Michigan legislative action thread
Posted on 06/27/2014 8:00:05 AM PDT by holymoly
Most of us don’t completely trust the government. We certainly don’t want government to be able to prevent us from getting information we want or need.
We are against governments suppressing information…unless it is stuff that we personally want suppressed. Then that’s different, of course.
I thought of that this week when Governor Rick Snyder signed legislation that prevents the press or public from being able to get gun records. From now on, we will be unable to find out who owns guns, and who has permits and licenses to have them.
Well, conservatives and gun lovers are thrilled about this, and I’m not surprised. For some reason, those who most feel the need to be heavily armed seem also to be the most paranoid.
State Representative Aric Nesbitt, who enthusiastically backed these bills, said: “By allowing publication of private information about gun owners, some other states have put gun owners and their neighbors at risk. We want to prevent that from happening."
Well, I am touched that he worries about people who keep an AK-47 next to the bed. Last night I asked a Detroit gun fanatic named Rick Ector about this, and he said he was worried burglars would break in and steal his guns.
That seems a trifle odd.
I’d guess a burglar might think twice about breaking in to a place where people are armed. Well, I think these laws are a mistake. I think any law preventing the public from having access to information is a blow to democracy, and a dangerous precedent.
The Founding Fathers knew that. This is why we have the First Amendment in the Constitution. Later, Congress and the Michigan legislature passed Freedom of Information Act.
But in the past year, Snyder has twice signed laws aimed at keeping the public in the dark.
First was the bill that prevented us from finding out who was contributing millions of “dark money” dollars in an effort to buy judicial and other elections.
And now, there is this package preventing us from finding out who has guns. We can legally find out who committed a minor sex offense years ago and where they live, but if a crazy neighbor is stockpiling an arsenal, we now have no right to know that.
By the way, my opposition to these bills is really not about guns, but freedom. We don’t like to put it this way, but we’ve already decided that guns are more important that children.
We proved that when we refused to do anything after 20 first graders were gunned down in their classroom at Sandy Hook elementary school in Connecticut. Last month, Toledo’s famous “Joe the Plumber,” told one of those parents, “Your dead kids don’t trump my Constitutional rights.” Everybody was shocked, but that is really what our lawmakers seem to believe.
However, what goes around comes around. I wonder how conservatives would feel about a law preventing them from getting any information about Benghazi, or welfare cheating.
Well, they’ve just helped create a precedent for doing so. Democracy, as they say, dies behind closed doors. This year, our governor slammed two more in our faces.
Jack Lessenberry is Michigan Radio’s political analyst. Views expressed in the essays by Lessenberry are his own and do not necessarily reflect those of Michigan Radio, its management or the station licensee, The University of Michigan.
we will be unable to find out who owns guns
I wonder how conservatives would feel about a law preventing them from getting any information about Benghazi...
Conflating public information, regarding the government & its' actions, with private information.
I wonder how Mr. Lessenberry would like his medical records available to the public? After all, if it's so important that he know who owns firearms, it should be equally important that the public know if he's ever been treated for mental illness.
What an idiot.
The problem is not having access to records. The problem is that there shouldn't be any records to access in the first place.
An inelegant way to put it, but absolutely correct.
“Well, conservatives and gun lovers are thrilled about this, and I’m not surprised. For some reason, those who most feel the need to be heavily armed seem also to be the most paranoid.”
Just so you all know, Michigan radio = NPR. Their home base is Ann Arbor which is Michigan’s Boston without the historic charm.
Listened to that bunch back when I was in Jr. High before I discovered Limbaugh. What was I thinking!?
Lessenberry’s house should be available on Google Earth if he’s going to be consistent about full disclosure of personal information. Otherwise he’s a hypocrite.
More importantly, since the Supreme Courts' ruling in Haynes v. United States, 390 U.S. 85 (1968), felons are specifically exempt from firearms registration requirements, as it violates their Fifth Amendment rights against self-incrimination.
With that being the case, how firearms registration doesn't violate the equal protection clause is beyond me.
“For some reason, those who most feel the need to be heavily armed seem also to be the most paranoid.”
Just because you’re paranoid doesn’t mean they’re not out to get you.
Like most liberals, he thinks he is being clever. He is right that burglars are unlikely to break in when they know there are armed people in the home, and he is pretending that releasing this information doesn't put our homes at risk for a break in when we are working (something that conservatives almost always do even though work is rare among liberals) or otherwise away from home. I don't want anyone to know what guns I used to have, in part because I often leave my home, and I don't trust criminals.
Does anyone have Mr. Lessenberry’s home address?
I’d like to post a sign on his curb (paint can?) indicating that his home is a gun-free zone and that any trespassers/burglars will not be subject to martial activity.
I wonder...Does he have any kids at home that likewise will not raise a firearm in their physical defense? Chilling.
Pretty shitty political analyst.
Your neighbor's buying of firearms (I'll dispense with the "crazy" and "arsenal" BS used by the author) isn't a crime.
More of the same. Some damn statist wants to direct social ostracism against a group he disfavors. That, and since they have committed a "pre-crime", they should be stripped of rights without conviction and due process.
Maybe we Conservatives should also wear little yellow Stars of David, too?
I wonder if Mr. Lessenberry sees the irony in the above, as he whines about not knowing who owns a gun and who doesn't.
Probably not...
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.