by It is like little kids posturing on the school yard. One kid says something and the other kid says, “Yeah? Well, I did that and this too!” So it is with politicians and firearms especially if they have D after their name.
The latest extreme example of this comes from my home state of North Carolina. Rep. Rodney Moore (R-Mecklenburg) says he’ll introduce a bill to raise the legal age to purchase a rifle to age 21.
Here is his rationale as reported by WRAL:
Rep. Rodney Moore said he didn’t need to look any further than the faces of the victims of the mass shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School to know change was necessary.
“[They’re] very tragic examples of where we’ve become as a society in letting weapons of war be distributed on our streets,” Moore said.
His bill would per the usual exempt law enforcement, firefighters, and members of the military.
You are probably saying, “So what! Lots of people have said they want to raise the age to 21.”
Ah, but it gets better.
Penalties for using rifles to commit a crime in places like a school or public building would increase and the law would require a 90-day waiting period to purchase guns.
“We need to go through a thorough criminal background check. We need to do a mental evaluation and that is why we need the waiting period,” Moore said.
In a statement of extreme irony, Moore concludes by saying he supports the Second Amendment.
Moore said he is a supporter of the Second Amendment, but does not feel his proposal violates anybody’s rights.
“What it is doing is enhancing the safety of that particular amendment,” he said. “When the Second Amendment was written into the Constitution, the founding fathers had no idea how technology, how weapons would change.”
Raise the age to 21, add a 90-day waiting period, insist on a mental evaluation, AND say you are doing it to enhance the “safety” of the Second Amendment. In terms of political posturing that is going to be hard to beat.