For your delectation and delight, today we present Missouri state Rep. Mike Leara (R), who proposed the following bill:
Any member of the general assembly who proposes a piece of legislation that further restricts the right of an individual to bear arms, as set forth under the second amendment of the Constitution of the United States, shall be guilty of a class D felony.
The good news is that such a bill is D.O.A. since both the state and the federal constitution have prohibitions against such laws. It’s called the Speech and Debate clause, and it was put in place to prevent asshats like Mr. Leara from doing this sort of thing.
The bad news is that a majority of people in a part of the state of Missouri thought he was the better of two candidates in an election.
He later told TPM that he proposed the law as a “matter of principle.”
“I have no illusions about the bill making it through the legislative process, but I want it to be clear that the Missouri House will stand in defense of the people’s Constitutional right to keep and bear arms.”
And the most effective way to do that is by stomping on the rest of the Constitution to make the point. Gotcha.
For these wingnuts, the rest of the Constitution is as relevant as the Bible outside of select verses in Leviticus: they’re necessary padding to add weight to their fixation on 0.0001% of the text.
And you’re assuming that, having read some portion of it for themselves, they understand what that 0.0001% actually says.
New rule: Anyone considering a run for public office must take a civics class and get at least a B on the final exam.
Nearly all jobs require specialized training and some require passing a test and/or licensure. Hell, we make plumbers and electricians know more about their jobs than we do politicians.
Boatboy’s mention of the Bible made me realize that the NRA and other gun fanatics have become the political equivalent of snakehandlers. They’ve latched onto an obscure piece of the text of ambiguous meaning and made it the centerpiece of their politics (or their theology in the case of snake-handling Christians).