From Slow Facts:  https://slowfacts.wordpress.com/2017/04/25/infringing-the-right-to-bear-arms-you-need-a-permit-to-do-that/

By Robert Morse
April 25, 2017

We hear a lot of shallow words about rights.  A right is a power you already have that you want the government to leave alone.  It would be nice if the government would protect your rights, but they should at least stop infringing on them.  When we consider the many layers of government, it is easy to see that they have a very difficult time leaving any aspect of our lives unregulated.  The power of a government to regulate a right is the power to destroy that right, particularly when it comes to our right of self-defense.  Governments infringed that right so badly that now tens of millions of us can’t get the required permits to bear arms.  Politicians rationalize their regulation of self-defense by wrapping their restrictions in the cloak of public safety.  In fact, that cloak has often been the white sheet of racism directed against minorities and the poor.

Sometimes the racism is blatant.  Sometimes it is subtle, like demanding long term residency before a law enforcement officer grants a carry permit.

“You ain’t from around here, are ya.”

Some of us can’t receive the permits to keep and bear arms, and some of us can.  The exceptions are often politicians and their large political donors.  Even as a media celebrity you have to demonstrate the approved political leanings or you won’t get your permits approved.

Permits are granted as political favors.  Donors of this class often have their own security details anyway, so these purchase and carry permits are like vanity plates.  The people who really need a gun for self-defense the most, people like the poor single mom who lives in the bad part of town, they are least likely to have the required political connections.

Judges ignore that politically motivated bigotry every day.

Some politicians and law enforcement officers hide their prejudices behind rationalizations.  One excuse is called “demonstrated need” or “good cause”.  They ask us to show that we will face an ongoing threat of death or great bodily injury.  How do you prove what the future will hold since past injuries are no guarantee of future assaults?  Under this pretext, police chiefs and judges have denied rape and kidnap victims the “privilege” to bear arms for their own defense.

Continue reading at:  https://slowfacts.wordpress.com/2017/04/25/infringing-the-right-to-bear-arms-you-need-a-permit-to-do-that/