It’s amazing to see the difference in how the government treats the First and Second Amendments. Gun owners are given an incredible amount of deference, and can carry and brandish their deadly weapons anywhere they want. It’s virtually impossible to limit who can own or buy a gun.
Protestors are treated like common criminals, are kept far away from politicians and judges (“free speech zones”), and are arrested for being in the wrong place.
It’s almost like the Constitution means whatever people want it to mean.
I think you are overestimating the places where people can carry guns.
Governments have had quite a lot of ability to rope off places as sensitive areas where guns are not allowed, and certainly private property owners are able to set rules against carrying on their premises.
Gun free zones are definitely a thing, meanwhile even disruptive protests are often tolerated even against clear rules about it.
@volkris Meanwhile Governor Abbot is promising to pardon a man who drove his car into a crowd of protestors and then used a gun to murder one of them.
He has a totally different attitude towards the two sets of constitutional rights.
I think that illustrates my point.
100 bills loosening regulations on firearms does highlight that there are so many regulations on them to loosen.
If guns were so unregulated, then they wouldn't have anything to pass bills against. That they are passing legislation against the regulations goes to show that the regulations are considered constitutionally allowable.
Otherwise instead of passing legislation they would just challenge the regulations against guns as unconstitutional and leave it at that.
So right. There are a lot of regulations against firearms in the US. The 2nd Amendment is not seen as all that powerful, and we can see evidence of that in what you brought up, the Texas legislature's decision that they need to augment the 2nd Amendment with further legislation.
@volkris @joe Wow. That’s weapons-grade, deliberate obtuseness right there. Thomas writes a Supreme Court opinion stating that no gun law past 1780 will survive, Gov Abbot promises to pardon a murderer, and Kyle Rittenhouse travels to Kenosha looking for someone to kill and then gets acquitted for doing so. Meanwhile multiple states are passing laws turning protests into felonies.
Two equal amendments. One of which is increasingly treated as an absolutely inviolable right and the other as a mere suggestion. The Constitution means whatever people want it to mean.
@volkris @joe The laws around these amendments are going in opposite directions.
“Texas lawmakers have approved more than 100 bills that loosened regulations on firearms over the last two decades, from blocking campus “zero tolerance” policies that expelled gun-carrying students to preventing hotels from restricting handguns, according to data compiled by ProPublica and The Texas Tribune.”
https://www.texastribune.org/2023/05/10/texas-gun-fatalities-laws/