No Second Amendment right to carry concealed firearms.

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Thursday June 09, 2016 · 12:55 PM PDT

2016/06/09 · 12:55

A moment of sanity for America’s gun culture:

A federal appeals court in San Francisco ruled Thursday that the Second Amendment of the Constitution does not guarantee the right of gun owners to carry concealed weapons in public, upholding a California law that imposes stringent conditions on who may be granted a concealed-carry permit.

www.nytimes.com/…

With the timely departure of Antonin Scalia from the highest court, it looks like this ruling may stick. Let this serve as a reminder for how important it is for Democrats to retain the white house and mold the Supreme Court in our image.

“Based on the overwhelming consensus of historical sources, we conclude that the protection of the Second Amendment — whatever the scope of that protection may be — simply does not extend to the carrying of concealed firearms in public by members of the general public,” the court said in a ruling written by Judge William A. Fletcher.

Overwhelming consensus indeed. Let’s put an end to this Republican gun-nut nonsense once and for all, and return to a sane reading of our nation’s founding documents.

Wendy Davis regrets supporting Open Carry

TheFern

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Wednesday December 09, 2015 · 3:38 PM PST

2015/12/09 · 15:38

Politico is carrying an article penned by Wendy Davis where she laments caving to pressure to support the open carry of firearms in Texas while she was running as a Democrat for governor. I’m sure we all can understand what her political calculations were in caving to the gun lobby on this issue. Did it help her in the election, though? In her words:

In the end, there is no question in my mind that my decision to support open carry actually cost me votes that I otherwise would have had. As it should have. And I doubt that it gained me a single one.

I find this reminiscent of Mark Pryor’s loss in Arkansas for Senator. Pryor echoed the NRA in every way possible. In the end, though, the gun lobby backed his Republican opponent and Pryor lost. Democrats need to coalesce around party leadership on this issue and stop fearing the NRA boogeyman. As Democrats we need to attack the Republicans’ fealty to the gun lobby and take the fight to them.

As Wendy writes:

I had the chance to challenge people’s thinking about unbridled access to guns and whether, in this age of increased mass shootings, elected leaders are responsible for striking a better balance.

All of our leaders have this opportunity and they should take it. It takes courage to be on the right side of history in the face of rabid pro-gun opposition. Democrats have a history of doing the right thing and we need to continue doing so.

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