New Hampshire lawmakers can again carry guns on House floor
Source: Associated Press
New Hampshire lawmakers can again carry guns on House floor
| January 7, 2015 | Updated: January 7, 2015 11:03am
CONCORD, N.H. (AP) — Legislators may once again carry concealed guns on New Hampshire's House floor after Republicans reversed a ban instituted two years ago by Democrats.
The House opened the new legislative session Wednesday with a 228-149 vote allowing the guns. That marks a return to the policy of the last Republican-led House from 2011-2012. Democrats had banned them in 2013, when they controlled the chamber.
The National Conference of State Legislatures says as many as 10 other states allow the public to carry guns into statehouses.
Supporters say allowing the weapons is important for protection. Opponents say it's unnecessary and inappropriate.
Read more: http://www.chron.com/news/us/article/New-Hampshire-lawmakers-can-again-carry-guns-on-5999428.php
= new reply since forum marked as read
Sometimes I wish I owned an A-10 Thunderbolt, ie: Warthog!
This has played out before in Congress when slavery proponent Preston Brooks savagely beat the abolitionist Charles Sumner in an ambush attack on the Senate floor. A concealed weapon is perfect for such an ambush:
The Caning of Senator Charles Sumner - May 22, 1856
Cartoon depiction of the caning of Charles Sumner of Massachusetts
On May 22, 1856, the "world's greatest deliberative body" became a combat zone. In one of the most dramatic and deeply ominous moments in the Senate's entire history, a member of the House of Representatives entered the Senate chamber and savagely beat a senator into unconsciousness.
The inspiration for this clash came three days earlier when Senator Charles Sumner, a Massachusetts antislavery Republican, addressed the Senate on the explosive issue of whether Kansas should be admitted to the Union as a slave state or a free state. In his "Crime Against Kansas" speech, Sumner identified two Democratic senators as the principal culprits in this crime—Stephen Douglas of Illinois and Andrew Butler of South Carolina. He characterized Douglas to his face as a "noise-some, squat, and nameless animal . . . not a proper model for an American senator." Andrew Butler, who was not present, received more elaborate treatment. Mocking the South Carolina senator's stance as a man of chivalry, the Massachusetts senator charged him with taking "a mistress . . . who, though ugly to others, is always lovely to him; though polluted in the sight of the world, is chaste in his sight—I mean," added Sumner, "the harlot, Slavery."
Representative Preston Brooks was Butler's South Carolina kinsman. If he had believed Sumner to be a gentleman, he might have challenged him to a duel. Instead, he chose a light cane of the type used to discipline unruly dogs. Shortly after the Senate had adjourned for the day, Brooks entered the old chamber, where he found Sumner busily attaching his postal frank to copies of his "Crime Against Kansas" speech.
Moving quickly, Brooks slammed his metal-topped cane onto the unsuspecting Sumner's head. As Brooks struck again and again, Sumner rose and lurched blindly about the chamber, futilely attempting to protect himself. After a very long minute, it ended.
Bleeding profusely, Sumner was carried away. Brooks walked calmly out of the chamber without being detained by the stunned onlookers. Overnight, both men became heroes in their respective regions.
Surviving a House censure resolution, Brooks resigned, was immediately reelected, and soon thereafter died at age 37. Sumner recovered slowly and returned to the Senate, where he remained for another 18 years. The nation, suffering from the breakdown of reasoned discourse that this event symbolized, tumbled onward toward the catastrophe of civil war.
Reference Items:
Donald, David. Charles Sumner and the Rights of Man. New York, Knopf, 1970.
Potter, David M. The Impending Crisis: 1848-1861. New York: Harper & Row, 1976.
https://www.senate.gov/artandhistory/history/minute/The_Caning_of_Senator_Charles_Sumner.htm
Preston Brooks:
...Brooks was a fervent advocate of slavery. He is primarily remembered for severely beating Senator Charles Sumner (Free Soil-Massachusetts), an abolitionist, with a cane on the floor of the United States Senate, on May 22, 1856...
Brooks' action was applauded by many Southerners, and abhorred in the North.[1] Although an attempt to oust him from the House of Representatives was made, and he immediately resigned his seat, he received only token punishment and was re-elected by the people of South Carolina (but died before his next term began).[2]
Sumner was seriously injured, and unable to serve in the Senate for three years, though eventually he recovered somewhat.[3]
Brooks' act and the polarizing national reaction to it are frequently cited as a major factor in the rising tensions leading up to the American Civil War.[4]
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Preston_Brooks
Those are both public domain.
Calhoun Conservatism Raises Its Ugly Head
By Max Lux - 11/11/2009
One of the people I spent the most time discussing in my book on the history of the American political debate, The Progressive Revolution: How the Best in America Came To Be, was a man named John C. Calhoun. I went so far as to call him the founder of modern conservatism, and the events of this year, including Joe Wilson's offensive outburst on the floor of Congress, Wednesday night, have added strong evidence to my argument.
Although discussions about the relative power of the states and the federal government had been around since the days of the Articles of Confederation in the 1780s, Calhoun was the South Carolina politician who fused a particularly extreme view of states' rights with a patriarchal and violent conservatism. Calhoun argued that states could come and go into and out of the Union, whenever they wanted to; that they could secede from the Union at any time and for any reason; and that even if they stayed in the Union they could nullify any law they wanted, again at any time and for any reason.
He was also violently opposed to the idea of democracy itself, say that the growing population of the North had no power whatsoever over slavery or any other thing the southern states chose to do, and in fact believed that the Bill or Rights only applied to what the federal government couldn't do--that the states were free to eliminate freedom of speech and religion and other civil liberties. (In fact, most southern states had done exactly that by the time of the Civil War.)...
Calhoun's states' rights theories were used to justify Jim Crow in the South and oppose integration after the Civil War all the way into the 1960s. Today, we are seeing Calhoun Conservatism spreading throughout the Republican party and the right wing movement. Joe Wilson's thuggishness on Wednesday night and the conservative movement's embrace of his action yesterday are just the latest examples. Some highlights from the last year:
Much more at the link:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/mike-lux/calhoun-conservatism-rais_b_283480.html
The Progressive Revolution: How the Best in America Came To Be would be good source material to fend off the philosophy of those who think everything should be handled by dismissing human rights, even to the point of killing those with whom one disagrees. Here is the Amazon book review:
This is an accessible book that delineates how progressives and the progressive movement have created the American idea and ideals and forged the kind of country in which we want to live. It creates a platform from which to argue how progressives today are fighting to improve America, in contrast to how conservatives have always worked to defend the interests of elites.
Each chapter will tell the reader a story focusing on different subjects, such as efforts to enact civil rights laws, social security, the middle class, how the idea of America changed the world, and why most of us can vote.
Lux points out what he feels the Democrats have done wrong during the last decades and how the lessons of history can point to making positives changes. Lux shows how the progressives have been instrumental in creating big positive change moments, and argues that as a new administration takes office in 2009 the time will be ripe for a new big change moment,. He outlines how he believes progressive policies can be channeled to solves the big problems facing us today.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0470395117?ie=UTF8&tag=progresstrate-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=0470395117
A blog piece going into detail the methodology of the faction overtaking the democratic process, was recently posted at DU, but I don't have time to find it right now.
No one should be surprised, who read that piece, that killing others is a huge part of Tea Party groupthink.
Although the last one (Shockwave Cannon) would likely require a Survival Research Laboratories show on their floor, which they likely wouldn't approve
so why should it be a problem in New Hampshire?
