The Press-Dispatch
Issue link: https://www.ifoldsflip.com/i/1371004
The Press-Dispatch Wednesday, May 12, 2021 A-11 and Amy Coney Barrett have evidenced a faithful adherence to the text, history, and tradition of the Second Amendment in different types of gun control cases. They would seem unlikely candidates to side with New York's interpretation that the right to bear arms is only a privilege for the select few determined to meet ar- bitrary "good cause" requirements. 'GOOD CAUSE' AND 'MAY ISSUE' REQUIREMENTS HAVE RACIST ROOTS For the first 70 or so years after the Constitution was ratified, Americans un- deniably maintained a general right to bear arms in public, with perhaps some state authority to regulate the mode of carry. A minority of states eventually prohib- ited or heavily regulated the act of car- rying a concealed firearm in public. But no state completely eradicated an ordi- nary citizen's ability to carry some type of firearm in public in some manner with- out first having to seek permission from the government. Well, all white Americans enjoyed a right to bear arms in public. Laws heavily regulating the public car- ry of firearms were, like all early forms of restrictive gun control, reserved for the subjugation of slaves and other individu- als who were, at the time, legally consid- ered as falling outside of "the People" of the United States. Even after slavery was abolished and the 14th Amendment forbade race-based gun restrictions, many southern states looked to racially neutral but highly dis- cretionary gun control laws to effective- ly disarm black citizens. A Florida Supreme Court case in 1941 provides some insight into just how bla- tantly and openly states used discre- tionary permit systems to deprive black Americans of their rights. The court overturned a white man's conviction for carrying a handgun in public without a permit, in apparent violation of state law. Justice Rivers Buford nonchalantly ex- plained the racist origins and enforce- ment of the law in his concurring opinion: The original Act of 1893 was passed when there was a great influx of negro laborers in this State. … The Act was passed for the purpose of disarming the negro laborers … and to give the white citizens in sparsely populated areas a bet- ter feeling of security. The statute was never intended to be applied to the white population and in practice has never been so applied. The reality is that today's "good cause" requirements may not be overtly racist, but in practice they serve to dispropor- tionately exclude people of color from the ability to protect themselves in pub- lic with firearms. Constitutional implica- tions aside, this makes discretionary li- censing poor public policy. Who ends up getting concealed car- ry permits in the most restrictive "good cause" jurisdictions? Overwhelmingly, the permits go to wealthy white men— especially those who are well connect- ed to whatever public official happens to have sole discretion over granting per- mit applications. It's also little wonder that such incred- ibly discretionary schemes lend them- selves to rampant corruption. PUBLIC CARRY WILL NOT TURN US INTO THE 'WILD WEST' Many gun control advocates insist that if the Supreme Court strikes down "good cause" requirements then the nation will be turned into a "Wild West" of gun vi- olence. In other words, the Second Amend- ment shouldn't protect a right of ordi- nary citizens to bear arms in their own defense, because ordinary citizens large- ly are incapable of acting in a reasonable manner when armed in public. Decades of plain data show just the op- posite. Between 1990 and 2000, 16 states changed their concealed carry laws from either "no issue" or "may issue" to "shall issue" permitting. During that time, na- tional rates for violent crime, homicide by gun, and other gun crime plummeted. Since 2000, the trend toward more per- missible public carry laws not only con- tinued (42 states and the District of Co- lumbia are either "constitutional carry" or "permitless carry"), but public interest in obtaining permits skyrocketed. Over 19 million American adults now possess a concealed carry permit, up from rough- ly 3 million adults in 2000. If gun control advocates were correct about their Wild West hypothesis, sure- ly the last two decades would have been an increasingly violent mess. But the data clearly do not bear that out. Violent crime rates continued