Tag: guns in parking lots

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Letter From The Editor Opinion

Letter from the Editor: Guns in Parking Lots

AP — The state Senate on Monday passed a bill to give people with handgun carry permits the right to store their loaded firearms in their vehicles wherever they are parked, brushing aside concerns raised by businesses and higher education administrators in Tennessee.

Whew. I don’t know about you, but I was mighty relieved when the Tennessee General Assembly made its first order of business for the 2013 session the quick passage of what liberals call the “guns in parking lots” bill. Its rightful name, of course, is the “Safe Commute Act.” I guess the incredible public demand for this long-overdue legislation finally motivated those folks in Nashville to take patriotic action.

Now, at last, the 5 percent of us Tennesseans who have concealed-carry permits will finally be allowed to protect ourselves — and the other 95 percent of Tennesseans (mostly ungrateful and unarmed liberals, socialists, and Muslims) — the way the Founding Fathers intended.

I’ve had to brave my commute to work without my trusty semi-automatic Sig Sauer MK25 for far too long. You see, my lily-livered, unpatriotic employer forbids me from leaving my loaded pistol in my car in the company parking lot. Did they care that they were putting my life in danger by making me drive to work unarmed? Noooo. Sure, I guess I could have parked on the street, but then I would have had to walk unarmed across the street and the parking lot! Holy crap. How uncaring and insensitive could they be?

Like FedEx, Volkswagen, other major companies, and the state’s colleges and universities, my employer thought its “property rights” superceded my Second Amendment right to pack heat wherever I want to. But what have they done for us, lately, anyway? Sure, they may pay their employees a nice salary and help out the economy a little, but that doesn’t give them the right to put my life in danger. Have you driven down Peabody lately? Scary, I tell ya.

But we’re not done yet. Even with this new law, I still have to walk across the parking lot to the building unarmed. What’s up with that? I’m pretty sure by next year at this time, our legislators will have taken care of us and we’ll finally be allowed to carry guns in the office, which is only right. Have you seen that tattooed young sales-punk we just hired? Property rights, my ass.

Plus, once I’m walking around this place with Siggy on my hip, I’m prettty sure I wont be getting any more greif about typos from those uppitey copy editers.

Bruce VanWyngarden

brucev@memphisflyer.com

Categories
Letters To The Editor Opinion

Letters to the Editor

Guns ‘R Us

It appears guns will be the first order of business in the Tennessee legislature in 2013 if Lieutenant Governor Ron Ramsey has his way. As a gun owner and former NRA member, I disagree with his priorities. Tennessee would be better off if we concentrated on bringing in new better-paying jobs and educating the workforce. Delta is cutting flights to Memphis again. I believe the reason is that there are not enough good-paying jobs here — jobs that pay enough so that people can afford plane tickets. 

A law to allow permit-holders to leave their guns in their car on a private business parking lot will not help Tennessee get more jobs. And it could be dangerous, if there is someone with anger management problems or some other mental disorder.

Take newly reelected Tennessee GOP lawmaker Scott DesJarlais, for example. He reportedly held a gun in his mouth, because he was upset that one of his mistresses was pregnant. Never mind that he is a doctor. He didn’t know how babies are made? Perhaps his lady friend didn’t have access to the pill? We need tougher, not easier, requirements for being able to get and carry a gun.

Jack Bishop

Memphis  

Based on Actual Events

Kudos to John Branston for his timely and amusing column on Memphis movies that ought to be made (City Beat, November 22nd issue). Though his tongue was obviously firmly planted in his cheek, I imagine that The Hangover Four, about a “straight-arrow college basketball coach who goes a little crazy and indulges in a super-sized Coke and an order of fries” hit pretty close to home at the U of M last week.

Ron Griffin

Memphis

Unhinged?

Well it looks like Tim Sampson (The Rant, November 29th issue) has finally come unhinged. 

Readers may recall that in the September 20th issue of the Flyer, he advocated changes to the First Amendment to allow only speech that he agreed with. Now, he wants “old white men” to “float away.” Although you have to admire Sampson’s ability to roll his age, racial, and gender bigotry all into one sentence, antithetically, we can only imagine the furor this would have created if he had expressed a wish for all “young black women” to float away. 

