How much longer will gun owners tolerate discrimination and be segregated because they bear arms?
It is increasingly clear that segregating people because they exercise the civil and human right to bear arms in defense of themselves is a disgraceful criminal act of civil-rights discrimination. It is increasing. The perpetrators are growing bolder in their demands and actions.
Their actions are no different than the segregationist policies practiced against other protected classes and civil-rights groups. The reasons are the same as well — fear, irrational hatred of things unfamiliar, pure prejudice, bias and uncontained hostility aimed at the target of their rage, in this case, decent American gun-owning citizens.
Laws and policies that focus on and discriminate against gun owners and gun ownership bear startling resemblance to Jim Crow laws that discriminated against blacks starting in the post-Civil War era. Such laws have been uniformly declared unconstitutional.
The people who perpetrate these “we-don’t-want-you-at-the-lunch-counter” laws are the criminals, not the people they ban from shopping or having a meal with their families.
We have long passed the time when this sort of paranoid and offensive behavior should be tolerated. Folks so irrationally afraid of their neighbors they must ask us not to enter a public place discretely armed (then trust us to obey!) need to seek help for themselves. At the very least they need to discontinue this offensive and discriminatory behavior, or legal action should compel them to do so.
Federal law requires:
[18 U.S.C. §242] Whoever, under color of any law, statute, ordinance, regulation, or custom, willfully subjects any person in any State, Territory, Commonwealth, Possession, or District to the deprivation of any rights, privileges, or immunities secured or protected by the Constitution or laws of the United States, or to different punishments, pains, or penalties, on account of such person being an alien, or by reason of his color, or race, than are prescribed for the punishment of citizens, shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than one year, or both;
Law has already been introduced at the state level to officially recognize what federal law has had on the books for decades (see, e.g., Penn. Human Rights Act, HB38*). Few disagree that discrimination against constitutional rights is and ought to be illegal and punished. When prosecutors and the justice system look the other way it virtually defines corruption, with justice and liberty suffering irreparable harm.
People can no longer be expected to tolerate discrimination and be segregated because of the peaceful exercise of the right to keep and bear arms. Stereotyping these normal Americans into a group with criminals or malfeasance is sick behavior, must be recognized as such, and must stop. Belief that an offensive no-gun door sign prevents gunfire is a delusion, shows disrespect for honest people, and cries out for an intervention. If it were racist instead of gunist, even leftists would understand.
* “Prohibiting certain practices of discrimination because of race, color, religious creed, ancestry, exercise of self-defense rights, age or national origin by employers, employment agencies, labor organizations and others as herein defined;” et seq.
Alan Korwin’s website features plain-English books on state and federal gun laws for the public, and more common sense like you just read. He invites you to write to him or see his work, at GunLaws.com, where you can get his 14 books, like After You Shoot, and DVDs that help keep you safe.