Colorado ends online concealed weapon permits

[Robb]

DENVER (AP) — In an age where you can buy a car or get a college degree without ever leaving the house, Colorado lawmakers have made one thing impossible to obtain from comfort of the couch: A concealed weapon permit.

A new law requires people to show a firearm instructor in person that they can safely handle a gun before they get a permit, seeking to close what lawmakers say is an Internet-era loophole they didn’t envision 10 years ago.

(snip)

Some Colorado lawmakers were astonished at the ease with which people could get a concealed-carry training certificate. Democratic Rep. Jenise May, who sponsored the bill with Tochtrop, said one of her staffers found a course online and got a certificate in less than an hour after answering eight questions and skipping a training video.

Colorado was one of the few states to pass gun legislation this year, despite national outrage over mass shootings and President Barack Obama’s failed attempts to get federal gun laws through Congress. Laws to provide for universal background checks and limits on ammunition magazines made it through the state Legislature with no Republican support.

Read More: http://www.boston.com/business/news/2013/06/20/new-colo-law-strikes-all-online-firearm-training/nLoPZ9Qh4UnHE8sWVilelK/story.html

[billh58]

1. Sanity is returning

to gun regulation at all levels of government.

[CTyankee]

2. More people are getting the message and getting more serious about guns in our society...

why are we such a freakin' outlier in the world's civilized societies? We might as well be Somalia in our gun policies...sad, isn't it?

[billh58]

3. Maybe because Americans

have never really become fully "civilized." We are certainly industrialized, but the right-wing influence in our society tends toward the survival of the fittest (by any means possible) with not very much room for civility or compassion. The right wing believes that violence is an acceptable response to any perceived threat or societal anomaly.

The NRA has become a huge political machine by playing off of this macho "cold dead hands" Libertarian-influenced rugged individualism, and by buying politicians who are afraid to look "weak" when it comes to manly-man things like guns. In a sense, the same mind set can be ascribed to the marketing behind large automobiles, large homes, and large corporations. Violence and bullying is ingrained into the right-wing American psyche, and has become all too acceptable.

I also sincerely believe that the American public, in general, are swinging back to a more liberal way of thinking, and are growing tired of the right-wing "gunz for everyone" meme. Most of the lax and insane gun laws in this nation came about through NRA-purchased legislation, and not the voting process. As voters become more aware of the obscene proliferation of guns, and the damage they do, Liberal politicians are becoming more willing to buck the NRA and the right-wing NRA-apologists who support the unfettered spread of guns on our streets for nothing more than profits.