Once a Progressive State, Minnesota Is Now a Fief of the N.R.A.

The New York Times ^ | September 5, 2006 | VERLYN KLINKENBORG

[neverdem]

Editorial Observer

A couple of weeks ago, I checked into a hotel in Bloomington, a Minneapolis suburb framed by the airport and the Mall of America. On the hotel door was a sign: “Firearms Banned on These Premises.” The next day I drove to St. Joseph, an hour west of the Twin Cities, where I saw the same sign. Slowly the logical conclusion sank in. If firearms are banned on these premises, then they must not be banned in other places.

Sure enough, a year ago the State Legislature passed a “concealed carry” law, which means that it’s legal to carry a concealed weapon if you have a permit. So that no one misses the point, the Legislature has also turned Minnesota into what is called a “shall require” state. If you apply for a concealed-weapon permit, the local authorities must grant it to you.

I asked one of the state coalitions opposed to these laws whether it would attack them in the Legislature this year. The answer was no. It is too busy trying to defeat a “shoot first” bill, which would give gun owners the right to fire away instead of trying to avoid a confrontation. The way I see it, Minnesota is only one step away from requiring every citizen to carry a gun and use it when provoked.

There are some other twists to these laws. A person carrying a concealed weapon cannot be banned from a public building, even if it’s a library full of kids. Churches have succeeded in keeping guns out of the pews, but they’re having to fight another court battle to keep them out of the parking lot. The application for a concealed-weapon permit appears to have been created by people who believe the real threat in carrying a gun is...

[neverdem]

"Once a Progressive State," now the knuckle draggers are in control. Good Lord, those panties are in a wad.

[Billthedrill]

So that no one misses the point, the Legislature has also turned Minnesota into what is called a “shall require” state. If you apply for a concealed-weapon permit, the local authorities must grant it to you.

The term is "shall-issue." The reporter is an ignoramus.

[Jedi Master Pikachu]

If it was a requirement to have a gun with you at all times, then crime could be reduced (if applied only to stable noncriminals).

[CzarNicky]

Once a Progressive State, Minnesota Is Now a Fief of the N.R.A.

And the halls echo with the laughter of my black conservative heart. MAWAHAHAHHAHAHHAHAHAHAHAH

[ghostmonkey]

That "lady" is a raving lunatic. Shall issue CCW laws have proven effective time and time again, in state after state. There have been no exceptions.

She really needs some mental help, I mean spending all that time worrying about who might be carrying a gun?

I have news for this "lady". Criminals carry guns no matter what the law says.

[doug from upland]

A person carrying a concealed weapon cannot be banned from a public building, even if it’s a library full of kids

---

These fools never learn. No law matters to the guy who would take a gun into a library and shoot kids. If he tried that, however, maybe it would be a good idea for the librarian to be armed so he/she could shoot the SOB before he shot kids.

[Carry_Okie]

Slowly the logical conclusion sank in. If firearms are banned on these premises, then they must not be banned in other places.

Proof that a common criminals is quicker to grasp reality than this reporter.

[goldstategop]

Another liberal elitist who looks down on the blue collar riff raff and says they're too stupid to handle a gun properly. "They don't have the training of police officers." Yeah and he unloads on Minnesota's CCW law and its pending self-defense law with the mendacious claim he's a hunter and gun owner - in the same sense as John Kerry. When the New York Times starts printing screeds to the effect that Minnesota is turning a deep hue of Southern Red... you know liberals have really lost it. Its that madness sinking in.

(No more Olmert! No more Kadima! No more Oslo! )

[river rat]

An armed society is a polite society...
A dueling society is a VERY polite society..

Semper Fi

[ghostmonkey]

And Yes, I realize that Verlyn Klingenborg is technically a male, hence the "'s around lady.

And no, I don't mean any insults to women by the remark, I am only pointing out the pansyness of Klingenborg.

[goldstategop]

Oh dear me, it must be bleak to be a liberal in Minnesota with all those crazed gun nuts running around. Fortunately, Klinkenborg can find a gun-free paradise right in New York. And then there's California.

(No more Olmert! No more Kadima! No more Oslo! )

[Tzimisce]

Oh my god! People are exercising their rights! How offensive!

(/sarcasm)

[goldstategop]

They pine for the good ol' days when the DFL ruled Minnesota as a one party fiefdom. They ain't coming back.

(No more Olmert! No more Kadima! No more Oslo! )

[neverdem]

http://www.nytimes.com/ref/opinion/editorial-board.html

That "lady" is a raving lunatic.

I think it's a he.

[Waco]

But did she come out alive? She forgot to tell us. Sounds lke she was in pretty bad condition going in.

