USA –-(Ammoland.com)- Massachusetts Democrats required photo identification for entry into this past weekend’s state Democratic Convention, Mike Flynn of Big Government reported, touching on a stance not just advanced by the party to discourage Voter ID laws based on accusations of disenfranchisement and racism, but one being actively pursued by Attorney General Eric Holder’s Justice Department with legal actions to challenge such requirements on those grounds.
“Ben Jealous, of the NAACP, has gone so far as to argue that such requirements are tantamount to modern-day Jim Crow laws,” Flynn wrote.
“Funny they don’t feel that way for their own party conventions,” he noted.
He’s right. The 2012 Delegate Guide, highlighting party luminaries such as John Kerry, Elizabeth Warren, Deval Patrick, Joseph P. Kennedy II, and others, and spots for groups like the AFL-CIO, the Massachusetts Teachers Association and the Obama-Biden Campaign made it clear, stating flatly “A PHOTO ID WILL BE REQUIRED TO ENTER THE MASSMUTUAL CENTER.”
Curiously, one of the platforms stated on page 27 of the guide calls for “Eliminating voter participation barriers.” And that is consistent with the course of action pursued by Obama’s attorney general, first reported in Gun Rights Examiner in January when discussing a December move by the DOJ to block South Carolina’s voter ID law, followed up on in March when DOJ Civil Rights Division head Thomas E. Perez set his sights on a similar law in Texas, and brought to the forefront again in recent days with Florida becoming “ground zero.”
“If Perez is correct,” this column observed, “that lack of state-issued photo ID is 20% more likely to disenfranchise minorities from their right to vote, why would we not also believe it would have a similar effect on their right to purchase a firearm, as is specified on ATF’s Form 4473 requiring a driver’s license or ‘valid government-issued photo identification,’ and similar forms as proof of eligibility?
As stated before, the government can’t have it both ways. By their own admission and actions, they consider a requirement to produce official photo identification as discriminatory, with a significant statistical impact on the enfranchisement of minority rights. The Heller and McDonald cases leave no doubt that the Second Amendment articulates an individual right recognized by the federal government and applicable to the states and it is the duty of the Department of Justice to ensure that denials of rights are prosecuted.
Likewise, state-issued identification is required to obtain concealed carry permits and to apply for registration/transfer of National Firearms Act weapons such as machine guns, short barrel firearms, destructive devices, AOWs, etc.
Any bets that Massachusetts Democrats Kerry, Warren, Patrick, Kennedy, et al, would agree with that position, and demand an end to Jim Crow gun laws?
About David Codrea
David Codrea is a long-time gun rights advocate who defiantly challenges the folly of citizen disarmament. He is a field editor for GUNS Magazine, and a blogger at The War on Guns: Notes from the Resistance. Read more at www.DavidCodrea.com.
