Madison Cawthorn's latest misadventure points up the hypocrisy (and inadequacy) of our gun laws
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Thanks to Republicans, you can bring guns just about anywhere these days. “Good guys” with guns are ubiquitous, as are bad guys with guns. And morally ambiguous guys with guns. And teenagers. And toddlers. And dudes in windowless white vans who’ll give you a discount on a George Foreman grill if you’ll have just one beer with them. And maybe just a skosh of black tar heroin. Come on, you know you want to.
Of course, ours is arguably the last country on Earth that should be awash in guns. We’re a little on edge, in case you hadn’t noticed. And yet we’ve become so blasé about gun ownership, we’ve started to see a rash of gun seizures at airports—and not just among Republican congressmen.
Unless you’ve been hiding under a rock or getting all your information from Fox News (granted, those two are functionally equivalent), you know that North Carolina Rep. Madison Cawthorn was recently cited for bringing a loaded handgun to the Charlotte Douglas International Airport. It was his second such offense. He’s also scheduled to appear in court next month for allegedly driving with a revoked license.
As a serial lawbreaker, one might think Cawthorn would face the same kind of heat as the lowly plebs who have also conveniently “forgotten” about the guns in their meticulously curated carryons and found themselves in handcuffs. Like this guy. Or this one. Or this one. Or this lady. Or this one. And those are just from this month.
Or maybe, since Cawthorn is in Congress, the klieg lights should be trained upon his and his compatriots’ relentless efforts to turn our country into a giant Insane Clown Posse mosh pit with unlimited ordnance.
In fact, one political party is extrapolating exactly that lesson from Cawthorn’s latest misadventures. I’ll give you one guess which one.
A pair of House Democrats urged the Transportation Security Administration on Thursday to crack down on the growing threat of firearms at airports, days after a Republican congressman was caught bringing a gun to a TSA checkpoint.
[…]
“Members of Congress on both sides of the aisle agree that those who break the law and endanger the safety of other passengers — and especially repeat offenders such as Rep. Cawthorn — must be held to account,” read the letter from Homeland Security Committee Chairman Bennie Thompson, D-Miss., and transportation subcommittee Chairwoman Bonnie Watson Coleman, D-N.J.
“TSA must pursue appropriate action without fear or favor against all such offenders, regardless of whether they are public figures such as Rep. Cawthorn,” they wrote.
While policies on whether or not to arrest these offenders vary by state, and even city, one lawyer CNBC spoke with hinted that Cawthorn did receive the kid-glove treatment in the wake of his alleged violation. Brad Smith, a Charlotte, North Carolina, criminal defense attorney, said at Charlotte Douglas, such violators are typically arrested at the scene.
“More often than not you’re taken to jail, and booked,” Smith said. “The DA’s office absolutely prosecutes those cases.”
And they should prosecute this one, too; if they do, Cawthorn faces up to 60 days in jail for his misdemeanor charge. But even more important than prosecuting offenders like Cawthorn is rousting him and his fellow gun fetishists from Congress. Because until we do, we’re going to continue to see alarming news items—like this one from February:
With a surge in guns being discovered at airport checkpoints, some security experts are suggesting higher fines and even putting violators on a no-fly list to prevent firearms from getting on planes.
Airport screeners found 5,972 guns at checkpoints last year, easily breaking a record set in 2019 despite a drop in air travel, and 86% of those guns were loaded, according to the Transportation Security Administration.
Guns seizures are rising as airlines report record numbers of disruptive passengers on flights. Together, that “makes for a toxic combination,” Rep. Bonnie Watson Coleman, D-N.J., said Tuesday.
Since travelers caught with guns tend to claim they “forgot” they had loaded weapons tucked in with their tiny toiletries, TSA leaders continue to point out how irresponsible that is, from the Garden State—
“Claiming to forget that you have a gun with you is inexcusable,” Thomas Carter, TSA’s Federal Security Director for New Jersey, said in a statement. “If you own a gun you need to know where it is at all times.”
“The regulation preventing the carrying of guns onto planes has been in place for decades, so this is nothing new,” said Robin “Chuck” Burke, TSA’s Federal Security Director for the [Norfolk, Virginia] airport.
[…]
“Forgetting that you have a loaded handgun in your possession is a careless mistake to make, especially when you are headed to the airport for a flight,” said Burke.
Sadly, Republicans are more likely to impeach President Joe Biden for trying to sneak through airport security in a tan suit than pass sensible gun-control laws, even if those laws would be vital to maintaining airport security.
Then again, when was the last time Republicans came out for anything other than chaos?
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