Comment by inglor_cz
4 years ago
"We’ve been trending left for fifty years."
Depends on the topic. Gun rights, for example, have gone decidedly to the right. Few people now remember that Ronald Reagan signed some significant gun control legislation without losing support of his voters.
Not really. In the late '50s, when I was a teenager, I lived in a rural area. I had my own rifle, and so did my friends. I also bought a 22 revolver and carried it around the country in the early '60s and never thought twice about doing that.
In the '60s, high school students carried rifles on the NYC subway while going to target practice. Try doing that today.
So, I'd say there has been a lot of pressure to move the window on gun regulation to more restrictive over the last fifty years. I don't think it's done any good at all relative to reducing crime committed with guns. Law abiding gun owners have always had low incidence of gun infractions compared to, say, the police.
The real problem is not enforcing the gun laws we have had for years. Chicago is a prime example: very restrictive laws, but very few convictions for gun offenses, which are frequent. Why is that?
In the 60s, most Southern states were no-issue when it comes to concealed carry, and most of the rest were may-issue.
Even before the recent ruling, there were 8 states that were may-issue; the rest were shall-issue or no permit required.
Yes, and that was to keep guns away from blacks.
Justice Thomas has discussed this in his SCOTUS opinions. It’s quite revealing and well worth reading.
SCOTUS rulings are a lot more readable than you might think. They are often quite colorful. You quickly learn to skip by the boilerplate to find the dissenting opinions, which are near the end.
https://www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/
With all respect, the late '50s and early '60s are a long time ago. I was thinking about more recent developments.
As of today, there is almost half a billion of guns in civilian possession in the US, and the # of open carry and concealed carry jurisdictions has grown massively.
I would say that the lowest point for gun rights US-wide was around the Columbine school shootings, and that the trend changed quite decisively since them. Legislation like that has no chance of passing today.
We were talking about “trending left in the last fifty years”. 1972 was fifty years ago, so I was setting the stage by describing the situation in the preceding decade.
Gun rights/control didnt used to be a "right-wing" topic.