Gun Laws and Polite Society

New Hampshire representatives are at it again - concocting more
reckless gun laws that overlap with law enforcement and endanger
public safety. In defense of the latest firearms bills, Republican
representative, Mark Warden stated “an armed society is a polite
society.” He made the statement just before a new bill making gun licenses
optional in NH was passed in the Concord Statehouse.

Vermont is the example of a polite society most cited by Pro Gun New
Hampshire and local defenders of lax gun laws. But Vermont does not
have the most lax gun laws in the USA. That honor goes to Arizona,
Alaska, Nevada, and Texas. Is Arizona a State that has been rendered
more polite by passage of lax gun laws? I don't think so.

Arizona is where schizophrenic Kevin Loughner gunned down 19 people, killing
6 including a Federal judge and a 9 year old girl in January of 2011.
The weapon that he used in this slaughter, a Glock 9 semiautomatic
handgun, can be purchased at any of the many gun shows in Arizona for
less than $500. His 32-shot extended clip costs about $49.95. Arizona law
allowed Loughner to purchase, conceal and carry his loaded weapon without a
permit. The previous Arizona State law requiring permits for
concealed weapons had been repealed under the signature of governor
Jan Brewer in January of 2010.

In Arizona, this horrendous crime is not an isolated incident. Recently,
a couple from New Hampshire was senselessly killed at a scenic
roadside stop by a distraught Marine using an assault rifle. Later he
shot and also killed a sheriff's deputy. In February of 2011, the leader of
the Arizona Minutemen American Defense group, an anti-immigration
militia, was convicted in the gunshot murder of a father and his
daughter and seriously wounding the man's wife. This home invasion
robbery was staged to raise funds for the leader's militia.

The modern militia movement in the US was started by elements of the Ku
Klux Klan and other white supremacy groups like the White Patriots
Party, National Alliance,The Order and Aryan Nations. It has been
joined more recently by skinheads, and secessionist groups such as
those that bombed the Oklahoma City Federal building and radical
elements of the libertarian movement that despise and fear the US
government. The Southern Poverty Law Center tracks the development of
unauthorized  militia groups in the US and has recorded a recent,
dramatic increase in their number to around 1000 total. These are not
polite societies either. And they have been made easier to organize
through lax gun laws.

As if our National Guard, Federal troops, FBI and local law enforcement
aren't enough, our gun-toting representatives in Concord also
proposed a bill to create a State militia in New Hampshire.
Fortunately, that bill was tabled  as “inexpedient to legislate.”
I believe they now call it the New Hampshire State Defense Force. If
this bill gets revived and passed, I doubt whether it or any of the
other gun bills from the New Hampshire House will make us a more
polite society.

They will just make New Hampshire a more dangerous a place to live - like
Arizona.