Come July 1, thanks to the first law signed oh-so-runway-swaggeringly by Governor Kristi Noem, insecure South Dakotans will be able to strut about town with pistols hidden in their pants without any government permit. Cops are bracing themselves:
Starting July 1st, carrying a gun in South Dakota will become a lot easier.
“We will be encountering more people that have firearms that are concealing firearms,” Minnehaha County Sheriff Mike Milstead said. “Many of those will be good people. Some will be bad people” [Michaela Feldman, “South Dakota Law Enforcement Ready for Conceal Carry Permit Change,” KSFY, 2019.06.19].
So in ten days, carrying a concealed weapon in South Dakota will be less regulated than circulating a ballot question petition. If the Legislature were as concerned about who carries a gun as it is about who carries a petition, pistol-packers would have to submit their name, phone number, and e-mail to the Secretary of State before hitting the streets armed. If we applied the logic of this year’s House Bill 1094 (which sensible South Dakotans are trying to refer and repeal!), concealed carriers and open carriers alike would have to register with the state and wear a badge every time they carried their pistol in public or face a Class 2 misdemeanor charge. And if they carried one pistol in their pants and another in their purse, they’d have to wear two badges.
Our Legislature’s deregulation of concealed weapons and overregulation of petitions makes clear an absurd miscalibration of fear among our elected officials. Governor Noem and HB 1094 sponsor Rep. Jon Hansen apparently feel more threatened by citizens exercising their First Amendment rights than by citizens exercising a questionable extension of their Second Amendment rights.
In other words, Noem and Hansen and the South Dakota Legislature are more afraid of petitions that of pistols.
Funny: I have yet to hear of any of my circulators accidentally shooting themselves or other citizens with a petition.
Petitions are dangerous and have been known to kill guns. The pen is mightier than the sword.
Abdurd. Brilliantly tragic. A “Constitutional” right to hide guns and shoot people.
Sure glad guns don’t shoot people.
“Good” guys with hidden guns shoot people. Frightened guys hide guns and shoot people. Unafraid babies find hidden guns and shoot their frightened mothers. Stand your ground. Frightened “good” guys with hidden guns can shoot anyone they fear. Unafraid teens play with frightened mom and dad’s guns at friends homes after school, and shoot one another. Depressed people impulsively grab loaded guns laying around and that moment is gone-forever. Devastation to everyone related and associated-a lifetime.
Frightened legislators take away constitutional rights to initiate and refer legislation from citizens, the good guys.
Ever read the monthly NRA magazine? Completely fetishizes sexy guns and accessories. Tactical kevlar, tatical klennex. You name it. Juvenille perspectives toward all things guns. Bottom line, buy guns. Be afraid. Shoot people. Get away with it. Propaganda as bad as Rupert Murdoch’s Fox “News”. More like Entertainment Nightly. ET.
Ammosexuals are always afraid. I’m sure there’s a high rate of anti-anxiety prescription medications amongst them.
Why? Right now they fear the loss of power worse than loss of life. When one of them dies, they will think differently Here is their rub: when you strip people of their rights to petition for redress of grievances you invite protests. When you shut off avenues of protest, you invite uprising. When you crack down on uprising, you invite insurrection and assassination. We need the widest possible freedom for guns, because, ultimately, it might require guns to remove these people permanently. They will then feel the loss of life more than loss of power. That’s the way our founders thought government should work. The tyranny starts with shutting off people’s right to redress grievances. It ends with the deaths of those who started such tyranny. They need to fear the people, one way or the other.
Great comment Don. Perfectly sums up SDGOP idiocy.
Yeah, Debbo, I don’t like guns and violence, but I’m not willing to lie down for tyranny, either.
I do think that the only purpose for the Second Amendment was the same as the other amendments and the vast system of checks and balances. Many people back then did fear that corrupt and evil people could somehow get control of the government and harm the rights of the people. So, we have all these rights to protect us against tyranny, and all these checks and balances to do the same. But what happens when those systems fail one by one. The Electoral College failed to keep such a corrupt and incompetent figure as Donald Trump from the Presidency. The Congress has long been a pathetic example of a failed institution, and Trump is setting about corrupting the judicial branch so that it fails, as well. We still have elections? Ha. Few people have faith that elections will be run competently and fairly, and won’t be corrupted by foreign interference or voter suppression.
In South Dakota, the long-corrupt Legislature and several corrupt Governors have thrown in with the monied interests to nearly end the initiative and referendum, the ability of the people to have some check over the most egregious overreach of the government. A one-party state with a cowed judiciary ain’t going to protect your rights. It’s going to run all over them.
We’ve had a recent example of what lack of accountability gets you: a Governor who thinks she can bully a high school student to give up her rights. Madison Howard, at least, had courage to stand up and deliver, and she didn’t need a gun to shame the most powerful person in the state. I repeat: she didn’t need a gun to to that. It takes courage. Apparently, the mainstream press did not have anywhere near her courage. So, the Governor caught some shaming for this, but accountability? Not yet, in my opinion.
So, yeah, I hate guns. I don’t like “2nd Amendment solutions” to our political differences, even though the writers of the Constitution, in fear of leaders like Trump and Noem, wrote that amendment into the Constitution. I like what Madison Howard did, instead.
Jenny, do those anti-anxiety meds have any bad interactions with erectile dysfunction pills?
Thanks Don Pay, for your postings! Very to the point and deep thinking,,,