The Bishop and the Butterfly: Murder, Politics, and the End of the Jazz Age

    Arizona GOP Governor Takes Guns Away from Republicans

    By NCD on Sat, 04/30/2011 - 2:36am |

    Ron Gould (Republican-AZ) will have to disarm when he goes to public events, sporting events, or enters libraries or government buildings in Arizona. Yes, he will have to leave his gun in his car, friends. Is this an outrage??  The Bill involved, dutifully passed by the Republican Legislature and sent to the Governor for her signature, has been vetoed. By  Arizona's Republican Governor Brewer, of 'beheading in the desert' fame. 

    Ron Gould (R-AZ) does not feel safe unless he is packing heat. Unless he can feel the cold blue steel with his hand inside his trouser pocket. He feels secure knowing the safety is off on his gun and it is ready to mow down bad guys. Forget police protection, Gould can't count on their help. I suppose he wouldn't even trust Wyatt Earp.  Even if Earp had Doc Holliday backing him up. Gould knows that his firearm is primed to spit lead on the slightest touch of his itchy trigger finger in the event some nut tries to blow him away. Except now he can't carry it everywhere he desires.

    The good news is Gould can still carry in bars, concealed, with no permit, in Arizona. He can also carry a gun in the State Legislature and onto the Arizona House or Senate floor. Who or what one would use a gun on in the legislature is not clear, but I guess some folks need a hearing aide or a cane, some need a gun. But the Bill in question and just vetoed went way beyond that, Mr. Gould's Senate Bill 1201 aimed to:

    Allow people to carry firearms into all government-run facilities and many public events. The only places or events that could ban firearms would be those that post the correct sign, provide firearm lockers and have armed security and a metal detector. The law would apply to university classrooms, city buses and community festivals that get government permits link


    Maybe Ron Gould is right to be afraid, he did receive what seems like a threat, a note that said tersely,
    "You and Jared have your Glock 9, I have a Remington 270'.
    I am not an expert on guns, but I assume a Remington 270 is a long range weapon and a Glock isn't...... A match between a Glock and a Remington might be like one between a guy with artillery and a guy with fire crackers. Yet the constituent with the flair for nasty letters may have just been bragging that he had a bigger gun than Gould, who knows? Gould apparently took it as a threat, and we don't know if he went out right away and got himself a Remington too.
    On the other hand, maybe if Gould wasn't always mouthing off about guns this other gun owner wouldn't have sent him the letter. All we do know is Gould won't be able to carry his Glock into the MVD office, the city hospital or his local library.

    Comments

    A Glock 9, probably short for 9mm, is a semiautomatic handgun, popular as both a service weapon and a personal weapon. A Remington .270 is a rifle cartridge, popular for hunting large game like deer.

    Maybe someone was watching A Fistful of Dollars, but it could also be a ham-fisted show of gun-toting solidarity.

    It is an interesting question about where one stashes one's firearm before going into a public place that bans them - one's car (or motorcycle, bike or horse) isn't all that secure.


    by Donal on Sat, 04/30/2011 - 8:08am

    The firearm could be left at home. But that would mean you didn't have your gun on the trip over to the event or building. That would be a 'trip too far' for Gould though, too risky. Would you hit the beach at Normandy in June '44 without a gun, say Omaha Beach? For Gould, life's a beach like that beach in France. Bad guys are all around and the good guys need to be ready to take them out.

    Republican Ron couldn't imagine leaving his Glock home. Not ever. That's why Bill 1201 specified that gun lockers be provided free of charge when gun packers disarm to enter an event or building. Thanks to the veto by Brewer, Ron Gould has some very difficult decisions coming up about his gun and his life.

    The gun, where to hide it if he can't carry it, in his life, maybe some buildings, or events, are just too dangerous to visit Glockless....


    by NCD on Sat, 04/30/2011 - 5:56pm

    Well there are a lot of felonies committed in the Arizona House & Senate...So it's best to be armed in those particular locales!


    by Richard Day on Sat, 04/30/2011 - 2:23pm

    I don't know, this could be a TParty/GOP issue. Does the God/NRA Given First Freedom stop at the Capitol steps?

    Maybe the US House could go carry also. It would certainly add some melodrama to Congress members calling out 'You Lie' or 'Liar'. Under the new rules, the verbally assaulted party could stand, holster hanging ready, trigger finger twitching, hand steady and say 'Prove it!'


    by NCD on Sat, 04/30/2011 - 5:52pm