AP photo from foxnews.com, weapons from a gun buy-back program in Trenton, NJ.It’s enough to make you puke. As if North Carolina’s super-majority right-wing legislature hasn’t done enough to flaunt its power and make life harder for many of its citizens, lawmakers enacted a “save the gun” bill that makes it ILLEGAL for law enforcement agencies to destroy weapons that they seize, including those used in crimes.
Police and sheriff’s departments can use seized weapons for training, but they can’t destroy them. Intead, they’re expected to SELL unused firearms back to the public, according to the new law.
That’s right, sports fans. Kowtowing to the NRA and others who worship at the altar of an almighty Second Amendment far more encompassing than anything the founders ever had in mind, sponsors of the bill pretended that its purpose was financial responsibility, requiring law-enforcement agencies to help pay their own way by becoming gun dealers. They might as well be required to sell all that crack, meth, and marijuana that they confiscate, too, and really boost their income.
In cities where common sense has at least some sway, administrations institute gun buy-back programs in an effort to decrease the amount of lethal weaponry available for potential misuse.
But not in North Carolina, where the bogus appeal for funds will increase the supply of guns.
Requiring law enforcement officials to take the same guns they’ve seized from criminals and put them back on the open market is not only immoral but insane. How can any legislator smart enough to manage a list of campaign contributors not see that?
Oh, and all those guns that have been saved? Thanks to the red juggernaut, residents with a concealed weapons permit can now take them just about anywhere that doesn’t have a sign specifically prohibiting guns, including bars, restaurants, and school or university parking lots. Not to mention public recreation areas, including playgrounds.
I love North Carolina, but the boys in Raleigh seem to be doing their best not only to embarrass its citizens, but to endanger them.
Here’s hoping that voters (at least those who aren’t turned away by the state’s new voter suppression law) are paying attention.