Presently, there are twenty-seven states that have passed Constitutional carry laws, allowing for their citizens to carry weapons either openly, or concealed, without permits or licensing requirements. Only Alabama requires a federal background check. These states have GOP controlled legislatures/governors apart from Maine, New Hampshire, and Vermont. The incontrovertible fact is unfettered access to firearms, loose gun legislation, and the unwavering Republican support of the gun lobby will add to the death toll and make the job of public safety that much more difficult for law enforcement.
Police officers across the country agree that unlicensed concealed weapons make their jobs more difficult and will lead to an increase in accidental shootings. These are the people that see what people are capable of when they’re emboldened by a gun on their hip.
Additional proof of GOP abominable rhetoric in support of guns and violence, occurred at a far-right rally on June 10, 2023, in Georgia. Kari Lake, the failed Arizona gubernatorial candidate and election denier, said the quiet things out loud. She intimated support of an armed rebellion over Trump’s second indictment. “If you want to get to President Trump, you’re going to have to go through me, and you’re going to have to go through 75 million Americans just like me. And most of those individuals are card-carrying members of the NRA.” This is the incendiary and pernicious language that too many Republican use to rile up their base and encourage not only gun purchases, but violence aimed at their perceived enemies.
As this gun violence continues to rage throughout the country, many Republican controlled states continue to pass laws antithetical to curbing gun related deaths. States with Constitutional carry laws, except for Nebraska, have passed stand-your-ground laws. These laws state that an individual has no duty to retreat from the threat and may resort to deadly physical force and are not limited to your home or workplace. Such laws only serve to embolden a frontier style of justice and result in unnecessary deaths. Case in point is the 2012 George Zimmerman/Trayvon Martin shooting and recent cases of overzealous use of firearms. In the case of Zimmerman and Kyle Ritenhouse the GOP and their supporters elevated these killers into celebrity status.
— RVL0442 in Guns: The American Epidemic
