Just when you thought our gun-lovin' legislature had gone as far over the deep end into Mad Max territory as possible, our lawmakers up and make gun ownership mandatory for all lads and ladies 21 and above.
Okay, so not explicitly, but under the bills proposed by the legislature's firearm freaks, you'd better be strapped with your gat, 'cause there'll be no more fist fights in Sand Land.
Under Senate Bill 1270, you'll no longer need a CCW permit to carry a CCW. Wanna hide your pistol so the po-lice can't see it. No worries. The Arizona state Senate is looking out for your Second Amendment rights.
See, all these restrictions, they just get in the way of upright, God-fearin' Ameri-cuns. The bad guys, they conceal their guns all the time. And they don't need to take some durn class in gun safety. So why should the rest of us?
Hey, I'm feeling safer already. No more CCW has got to mean more guns everywhere. In purses and boot holsters. Beneath a jacket or a dress. Up a sleeve or in a waistband.
The safety could be on or off. The owner could be a psycho, a rapist or a regular Joe. He or she might have the I.Q. of a fencepost. (You know, kinda like state Senator Russell Pearce.) No matter what, state government wants to give everyone a green light to lock and load.
Then there's House Bill 2474, which "Prevents property owners, tenants, employers and businesses from prohibiting the storage or transport of lawfully possessed firearms in locked and privately-owned vehicles parked in a parking lot, parking garage, or other designated parking area."
This way, if you get fired from your job and plan to wreak vengeance upon your boss and maybe take out a couple of co-workers in the process, you won't have to drive all the way home to pick up your Beretta and drive back. Easy access means an easy kill. And I think we can all appreciate the convenience such a situation offers potential mass murderers.
The state Senate's Commerce and Economic Development Committee today proposed a change in the law, giving property owners an out as long as they post a sign forbidding guns on their property.
Sounds like some sort of commie amendment to me.
Along the same lines, the pinkos over at the Goldwater Institute say HB 2474 could cost the state a bunch of stinky green. They sent out a press release today, stating:
"Under the Private Property Rights Protection Act, adopted in 2006 by Arizona voters as Proposition 207, property owners may be entitled to monetary compensation if the government regulates the use of their land in a way that diminishes the property value. Even if [HB 2474] reduces business property values by only a tiny fraction, the Institute calculates compensation claims could amount to as much as $263 million, in addition to possible attorney fees. Because the Legislature would have enacted the law, the State would be responsible for payouts."
Blah-blah-blah. There they go again, putting their liberal economic agenda over the rights of gun owners.
Other states may think we're insane, approving of sidearms like we do. But then those states didn't just host the annual NRA convention in downtown Phoenix. Heh. So there.
Supreme Marxist President Barack Hussein Obama may be able to deprive freedom-worshipping Caucasians of the mechanisms of Freudian compensation elsewhere in the U.S. of A. But here in Cactus Country, we're beyond the reaches of the civilized world. Beyond all rationality. Beyond the Thunderdome, even.