In an opinion piece at the Los Angeles Times, the Times writes that national reciprocity for concealed carry permits would be bad.
The editorial is from the editorial board, so it reflects the Times official policy desires.
The problem is that the Times cannot come up with any good reason for their opinion, other than the big bad federal government should not force poor little California to do something the California government (largely controlled by the LA Times and other "progressive" media") does not want them to do.
In this case, that something is to respect the Second Amendment even in a partial, half hearted way. From the editorial a latimes.com:
The reciprocity movement is nothing more than an effort to drive states’ concealed-carry laws to the lowest common denominator. Consider Utah, for instance. To qualify for a Utah permit, which is available to nonresidents and is already accepted by 36 other states, one need only be 21 years old, not be deemed ineligible under federal laws (no felony conviction or history of drug and alcohol abuse, for instance) and complete a Utah-certified Weapons Familiarity course, which can be taken outside the state. In fact, Utah has certified 169 instructors in California alone. Utah’s limited restrictions have made the issuance of concealed-carry permits something of a cottage industry for the state. Two-thirds of Utah’s 632,276 permits as of the end of last year were in the hands of nonresidents.The editorial board is careful not to mention that Utah has a murder rate of 1.8 per 100,000 people, one of the lowest of any state. California has a murder rate of 4.8 per 100,000 people. They also fail to mention that people who may legally carry firearms are less likely to commit crimes than police officers are. They are far less likely to commit crimes than the general population.
By comparison, California — with 33 times Utah’s population — has only 79,834 active concealed-carry permits, according to the state attorney general’s office. Among other things, California has a more stringent training regimen and requires a person seeking a permit to show good-cause for needing to carry a concealed weapon.
The LA Times editorial board is bragging about how much they infringe on the Second Amendment rights of California citizens. They imply how much they enjoy doing it. They are pleading with President Donald Trump and those nasty Republicans not to take away their progressive power trip pleasure.
Sorry, LA Times editorial board. You have shown yourselves to be a far greater abuser of rights than the Second Amendment community. Your abuse of the First Amendment as a way to destroy the rest of the Constitution is coming to an end. People do not find you to be credible any more.
Enjoy your long slide into irrelevancy. You have earned it many times over.
©2016 by Dean Weingarten: Permission to share is granted when this notice and link are included.
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