So why the editorial double standard, and why does Sampson’s left-wing bigotry and shrill, adolescent polemic get a pass in the Flyer?

E. Williamson

Memphis

Work With Obama

It is time for the House of Representatives to work with President Obama.

John Boehner, as speaker of the House, should understand that half of America does not belong to the wealthy and half of this great country does not belong to the middle class and the poor; we are all united for the common purpose of making this great nation work for all. Paying our fair share of taxes should not divide us.

It was an insult to the intelligence of all Americans when Boehner made the claim that half of the people in America making over $250,000 are small business owners and therefore should not pay more taxes. This claim does not hold water; many of the small business owners, Republicans and Democrats, voted to reelect President Obama.

It is time for Boehner to stand up to the right-wing elements in the House. The voters that gave Obama a second term are very aware of the GOP stone-walling that existed in the president’s first term. The Republicans stated that they wanted Obama to fail in order to prevent a second term. But Obama won. And it’s time for the House of Representatives to restore some trust by working for the people to avert the “fiscal cliff.”

It is in their hands to undo their damage.

Alfred Waddell

Memphis

Your Weekly Dagmar

What is with John Boehner and his gang? Are they mentally challenged or just mean as snakes? Are they not aware of the outcome of the most recent election? They’re spewing direct quotes from (what was his name?), oh yeah, Mitt Romney. Am I deluded, or didn’t he lose the election?

Stick with Barack and you won’t be Baroke!

Dagmar Bergan

Helena, Arkansas

Categories
Editorial Opinion

A Memphis Wish List

CREDIT: Danziger

‘Tis the season to be wishing, as we were reminded on
seeing a list of legislative requests prepared jointly by
Mayors A C Wharton and Mark Luttrell and presented to the Shelby County legislative delegation on Monday, on behalf of both city and county governments. It encouraged us to tote up some of our own wish-list items for the forthcoming legislative session.

Number One: We tend, with some trepidation, to favor efforts which have now become perennial in the General Assembly, to allow the sale of wine in grocery stores. Up to this point, that change in state law has been blocked by the powerful liquor lobby on Capitol Hill. We understand the concerns of liquor store operators, who feel needful of protection as small business owners faced with competition from big-box grocers. But the grocery business itself in these parts is tilting toward monopoly, and a little diversity in wares might encourage some variety in venues, too. This should be balanced by also allowing liquor and wine vendors more leeway in the diversity of products they sell.

Number Two: We oppose efforts, also perennial, to further enlarge the scope of gun-carry legislation. Wyatt Earp himself would have been scandalized at the liberality envisioned in something called “constitutional carry,” a measure which would essentially allow anybody anywhere anytime to pack a concealed weapon. This bill might end up, er, dead on arrival, but not the renewal of efforts to allow guns to be kept in locked automobiles in parking lots. The National Rifle Association, a lobbying organization so powerful as to be a virtual organ of government, backs this one, as it did last year, when a bill to that effect was barely bottled up, thanks to opposition from several of the state’s high-profile business employers, including FedEx here in Memphis.

The NRA managed to exact vengeance on state representative Debra Maggart, the Republican caucus chairperson who kept the guns-in-parking-lots bill from coming to a floor vote last year. It backed her opponent in this past summer’s GOP primary and contributed mightily to her defeat. This obvious object lesson notwithstanding, we hope the state’s legislators have the gumption to hold firm against the bill again this year. No one needs to be reminded of the cases, local and statewide, in which the easy availability of a sidearm has contributed to needless fatalities.

Number Three: We understand that Governor Haslam is likely to back legislation on behalf of school vouchers — i.e., public money doled out to pay tuition at private schools. A formerly tabled bill to that end will be retooled and reintroduced by state senator Brian Kelsey with enhanced prospects for passage.

Kelsey’s bill was focused on what he calls “opportunity scholarships” for low-income students, and we appreciate the good intentions, but such a bill is the proverbial nose of the camel inside the tent — or, to switch metaphors, the slippery slope itself. Any way you cut it, diverting taxpayer monies to private institutions is a dangerous precedent and one likely to further erode public school systems already straining to stay functional.

This is just a first installment, Santa. We’ve got more things on our mind, which we’ll communicate in due time.