Thune Amendment

It's funny that Republicans talk about supporting "local control" and "states' rights"...until they disagree. They want to prevent states and localities from deciding their own criteria for concealed weapons permits. This goes back to an issue I've discussed before: why do citizens need to walk around with handguns when it's 3 times likelier a child will kill themselves with it and 120 times likelier their gun will be used for murder than defending themselves?

So basically the GOP is for "states' rights" and "local control" only when it comes to...

• keeping people from voting (trying to push federal ID laws)
  
• keeping people from receiving welfare and social assistance ("welfare reform")
  
• keeping people from smoking pot (medical marijuana laws)
  
• keeping people from choosing to die with dignity (assisted suicide in Oregon, Terri Schiavo)
• keeping people from choosing to lower pollution (California emissions standards)
  
• keeping people in prison longer and on death row (Bush DOJ demanding longer sentences and death penalty in specific cases)

Good to know.