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| Senate narrowly rejects law allowing interstate concealed carry | ||
| 2009-07-22 | ||
| The Senate narrowly rejected a measure to allow people to carry concealed weapons from state to state Wednesday. The vote was 58 to 39. The amendment needed 60 votes to pass. The measure, which split Democrats, would have required each of the 48 states that allow concealed firearms to honor permits issued in other states. Supporters of the measure argued it would help deter criminals; opponents claimed it would endanger innocent people by effectively forcing most of the country to conform to regulations in states with the loosest gun ownership standards.
"People travel," he said on CNN's American Morning. "We have truck drivers on our roads, people traveling for vacation in their vehicles, and if you have a license... you should be able to use that license in other states. It should apply like a driver's license," he said. He argued that concealed weapons deter crime. But Republican Michael Bloomberg, the mayor of New York City and an opponent of the law, said the proposed amendment would trample on states' rights. "Wyoming shouldn't be subject to New York state laws, and we're going in that direction," he said. "What's right for the people of Wyoming isn't necessarily right for the people of New York and vice versa." Bloomberg insisted that guns do not make people safer. "There's no evidence that if you have a gun, you're safer. Quite the contrary. If you have a gun at home, [you are] something like 20 times more likely to have somebody in your house killed," he said on American Morning.
The issue has blurred Capitol Hill's usual partisan lines. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, a Nevada Democrat, is one of several Southern and Western Democrats who supported the measure. Others Democrats opposed it. The full Senate vote came in the form of an amendment to a larger defense appropriations bill. For gun control advocates, the fight over the proposal was the latest in a series of unexpected setbacks since the start of the Obama administration. In May, President Obama signed a credit card bill that included a provision allowing people to carry guns in national parks. Another bill that would have given the District of Columbia's representative in Congress full voting rights stalled earlier in the year after Senate Republicans attached a provision that would have eased tight gun controls in the district. | ||
| Posted by:gorb |
| #3 You can malmost smell the mouth frothing of Bloomberg. |
| Posted by: AlmostAnonymous5839 2009-07-22 18:25 |
| #2 Every time I hear a lefty (and here I must sadly include the current Mayor of New York) go on about states' rights and federalism I look up to see what color the sky is. |
| Posted by: Iblis 2009-07-22 16:18 |
| #1 I read this as "WE ARE NOT LETTING YOU SERFS FREE" and "ONLY COPS CAN KILL PEOPLE" Bullshit control freaks however you read it. A further undermining of your Constitutional Right To BEAR (own and keep) Arms With a good measure of Divide And Conquer. |
| Posted by: Redneck Jim 2009-07-22 14:45 |