Under the Gun

Last week, the US Senate managed to attain fifty-eight votes to attach an amendment to the defense appropriations bill to allow Federally-recognized state reciprocity in conceal and carry laws for handguns, enabling armed citizens to protect themselves across state lines. This amendment unlike the hate crimes law to give favored status to homosexuals which was successfully attached to the defense appropriations package, failed to win approval by two votes. So a pervert may claim he was threatened by a clergyman's admonition of morality and have him hauled into Federal court, but you can not carry your pistol on a cross-country trip with your family because a bunch of good-for-nothing liberals are afraid of law-abiding citizens being able to protect their families. To qualify for a conceal and carry permit in any state, the applicant must subject himself to a rigorous background check. In many states, the permit holder has been subjected to the same training and testing as some sworn officers. I have always stressed thought and rational action in this forum, but let me now say that the most helpless feeling in the world is to be shot at, with no means available to fire back. What South Dakota US Senator John Thune proposed, if adopted, would have ensured that carjackers in Florida could never again prey on drivers in rental cars or with out of state plates, as there would always be an element of doubt in criminals' minds as to whether the car they picked to hijack contained an armed, trained citizen ready and able to resist. By not allowing an amendment to the defense spending bill that would have made us all safer, the leftists who voted against this, showed they have contempt and fear of their own voters.