Last updated on July 17th, 2023 at 06:04 pm
Message to you people from the corporate puppets of America. You can watch the mostly Republican cowards spit in 90% of America’s faces but calling the out will result in a background check. Don’t you dare believe that the First Amendment applies to you, while sitting in the Tea House or the NRA owned Senate.
It’s okay to invade a woman’s privacy or personal autonomy, but hey, if you want to buy a military assault weapon your privacy matters.
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After voting against expanded background checks to buy deadly weapons, our Senate added insulted to Patricia Maisch and Lori Haas, both VICTIMS of guns violence because they uttered 3 words: “Shame on you!”
Maisch and Haas, who said what sane America was thinking at the time, were promptly ushered out of the gallery. After that, they underwent more scrutiny for exercising their First Amendment rights than someone would undergo to buy a gun.
ThinkProgress reports,
As they left the Senate gallery, a police officer approached and asked them to follow him. The three walked downstairs to a public hallway, where they were peppered with questions: “What’s your name?” “Where are you from?” “What are your Social Security numbers?” The officer left to run a background check on the women, who were instructed to sit on a bench. Another uniformed officer watched over them, even escorted Haas to the bathroom and told her she couldn’t lock the stall door.
This is reminiscent of Maria Meecham’s experience in the gallery of the House of Representatives, after two Republican Congressmen from her state high-fived, each other following a vote that denied a minor pay raise for the troops that Republicans like to use as props when professing how much they support our troops.
Words by victims of gun violence warranted a background check, but doing the same in the name of keeping deadly weapons out of the hands of people who shouldn’t have guns is seen to be an infringement on their Second Amendment rights. Corporate profits trump everything. The Second Amendment trumps the First Amendment and for that matter, our right to not be shot.
The irony wasn’t lost on Lori Haas, who told Think Progress:
“Very ironic that an hour and a half investigation into two women shouting in the Senate gallery takes place and yet real criminals and other prohibited purchasers get willy nilly access to fire arms.”
In another Onionesque moment, the Voter Integrity Project of North Carolina wants voters to be fingerprinted before they can exercise their franchise because it’s so much easier than voter ID and cheaper too. As for the idea that it would be an invasion of privacy (as the right wing argued against background checks to buy guns) here is their response. “ Since the name of the voter is already a matter of public record, that too would be a tough objection to deliver while keeping a straight face.”
So there it is, people. The freedom fighting corporatists think speaking warrants a background check, fingerprints should be mandatory for voting, but knowing anything about someone who wants to buy a military assault weapon – that’s treading corporate America’s freedom to profit from rapists, domestic abusers and violent criminals. In other words it’s guns over people, speech, voting, women’s personal autonomy and anything else resembling freedom for we, the people.
Image mariopipierni.com
Former contributor.