[traviskicks]

'requiring every citizen to carry a gun'
----

What an idiot to think that is a goal of anyone.

[Khurkris]

Verlynn...you may be a dumb-ass if...

"I asked one of the state coalitions opposed to these laws whether it would attack them in the Legislature this year. The answer was no. It is too busy trying to defeat a “shoot first” bill, which would give gun owners the right to fire away instead of trying to avoid a confrontation. The way I see it, Minnesota is only one step away from requiring every citizen to carry a gun and use it when provoked."

[Myrddin]

Pocatello is a very polite city. Not much dueling, but lots of CCW and a social calendar at the range that would be the envy of most social organizations. International silhouette matches, cowboy action shooting, youth firearms training, local law enforcement training, long range shooters, airgun target tournaments. That's just the September lineup.

I didn't see the silhouette announcement soon enough. It would have been a hoot to take the Encore pistol with the 15" S&W 460 barrel out for some friendly competition.

[The Spirit Of Allegiance]

maybe it would be a good idea for the librarian to be armed so he/she could shoot the SOB before he shot kids.

---

What do you have against training and arming the kids? (grin)

They do it all the time in the MidEast... (grim)

[goldstategop]

"Shoot first" law - that's what the Brady gun banners perjoratively call the "Stand Your Ground" law passed in Florida and a number of other states this year that eliminate the duty of a law-abiding citizen to retreat in the face of danger before being able to use a firearm. Like any decent person would shoot in the absence of clear and present danger. In Klinkenborg's entire anti-gun jeremiad, he can't come up with ONE scintilla of proof that carrying a gun has made people less safe - or that it has turned America into the Wild West. The reason liberals are losing ground in this country is because they are out of touch with reality.

(No more Olmert! No more Kadima! No more Oslo! )

[The Spirit Of Allegiance]

a social calendar at the range that would be the envy of most social organizations. International silhouette matches, cowboy action shooting, youth firearms training, local law enforcement training, long range shooters, airgun target tournaments. That's just the September lineup.

---

Wow...do you have a link for that, please?

[SteveMcKing]

The Riefenstahlian Wellstone assembly has remained in the minds of Minnesotans...

[The Spirit Of Allegiance]

CASTLE laws means the attacked need not be passive pawns....

[neverdem]

Fortunately, Klinkenborg can find a gun-free paradise right in New York.

Neither NY or CA are gun-free.

http://www.nraila.org/GunLaws/Default.aspx

[goldstategop]

These people are against self-defense. But its no problem for them if the criminals and terrorists are armed. That's the natural order of things and we have to get used to it. But armed, law-abiding citizens are intolerable.

(No more Olmert! No more Kadima! No more Oslo! )

[goldstategop]

No. But they are a gun-banners paradise, ruled by anti-2nd Amendment Democrats. And as long as they are in power, for Klinkenborg and his ilk, those states will never be part of the NRA's fief.

(No more Olmert! No more Kadima! No more Oslo! )

[river rat]

"And then there's California."

Believe me.....California may not be a "shall issue" state, but it is certainly NOT "gun free"..

Semper Fi

[goldstategop]

Oh give 'em time. They want us disarmed and they're trying to figure out how to do so without causing too much commotion.

(No more Olmert! No more Kadima! No more Oslo! )

[JerseyHighlander]

Slowly the logical conclusion sank in. If firearms are banned on these premises, then they must not be banned in other places.

This guy is working slower than a crackhead with a jonesing.

So that no one misses the point, the Legislature has also turned Minnesota into what is called a “shall require” state.

The author AND his editors are ignoramuses.

The way I see it, Minnesota is only one step away from requiring every citizen to carry a gun and use it when provoked.

This man's mental confusion, as evidenced by his following thought "The criminals know they’re not supposed to have them but find them easy to get" is the definition of cultural victimhood.

A person carrying a concealed weapon cannot be banned from a public building, even if it’s a library full of kids.

Accepting the fact that criminials can get their hands on guns, including nutjobs intent on Dunblane style massacres in libraries full of kids and bunnywabbits, he doesn't believe the parents of the kids should be able to shoot the nutjob befoer the kids are the victims and the parents mourners.

Yet it isn’t possible for a member of the public to find out who has received a permit and may, in fact, be packing heat.

This "man" accepts the fact that criminals will know where to find guns illegally, goes on to blame the NRA for criminals acquiring guns, then demands the necessary solution is an internet searchable database of every CCW gun in the state. Maybe he believes "members of the public" and "criminals" are mutually exclusive classifications?

