activists and gun-control activists have clashed over whether there are (or should be) limits on carrying weapons in public in open carry states.
Typically, an activist will bring an AR-15 into a Walmart or Target to demonstrate that he or she can, as gun control activists cry foul and try to put pressure on the company to take a stand against it. (Bloomberg’s group successfully pressured Starbucks and Chipotle into asking their customers to leave their guns at home.)
Typically? Typical of the Post, I’d say. But then I open carry. Just not when I vote. Because of my respect for the law. Which is more than I can say for the post and the U.S. Constitution.