Twenty states have passed "Constitutional Carry" laws in anticipation of another Democrat gun grab.  While open carry and concealed carry without permit is a shot across the bow, let's not get misty.  Gun control is one of two issues Republicans roll out every election, abortion being the other one, even though they lost that.  They also lost on marriage.  Why tempt fate?

Because Republicans think their constituents are knuckle-dragging white supremacists and religious fanatics.  They won't say that.  They just let Democrats say that unchallenged.  But times are tough for Republicans.  They are losing their Facebook accounts.  Maybe if Republicans let us play Wyatt Earp, we'll vote for them again, and they can lever Mark Zuckerberg.  Just to be sure, they can run Tim Scott in 2024 and play "gotcha" with racial slurs — a winning strategy if ever there was one.

Without due process, however, quick draw is headed for drum head Chauvin trials.  And don't expect any mighty Republican to stand up against that victim you "brutally murdered."  That's how Senator Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.) still refers to George Floyd.

Maybe if Tim Scott spoke about "resisting arrest" reform?  The racial slurs Democrats would hurl!  But no: not even Marjorie Greene, Matt Gaetz, Allen West, or Laura Loomer will touch it.  The last people we want crafting police reform are the relatives of those whom the police "brutally murdered," Senator Scott.  Reform school would be better than police reform.  I'm talking about Republicans here, not Minneapolis, Chicago, or New York.  Justice for Ashli Babbitt, Derek Chauvin, and the persecuted protesters of 6 January held in FBI dungeons would do better with that.  We could even defund the FBI.  Otherwise, if you really need a gun just to walk the dog, it's time to move.

This isn't an anti-gun rant.  Carrying a firearm isn't a bad idea, provided you really know how to use it.  That was the intent of the concealed carry permit, which Texas Republicans abolished.

The Texas course, years ago, required the applicant to competently operate the pistol  and put a box full of ammunition into a man-size target rather than spray them all where bystanders might be in a real encounter.  Good idea!

The instructor was good, too.  Amazing, how many people came out to the course with no idea how to operate the pistol.  These were all women, by the way.  One discovered that she couldn't pull the slide back without some instruction in how a weaker person might do that.  Of course, if you can't lock the slide back, you can't clear a jam.  With an unprecedented number of first-time gun owners, more instruction would better than pandering politics — especially since a lot of them are liberals who never liked guns to begin with.  BLM may have shown them the light, but if you can't operate your firearm, your assailant might give it a try.

None of this is a problem for those who already know what that little knob at the end of the barrel is for. Defending yourself in court is something else, however.  The conflict de-escalation presented in the course was a good way to avoid that.  Because even if ruled self-defense, you still have the bereaved family of that stellar breadwinner you just shot.

Open carry is intimidating, but you are also displaying expensive hardware not everyone can get his hands on.  One of them is Laura Loomer.  She claims it's because of her political opinions, which are pretty much all over the place, but she also has a rap sheet.  A black cast production of Hamilton is annoying.  But getting arrested for disrupting the performance doesn't display the sort of judgment we'd like to see behind lethal force.  Imagine if she had been armed when she handcuffed herself to the Twitter HQ front door in NYC.  This is not a person inclined to de-escalating things.  Laura Loomer and Al Capone are different, but Republican amnestied all.

We'd like Republicans to represent us, the majority, the law-abiding, not another lunatic fringe.

Besides, gun control isn't in the hands of politicians any longer — not with gun shops bare and waiting lists for reloading components.  Republicans may think that they are standing up for our rights, but we already did that. Not even under Obama did a box of 9 mm retail for over one hundred dollars.

Donald Trump was our last hope, and he blew it.  Decertifying the election results of 2020 was the Republicans' last hope.  Republicans were Big Business's last chance to avoid big taxes and they blew it, too. Conspiracy theories are rationalizing the absurd, at this point.  Fact is, luck is more of getting rich than brains while patriotism has become the last refuge of the scoundrel.

So, this is no time to get misty.  Vote for the lesser of two evils, and you've still got evil.  If Republicans are really serious about another election, they need a mass primary purge before 2022 and a load of new faces.  But don't hold your breath.  Chances are, this is the last act in the play, when people say they should have seen it coming.

Image via Pxhere.

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