Las Vegas Sun Editorial Argues Against Legal Gun Owners Having Concealed Carry Permits

Brittany M. Hughes | October 30, 2017
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The editorial board of the Law Vegas Sun apparently takes issue with legal gun owners exercising their basic Second Amendment rights.

In an editorial published Monday, the paper’s editors slammed a proposal by some Republican lawmakers to make conceal carry reciprocity a nationwide mandate – meaning that while each state could still enact its own laws regarding which of its citizens can carry concealed firearms, they’d have to respect the concealed carry rights of out-of-state visitors who have a permit in their home state.

While the Sun could arguably make a strong case against such an idea based solely on the notion of state’s rights, that’s not the case they make. Instead, the editorial board hyperventilates over the idea that – gasp – legal gun owners might actually take exercise the “keep and bear” clause of our 200-plus-year-old Second Amendment.

“What’s unreasonable is to order states like Nevada to abide by the policies of some other states, where anyone who can legally purchase a gun under federal law can get a permit,” the Sun’s editors fret.

To make their case, the Sun places them blame for all gun violence squarely on the shoulders of “the National Rifle Association and its puppets in Congress” – because of course – arguing that “the glut of guns isn’t keeping anyone safe — it’s helped create an epidemic of crime and accidents that has put public safety at extreme risk.”

Not true, of course. I’ve written extensively in the past of the statistical risk guns pose to American citizenry (spoiler alert – less than 0.003 percent of all Americans are killed in gun-related homicides per year, and most of those are caused by gangs using illegal weapons no law would've prevented).

Equally false is the editorial board’s proof-free claim that “the NRA’s ridiculous assertion that more guns mean more safety couldn’t be further from the truth.” Actually, it is true, and can be proven using facts and data rather than emotion-driven hyperbole.

But perhaps even more disturbing than a should-be-reputable statewide newspaper touting debunked myths and peddling evidence-free claims is the fact that a major media outlet is taking aim -- pun intended -- at a basic constitutional right.

No longer are we talking about an American’s ability to purchase bump-fire stocks (a previously little-known accessory that sent millions of Google-happy leftists into a spiral of outrage before they even fully understood how the thing worked). We’re not talking about the question of whether people should be able to board airplanes with shotguns, or whether convicted felons should have their gun purchasing ability restored. We’re talking about the very fundamental right of a law-abiding American to keep and bear arms, a provision that’s laid out in plain English in the Second Amendment.

Simply put, the Las Vegas Sun doesn’t want people owning and carrying guns. Not because there’s ay proof that doing so creates a greater danger, but simply because they say so.

And the left calls conservatives fascists.

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