Leave the Second Amendment alone – Gillette News Record

I respond to the Feb. 26 editorial by Ann Turner entitled Leave the Gun Laws Alone regarding three concealed carry bills of the 2017 Wyoming Legislature.

Turner addresses HB136 Campus Carry, which recently failed in the Wyoming Senate. It would have allowed a concealed carry permit holder to carry a concealed firearm on campus.

Turner also mentions HB137 and HB194. Senate-amended HB137 failed conference/concurrence committee consideration Feb. 27, then passed reconsideration March 1. The House version allowed permittees to carry into governmental meetings. Senate amendment(s) are unknown.

On Feb. 27, HB194 passed the Senate. If enacted as presented to the Senate, the bill would empower school districts to authorize permittee employees and volunteers to carry concealed on school property. However, a Feb. 28 GNR article citing Sen.Von Flatern, reported that HB194 was amended Feb. 27 in the Senate, then passed on third reading. As of this writing, however, the roll call votes on bills and amendments page on the legislative website reflects no amendment to HB194 voted on since a failed amendment on Feb. 24. The article reports the Senate amended HB194 in conference/concurrence committee to allow anyone to carry concealed on school property except school employees and volunteers, unless said employees and /volunteers have school district consent and permits. So, at this time, appears HB194 is up for gubernatorial consideration. At this time, the exact terms of HB194 are unclear.

Turner asserts that ... we strongly believe in the Second Amendment ... Then, she pivots, applauding the defeat of HB136 and opposing soon-to-be-defeated HB137 and soon-to-be-gubernatorial-ready HB194 on safety grounds. Turner argues as of 2011 Wyoming already has adequately loosened its gun laws so that people can carry concealed weapons without a permit. She observes that due to such loosening, there already exists the unfettered right to carry concealed guns.

How unfettered can our right to carry concealed be if were still considering bills to expand that right? Turner closes asserting, Simply put, there are places where guns shouldnt be allowed. Doesnt sound unfettered to me!

The penultimate gun law is the Second Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. It simply, clearly says, ... the right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed. It doesnt say the right of the people to keep and bear arms can be reasonably regulated, just so long as the right is not substantially infringed. The peoples right established by the Second is second only to the right of free speech established by the First Amendment.

Some say even the First is infringed. They assert, You cant yell Fire! in a crowded theater. Thats correct, UNLESS ITS TRUE! If theres actually a fire, Fire! could be an important word/tool preventing or minimizing injury. Dont preemptively outlaw the use of Fire! in a theater because someone may yell it irresponsibly and untruthfully. Likewise, dont preemptively ban guns from theaters, schools or governmental meetings because someone may irresponsibly and unsafely use one. Guns could be an important tool to prevent or minimize injury. Prosecute the irresponsible, the unsafe with reckless endangerment or aggravated battery.

War with England was freshly remembered when writing the Second, so it was deemed important that the people be able to oppose an unfair, overbearing or nefarious ruler or government, foreign or domestic.

The selection of two unqualified words, not and infringed, in the Second clearly imparts the absoluteness of the peoples right. The root of infringed is fringe. A fringe is the edge or periphery of something.

Its clear the peoples right to bear arms shall not be abridged in the slightest not even bits out of the periphery, edge the fringe. Every rancher knows the law of trespass. You fence off one foot of one boundary of anothers 35,000-acre ranch and its trespassing, no matter that its merely the periphery, edge, the fringe.

My opinions not conventional wisdom. Its not that of the U.S. Supreme Court. But, the court is not always right. Its just always the court its always the last word for now. Court rulings are not cast in stone.

Bills are unqualified evidence that the right to carry concealed, let alone the right to bear arms generally, is still substantially fettered and infringed. Bills are legislative attempts to correct some of the unconstitutional infringements by Wyomings law.

In short, the Second is the only gun law thats constitutional.

C. Robert Klus Jr. is a retired attorney who lives in Gillette.

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Leave the Second Amendment alone - Gillette News Record