Reply #71: that's true -- however --

[iverglas]

There is quite a rational basis for demanding that carrying concealed firearms in National Parks be permitted.

This is all part and parcel of what is truly a vast right-wing conspiracy.

It involves the assertion of rights in order to do things that no reasonable, decent person would ever consider doing.

Examples of such things are pubishing viciously hateful comment about vulnerable minority groups under the cloak of "free speech", and carrying firearms in places where it is entirely inappropriate to do so under the cloak of "the right to keep and bear arms".

Reasonable, decent people are concerned about things like the security of members of vulnerable minority groups, and object to public speech that increases the likelihood of harm being caused to them. It is in the interests of the right wing for minority groups to be perceived as threats to the security of the society, and as constantly playing the victim, etc. The better to undermine any efforts to enhance equality of opportunity and combat discrimination, etc.

Reasonable, decent people are concerned about the security of individuals and the public at large, and object to the public spaces of their society being awash in firearms. They also understand that demands such as these are designed to create a perception that there is a need for individuals to go armed in public because of all the dangers that lurk in every church pew and schoolroom and fast-food restaurant -- all the very bad people who are out to get all the good people. And if this perception can be created and intensified, their goals will be furthered. There will be a greater sense of us vs. them, more public tolerance for shifting from social justice to enforcement and repression, more imprisonment, more disenfranchisement of African-American men, etc.

Reasonable, decent people who pay attention to what has been going on in the US in the last decade are aware of the provocateurs operating within the right wing, in its many incarnations.

This is just one more outcropping of that phenomenon.

No one needs to carry a concealed weapon in a National Park.

But the right wing does need a constant supply of causes it can adopt in order to achieve its ends. Its ends are best served by ensuring that there is a society of people who trust no one and are on constant guard against everyone else trying to do them harm or get their stuff or get benefits they don't have.