What do you do when you find that your policies may have been discriminatory, biased against people who are struggling financially?
Most people would look towards removing that biased policy to try to do the right thing.
To be fair, the local governments that we’re talking about today are taking efforts to remove anti-poor bias from their policies, and that is a good thing. No one should be discriminated against by the law based on their income level.
Governments are still missing the forest for the trees, though. See if you notice the problematic bias that they’ll still have to deal with in the information below. Michael Clements gives us details of this situation:
Several New Jersey municipalities have adopted a plan they hope will make it easier for low-income residents to obtain a license to carry a concealed firearm.
Under the plan—implemented by at least six boroughs so far—residents who pay the required $200 license fee can have the municipality’s $150 share refunded by presenting proof they paid the fee.
A representative of a gun rights organization said his group, working with local officials and residents, has presented the plan to at least 50 municipal governments so far.
Under current state law, residents must pay $200 in fees for a license to carry a concealed firearm. Of that, $50 goes to the state, and $150 is paid to the municipality. The mayor of Englishtown, Daniel Francisco, says the plan essentially reduces the fee for anyone who requests a refund.
Francisco says towns are required by the state to charge $150 for a license. But the state has no say in what towns do with the money.
“So, we’re following the law. We’re collecting the fee,” Francisco told The Epoch Times. “We‘ll take it from you, because we have to statutorily, but then we’ll give it right back to you if you ask us to.”
Now, to be fair, the towns that are considering refunding that $150 fee are looking at doing the right thing. My frustration isn’t so much with them.
My frustration is that the State of New Jersey, like so many politically left-leaning states, assumes that the Second Amendment isn’t a right. They consider it a privilege that they can charge you for.
I take issue with that thinking.
The Second Amendment isn’t a privilege, and the Bill of Rights didn’t give us the right to keep and bear arms.
We already had those rights. The Second Amendment was written to prevent the government from taking away this right which was already ours.
But that’s an inconvenient truth that anti-2A politicians don’t want to pay attention to.
