As I wrote on Wednesday, some anti-gun officials in the Michigan Senate have decided that residents of that state shouldn’t be allowed to exercise their constitutionally-protected right to keep and bear arms. They introduced a bill that would ban guns completely from the capitol building.
This, of course, came as there has been ongoing debate regarding the commission responsible for creating and enforcing gun rules at the capitol possibly banning open carry.
The bill would sidestep the commission completely. In fact, there is a measure calling for ending the commission itself.
So, this is bad news for Michigan, right? Well, not really. It seems it’s been sent somewhere to die.
Two bills banning guns inside the state Capitol are now in a committee that a state senator says is “where bills are sent to die.”
Senators Dayna Polehanki (D-Livonia), and Senator Rosemary Bayer (D-Beverly Hills) introduced two bills banning guns inside the building. The Michigan Capitol Commission took up the issue two weeks ago, but tabled it to get input from House and Senate leaders.
“Today, the bills were referred to the Committee on Government Operations which if you’re around Lansing a lot, that’s where bills are sent to die,” said Senator Polehanki.
Senator Polehanki is again calling on the Capitol Commission to take action. She previously introduced a resolution urging the commission to ban guns and install security checkpoints. That resolution has not made it out of the Government Operations Committee.
Polehanki, however, is little more than an opportunistic liar.
See, as noted in Wednesday’s post, she claims that the openly-carried firearms were about intimidation and presented it as though that was the motive behind her bill.
Yet, it’s not.
After all, her bill also banned concealed carry. No one can legitimately claim that a concealed firearm is intimidating. After all, by definition, an concealed firearm is concealed. It’s there, but practically invisible. No one can be intimidated by something they can’t perceive with human senses.
If her measure was about keeping lawmakers from being intimidated, she should have stopped at open carry. It would have still been a pile of male bovine excrement, but it could have at least been plausible. Instead, Polehanki wants to lower the boom on all forms of carry, which tells you where her priority really is.
By sending the bill somewhere to die, it’s clear that her efforts aren’t appreciated by at least some of her colleagues.
The truth of the matter is that a large portion of Michigan is filled with people who hold their Second Amendment rights sacred. They vote for candidates based on that, which means a significant portion of the legislature are filled with people who hold similar opinions. Polehanki can try to force the rest of the state to comply with her whims if she wants, but it’s not going to work.
Polehanki, a former school teacher, seems to view the rest of the state as recalcitrant students who need to be shown their place.
Luckily, it seems at least some of her colleagues are just as recalcitrant. Thankfully.
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