a gen- eral downward trend while gun homicide and other gun crime rates remained con- sistently low after plateauing around 2011. It turns out that ordinary, law-abid- ing citizens absolutely can be trusted to "bear" arms in public, just like the plain text of the Constitution envisions. Hopefully, the Supreme Court soon will vindicate the tens of millions of American citizens currently deemed to have "insufficient cause" to exercise their constitutional rights. Amy Swearer is a legal fellow in the Meese Center for Legal and Judicial Stud- ies. SECOND Continued from page 10 the Beautiful, and to just be in agreement with all that was said and expressed, and all that was prayed for. ••• This past Sunday was Moth- er's Day. (This is the part I was talking about feasting.) We celebrated the day with a Church service first, then headed to a restaurant to en- joy a hearty meal. I was astonished to find so many cars in the restaurant parking lot. I had to drive around three times to find an open spot. The restaurant was packed and they had to open up their second floor to accommodate the crowd. I'm somewhat de- lighted to see many who felt comfortable skipping the mask, and hopefully they all had been vaccinated. At the same time I was worried we might be dropping our guard too soon. Here's a poem I came across which was read during our Church service. I think it's worth sharing. It's titled A Mother's Love. A Mother's love is like an is- land in life's ocean, vast and wide. A Mother's love is like a tower rising far above the crowd. And her smile is like a sunshine breaking through a threatening cloud. A Mother's love is like a beacon burning bright with faith and prayer. And through the changing scenes of life we can find a haven there. For a Mother's love is fashioned after God's enduring love, it is endless and unfailing, like the love of Him above. For God knew in His great wisdom that He couldn't be everywhere, so he put His little children in a lov- ing Mother's care." To all mothers: We love ya. Court Report FELONY Pike County Circuit Court Zachariah S. Tharp charged with count I burglary with a deadly weapon, a level 2 felony, count II armed robbery, a level 3 felony, count III criminal confine- ment while armed with a deadly weap- on, a level 3 felony, and count IV theft of a firearm, a level 6 felony. David Blanchette charged with count I burglary with a deadly weapon, a level 2 felony, count II robbery, a level 5 felo- ny, count III criminal confinement while armed with a deadly weapon, a level 3 felony, and count IV theft of a firearm, a level 6 felony. Jasper L. Stocker charged with count I burglary with a deadly weapon, a level 2 felony, count II armed robbery, a level 3 felony, count III criminal confinement while armed with a deadly weapon, a lev- el 3 felony, and count IV theft of a firearm, a level 6 felony. William L. Thorne charged with count I domestic battery resulting in moderate bodily injury, a level 6 felony, and count II domestic battery. TRAFFIC AND MISDEMEANORS Pike County Circuit Court Lisa Buchta-Thorne charged with do- mestic battery. CIVIL Pike County Circuit Court Discover Bank sues Darla Traylor on complaint. Second Round Sub, LLC sues Barbara Richter on complaint. Portfolio Recovery Associates, LLC sues Joshua Mason on complaint. Deborah J. Smith sues DolGenCorp, LLC DBA Dollar General on complaint. INFRACTIONS Pike County Circuit Court Rebecca L. Michael charged with speeding, exceeding 55 mph. Brian J. Like charged with seatbelt vi- olation. Briley C. Neikirk charged with speed- ing, exceeding 70 mph. Mark C. Whitesell charged with autho- rization for IAC Conservation violations. Megan R. Alecci charged with speed- ing, exceeding 30 mph. Madonna J. Limbach charged with speeding, exceeding 30 mph. J.K. Ingram charged with speeding, exceeding 55 mph. Christopher T. Gates charged with speeding, exceeding 30 mph. Johnathon M. Spradlin charged with speeding, exceeding 30 mph. Michael A. Baughn charged with speeding, exceeding 30 mph. Thomas G. Nance charged with know- ingly authorizing a violation of IC 9 -18.1- 14-11. Mary E. Backer charged with autho- rization of IAC Conservation violations. Stephen J. Warnsman charged with au- thorization for IAC Conservation viola- tions. Christopher J. Askren charged with speeding, exceeding 70 mph. Stacy D. Patmore charged with speed- ing, exceeding 55 mph. Ty L. Harper charged with seatbelt