But Minnesota? I grew up thinking of Minnesota as a socially progressive state. After all, it was home of the D.F.L. — the Democratic Farmer Labor Party — and a place where local control and common sense had strong roots.

1. this man equates socially progressive political parties as centralized bureaucracies that keep the citizenry defenseless, and calls this local control. His common sense, as he explicitly states, is a stripping of the individual the right to self defense in the name of the common good. "A nation is formed by the willingness of each of us to share in the responsibility for upholding the common good." Congresswoman Barbara Jordan

Every concealed weapon, with very few exceptions, is a blow against the public safety. The new gun laws in Minnesota take away local discretion over concealed-weapon permits, and they cost the local authorities plenty too.

Mr. Lott has proven this oft repeated notion false. John Lott doesn't have a column in the NYTimes, so he actually doesn't exist.

The last three paragraphs are some wild eyed speculation. It's a really sad piece, the "shall require" mistake sets the tone, the ignorant preaching to the dwindling number of adherents to the victimhood cult of the "socially progressive" state.

[Free Baptist]

Conceal carry with "must issue." That sounds like PROGRESS to me. Progressive? Sure.

[ChiMark]

Yeah, a big democratic sweep in November; not!
Gun control has been a big flop. The liberals are in a fog as they are on every social issue they embrace. Simply it's
do nothing.

The liberal contempt for their bretheren.

[goldstategop]

Liberalism is reactionary. Conservatism is progressive. But you'd never learn that from reading the NYT's liberal agit-prop.

(No more Olmert! No more Kadima! No more Oslo! )

[Stoat]

VERLYN KLINKENBORG
 

The face of generic, uninformed liberal hysteria.

[goldstategop]

A barely disguised one at that. I say let them indulge in their dreams of reasserting their superiority over their lessers throughout the fall. Americans need to see liberals exactly for who they are, when they drop, as here, their phony mask of pretend moderation. They're freedom-denying collectivists.

(No more Olmert! No more Kadima! No more Oslo! )

[goldstategop]

Ain't nothing home to write about. Maureen Dowd looks more fetching. But there aren't too many fetching liberals around. Their idea of a good looking woman is... Helen Thomas!

(No more Olmert! No more Kadima! No more Oslo! )

[Stoat]

Whoops!  Wrong pic above, here is the twit:

 

[goldstategop]

If I had any edit button, I'd have had to correct too many pronouns. Oh well - it wouldn't surprise me in the least if he was a cross-dresser.

(No more Olmert! No more Kadima! No more Oslo! )

[FreedomPoster]

I would add "smug" to the list of adjectives.

[FreedomPoster]

And it works for either pic.

[L.N. Smithee]

I am smiling right now just thinking of how upset Garrison Keillor must be about this. Bwahahahaha!

[goldstategop]

There are a couple of more that could be applied but I'm afraid they would get me banned from FR. What I did conclude after having finished his column, was that the modern liberal is insufferable - and an uninformed bore to boot.

(No more Olmert! No more Kadima! No more Oslo! )

[Stoat]

If I had any edit button, I'd have had to correct too many pronouns. Oh well - it wouldn't surprise me in the least if he was a cross-dresser.
 

hehe!  Sorry about that...see what happens when you are working with too many open windows ?  :-)

He probably is some form of deviant...it might explain his sissified perspectives.

[neverdem]

Mr. Lott has proven this oft repeated notion false. John Lott doesn't have a column in the NYTimes, so he actually doesn't exist.

He's alive!!! So is my memory.

Pulling Rank the thread

Pulling Rank the entire article

[neverdem]

Google images yields both. Check the link in comment# 14. I'll go with the NY Times Editorial Board, and that's rare for me. P.S. Here's another reason for naming kids in a way that gender isn't questioned.

[taxesareforever]

Let me see, if I were a armed robber which business would I set my sights on? The one with a sign stating "Firearms banned on these premises" or the one without a sign? Hmmmm.

[rellimpank]

-b-

[neverdem]

What do you have against training and arming the kids? (grin)

They do it all the time in the MidEast... (grim)

They don't seem to employ much marksmanship skills, if any. Thank God!

[Cheapskate]

Besides,I really don't think we want this idiot author packin heat do we?

[rogue yam]

If you apply for a concealed-weapon permit, the local authorities must grant it to you.

Oh jeeze. If only we all lived in states where the government needs no reason to withold your freedoms. What bliss that would be!

[goldstategop]

Liberals want us to get permits for everything in our lives, since we're too incompetent on manage our own affairs. God forbid we should stub our own toes. The Nanny State will see to it you remain accident-free, too.

(No more Olmert! No more Kadima! No more Oslo! )