South Carolina legislature wants its residents to be able to carry guns to church or school. But does that go far enough?

The US is a crazy place to live, especially for those of us that are immigrants .  It's not that some of us haven't benefited financially by coming here or that we don't love some aspects of it and the beauty of the land, or dislike the native born.  But in some ways its never ceases to amaze.  Leaving aside the lack of social services a welfare state (except for the rich) and the worst television of the advanced capitalist countries for sure and that we live in a 24 hour marketplace never free from salesmen.  The politics here leaves much to be desired.

Workers have never had our own national political party here something that has had an effect on our consciousness. , We've only had two capitalist parties with very little difference between them when it comes to economic issues.  If you take the recent Wisconsin events, both Democrats and Republicans, and regretfully the top Labor leaders all agree that workers' living standards and, many social services should be cut.  However, working class history here is a rich  and militant one.  The US capitalist class is the most ruthless of all of them  and our struggles against them historically can only be admired.  From the early resistance of the Native Americans to a more technologically advanced opponent.  The struggles to build the Unions in the 19th and 20th centuries from the textile mills to the railroads and the great factories in auto, rubber and steel in the thirties.  Then the centuries of struggle of the black people against an Apartheid system leading to the great civil rights movement of the 50's and 60's. The history of the US working is something we should all be proud of although it is much hidden.

The state is the force to fear, especially in the South

But it is a country of extremes that's for sure.  I was reading today that a law making its way through the South Carolina legislature would, as one report states, "loosen gun ownership to an astonishing level. If passed, legal gun owners could bring their weapons to restaurants, day-care centers, and churches."

The sponsor of the bill  makes the usual argument that arming everyone and allowing us to carry these weapons openly and anywhere will make us all safer.  Now I have legal guns mostly because one good aspect of the right to own them is that it is one of the few countries not at war, where workers can.  Rich people and the forces of the state will always have access to them.  Many of the rich politicians that oppose gun laws live in protected communities and in many cases are protected by armed agents at taxpayer expense.  But I'm less worried about criminals and I don't think that the solution to crime is being able to wear a gun to church.  The solution to working class crime is jobs and a future.

The law's sponsor  says that, “It puts criminals on the defense,” that they  "Don’t know if you’re carrying or not.” I am sure he is not talking about criminals like the folks in the state and federal legislatures.

But what's even more bizarre is that the debate in the legislature appears to be that the law discriminates against gun owners, violates their "constitutional rights" because,  "it only allows for adult, state residents to carry guns in these places — not young people or out-of-state residents." writes Think Progress

Here's a list of recent gun laws that South Carolina has passed:

– 2009: New law allows people with concealed weapons permits to keep their guns in their cars while dropping their children off at school.
– 2008: New law conceals from the public the list of people with concealed weapons permits. At that time, about one in 50 South Carolinians, 21 and older, had a permit to legally carry a concealed firearm. One in five state lawmakers had a permit.
– 2008: New law allows lawmakers and visitors to keep their guns in their vehicles while parked on State House grounds.
– 2006: New law says pro-gun laws cannot be voided in a state of emergency, such as Katrina.

"Think Progress" also points out that South Carolina has the ninth-highest rate of firearm murders by state, according to FBI statistics. Just over 68 percent of murders in the state are done with a gun. 

Two million in prison, a murder and rape rate that makes other gasp, teenagers in prison for life, or executed as are the mentally impaired as I mention in an earlier blog. If this is the high point of civilization were' in deep sh*%t