High Noon for Gun Law ?

In the Herald we read that on an average day, 85 Americans die from gunshot wounds – more than 30,000 each year.

Every few weeks a mass shooting occurs which would scandalise a nation. In February, professor Amy Bishop shot dead three colleagues after being denied tenure by the University of Alabama. In November, Maurice Clemmons walked into a coffee shop in Parkland, Washington, and murdered four police officers catching up with administrative work before the start of their shifts. Last March, Michael McLendon shot his mother, uncle, grandmother, five neighbours and two passers-by in the towns of Samson and Kinston, Alabama. On Tuesday, in Ohio, school caretaker Nathaniel Brown shot two of his superiors and then killed himself. On Wednesday, police in Dallas charged Barinder Singh with murdering his wife in front of their two small children after an argument at home. Scan a local newspaper in any state on any day and there is likely to be a report about a shooting.

Across the country, states are loosening local firearm laws. The Supreme Court is poised to declare all handgun bans unconstitutional. Federal gun regulations have been weakened through a series of congressional compromises, to push through items further up the Obama administration’s agenda.The Democratic regime has been a letdown to gun control groups. Obama’s campaign promise to require background checks at gun shows has been shelved. Plans to reintroduce an assault weapons ban have been abandoned. It is now legal to carry concealed weapons in National Parks because of a clause in the small print of a bill regulating credit card firms, added to secure the votes of gun-friendly senators. Amtrak trains will soon let passengers check in bags containing firearms, thanks to the latest transportation funding bill.

The biggest changes in gun law are taking place at state level. Montana and Tennessee have introduced laws exempting guns and ammunition produced, sold and used within the state from any federal regulation at all. Arizona and Wyoming will soon allow residents to carry concealed weapons without a permit.any agent of the U.S. who "enforces or attempts to enforce" federal gun rules on a "personal firearm" in Wyoming faces a felony conviction and a penalty of up to two years in prison and up to $2,000 in fines.
Virginian politicians want to end the ban on “buying one hand-gun a month” so people can buy more than one weapon every four weeks if they want to.The Virginia Citizens Defence League is keeping up the pressure, have a proposal to allow gun owners to carry concealed weapons in bars, providing they do not drink.
In states where it is legal to carry a gun openly, customers at Starbucks , McDonald’s, Walmart, Home Depot and even Barnes & Noble bookstores can wear their .45s with pride.

US gun owners are not content with having a firearm in their house should a burglar attack, they also want to walk down Main Street with a revolver on their hip in public sight – preserving the standards of the Wild West in 21st century USA is the essence of the open-carry movement.They equate the cause with the civil rights movement, framing it as a libertarian crusade.

How capitalism can create a climate of such fear and an atmosphere of such paranoia !