Posted on 01/18/2012 5:47:31 AM PST by marktwain
At last night's Republican debate in Myrtle Beach, S.C., we heard the candidates talk about whether ex-cons should vote and we heard the candidates talk about the right to bear arms. At the next debate, I'd like to hear the candidates talk about whether ex-cons should bear arms.
Asked about Mitt Romney's attacks on his candidacy, Rick Santorum complained that Romney's Super PAC had an ad that said he favored allowing felons to vote from prison, when in fact what Santorum favored was allowing felons to vote after they've served their prison sentences. Santorum asked Romney: "Do you believe people who have—who were felons, who served their time, who have extended—exhausted their parole and probation, should they be given the right to vote?" After Romney dithered a bit, Santorum added: "This is a huge deal in the African-American community, because we have very high rates of incarceration, disproportionately high rates, particularly with drug crimes, in the African-American community." Finally Romney said: "I don’t think people who have committed violent crimes should be allowed to vote again. That’s my own view." This drew wild applause from the audience, an ugly one even by the standards of this GOP primary season.
Later, moderator Juan Williams asked Romney how, in light of his having signed, as Massachusetts governor, the first assault-weapon ban in the country, and raised fees on gun owners, Romney can "convince gun owners that you will be an advocate for them as president." Romney answered that the state gun lobby had supported his bill, then genuflected before the Second Amendment and concluded, "I do not believe in new laws restricting gun ownership and gun use." Williams then reminded Santorum that he'd voted in Congress in favor of trigger locks on handguns and background checks on purchasers of guns at gun shows. Santorum answered that the National Rifle Association supported these bills; asserted that he voted against the Clinton-era assault weapon ban; genuflected before the Second Amendment; said he played "a leadership role" in passing a bill shielding gun manufacturers from liability; and noted that Ron Paul had voted against this bill. Paul said he voted against it because he was opposed to "national tort law." He also said, "I’m the one that offers all—all the legislation to repeal the gun bans that have been going on.... So that’s a bi —a bit of an overstretch to—to say that I’ve done away with the Second Amendment."
Federal law prohibits anyone convicted of a felony from owning a gun. Seems like kind of a good idea, no? The worst an ex-con is likely to do if given the right to vote is vote for a Democrat. (Because ex-cons are disproportionately African American and/or low-income, they tend to vote Democratic.) But give an ex-con a gun and there's a decent chance he'll use it to commit a crime. (According to a 1999 study published in the American Journal of Public Health, not allowing felons to buy guns reduces the likelihood that they'll commit a violent or gun-related crime by up to 30 percent.)
One deeply unfortunate but hardly surprising consequence of District of Columbia v. Heller, the 2008 Supreme Court decision affirming a Second Amendment right to bear arms regardless of whether one belonged to a "well-regulated" (or even poorly-regulated) militia, was its acceleration of a movement by the NRA to restore gun rights to felons at the state level, federal prohibition be damned. Michael Luo of the New York Times reported last year that in at least 11 states "many" nonviolent felons, sometimes after a brief probationary period, are automatically permitted to own guns after they've served their sentences. In Ohio, Minnesota, and Virginia, violent felons can petition to have their gun-ownership rights restored, and in Georgia and Nebraska "scores" of pardons that specifically allow convicted felons to own guns are issued every year. Even the federal prohibition has included an appeals process for the past 47 years thanks to a "relief from disability" program initiated at the request of gun manufacturers back in 1965. One pardon attorney quoted by Luo estimated that felons have a decent chance of eventually being permitted to own guns in more than half the states. "By [Republicans'] logic," Marie Diamond wrote on the liberal ThinkProgress Web site, "millions of ex-convicts can be trusted with guns, but not with ballots."
I'd like to hear the candidates weigh in on whether they support the federal ban on felony ex-cons owning guns. Should it be repealed? If so, how do they justify giving ex-cons guns but not ballots? Maybe they'll cop out by saying it's something more properly decided at the state level. But gee, we tried here in D.C. to decide at the state (well, "district") level not to allow guns at all, only to have the Supreme Court tell us that (unlike something trivial like voting) it was none of our business; this was a federal matter. As a liberal and as an American I want to know: Are Mitt Romney, Rick Santorum, Newt Gingrich and Rick Perry soft on crime when it comes to letting ex-felons own guns?
Excellent point. I'm using this
yes, they should. Once they have served their time, they should be restored, not marked forever like in some dictatorship communist hell hole.
Photo ID for voting or gun buying article here:
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2834344/posts
They should not be allowed to vote.
Santorum was pandering to the black community when he suggested this.
Repeat offenders, anyone?
Some things one does have consequences. A few felons go on to live good lives and stay out of prison. That should be its own reward.
But they gave up the right to vote.
As for guns, you know the bumper sticker.
Unless post-prison rights to gun ownership, voting, residency, etc is stipulated during sentencing (or part of any agreed upon parole conditions)...then any additional constraints to Constitutional rights amounts to double jeopardy and is unconstitutional.
I would say that this should be judged on a case by case basis, since some of the people affected by this seem to be guilty of minor crimes.
But I don’t think felons, guilty of murder, manslaughter, armed robber, drug dealing, rape, molestation, etc. should have any privileges granted to them.
Same here with my brother. No vote/no guns because of a DUI which he served time for/went to rehab for. (One of the DUI’s occurred when he was SITTING in his car in his own driveway- shrew ex-wife called the cops). Thankfully he is recovered and helping others through AA. In the meantime, he can’t vote or own a gun. But illegals can do both.
I always thought that one’s “debt to society” was fulfilled upon completion of one’s sentence. That being the case, all rights should be restored. If we are so worried about a violent crime being committed by the excon due to his violent past that we keep him stripped of his rights even though he has completed his sentence then we should have hanged him from the getgo.
Are you sure? The NRA has supported a lot of gun control bills over the years (usually on the "lesser of two evils" theory). I suspect that Senator Santorum was following NRA instructions.
You choose to seize the basic rights of citizens because you don’t trust them. Think about who else the govenment can choose not to trust.
I’m well aware that most of them will vote dem, but we don’t have a right to seize their vote because we don’t agree with them.
How on earth did they do this study? An early form of “gun walker”? Who was their test group?
If someone cannot be trusted with full citizenry upon release, they should not be released amongst full citizens.
Bingo !
Guns in unqualified hands may be more dangerous to individual citizens, but votes in unqualified hands are a danger to the entire republic. I believe the voting results for the last 75 years makes my point.
The way it was written it would have ended all private sales of guns. Everything bought or sold would have to go through a FFL dealer.
The NRA fought against the law. Santorum lied.
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