vi- olation. Marshall L. Baker charged with oper- ating with expired plates. Rita M. Franco charged with speeding, exceeding 70 mph. Emilee Q. Halderman charged with speeding, exceeding 70 mph. Kaylee M. Craycraft charged with speeding, exceeding 70 mph. Madison N. McIntosh charged with speeding. Kevin L. Miller charged with speed- ing, exceeding 55 mph. David Lee James Dickerson charged with speeding, exceeding 70 mph. PRAYER Continued from page 10 Still, this is a population loss that is the equivalent of two, maybe three, lost congressio- nal seats. But the final num- bers ADDED approximate- ly 860,000. That's roughly twice the population of Buf- falo and Rochester — com- bined. This is the state that has lost by far the largest population over the past de- cade. No. 2: Many deep-blue states had 2020 census num- bers significantly revised upward from their Decem- ber estimates: Connecticut, Hawaii, Illinois, Massachu- setts, New Jersey, New York, Rhode Island and Vermont. No. 3: Many red states had 2020 census numbers lower than their 2020 estimates: Arizona, North Carolina and South Carolina. No. 4: Going back to the 2010 Census, the final head count in every state was with- in 0.4 percent of the original estimate, and 30 of them were within 0.2 percent. This time around, 19 states were more than 1 percent off, 7 were more than 2 percent off, NY was more than 3.8 percent off, and NJ was more than 4.5 percent off. No. 5: Virtually every one of the large deviations from the estimates favored Dem- ocrats. Just five states in the 2020 census were within the same margin (0.41 percent) that all states were within from the 2010 census. Maybe the 2010 estimates were abnormally accurate, or maybe the 2020 estimates were abnormally inaccurate. The Census Bureau needs to tell Congress why these re- visions under former Presi- dent Barack Obama were so much larger than normal and so weighted in one direction: toward the blue states. Stephen Moore is a senior fellow at the Heritage Foun- dation and an economic con- sultant with FreedomWorks. He is the co-author of "Trum- ponomics: Inside the America First Plan to Revive the Amer- ican Economy." CENSUS Continued from page 10 enced all my working life: that Blacks who speak about freedom and biblical values are met with derision and rid- icule from the left. Scott spoke truth. Amer- ica is about freedom under God. Achieving this is to- day's great challenge. Star Parker is president of the Center for Urban Renewal and Education and host of the weekly television show "Cure America with Star Parker." ERA Continued from page 10 2 col. x 3" (actual size) Way to go, (grad's name)! Best of luck, Grandma and Granddad Section will be published: Wednesday, May 26 Deadline for the ad to be in: Wednesday, May 19 You may submit your ad with payment by: 1. Mail form and picture to: Press-Dispatch P.O. Box 68, Petersburg, IN 47567 2. Stop by our offi ce. 3. E-mail: news@pressdispatch.com with your name and phone number Ads must be paid for in advance. YOUR NAME: ________________________________________________________ ADDRESS: ____________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________ PHONE: ( ) ______________________________________________________ AD SIZE: ❏ 1 col.x3" — $20.00 ❏ 2 col.x3" — $30.00 ❏ 2 col.x6" — $50.00 ❏ 3 col.x9" — $85.00 CREDIT CARD INFORMATION — NAME AS APPEARS ON CARD: ______________________________________________________________________ VISA OR MASTERCARD (CIRCLE ONE) CARD NUMBER: ______________________________________________________ EXPIRATION DATE: ___________________________________________________ CVN: _________________________ ZIP CODE: _____________________________ AD INFORMATION HERE: ______________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________ Yo di i! Show your Senior you care when you place a congratulatory ad this May. This year is sure to be like no other! Show your your your your your your your your your your your your your your your your your your your your your your your your your your your your your your your your your your your your your your your your your your G raduat HOW PROUD YOU ARE! 1 col. x 3" - $20 2 col. x 3" - $30 2 col. x 6" - $50 3 col. x 9" - $85 Yo Yo Yo Yo Yo Yo Yo Yo Way to go, Way to go, di i! di i! di i! di i! di i! raduat raduat raduat raduat raduat raduat raduat di i! We're proud of you (grad's name)! Love Mom and Dad 1 col. x 3" (actual size)