Libertarian candidate wants to arm the homeless with shotguns

Brian Ellison, a Libertarian candidate in Michigan, believes that arming homeless people with shotguns will reduce crime. 

I suspect it will reduce the population of homeless people in Michigan.

Seriously, Ellison thinks that putting shotguns into the hands of the homeless, a group known for its array of interesting hallucinations and delusions, is a good idea. And he has an excellent chance of becoming the party's Libertarian candidate in the upcoming midterms.

Yes, it's true that the homeless are frequently at risk of violent crime. But is arming them really the way to go?

He'll be challenging Democratic incumbent Debbie Stabenow for the U.S. Senate seat in November if he wins his party's nomination.

Ellison told the Guardian that he thinks handguns for the homeless would be ideal, due to tough gun laws, [and the fact that few would pass a background check due to lack of mental health, etc.] shotguns are the only alternative for them.

"Frankly, I think the ideal weapon would be the pistol," he said, "but due to the licensing requirements in the state we're going to have a hard enough time getting homeless people shotguns as it is."

"Getting them pistols is probably next to impossible. The pistols need to be registered, people have to have addresses."

"Open-carrying a long gun is completely legal," the lunatic said, while carrying a concealed handgun is illegal without a permit. "So we thought that pump-action shotguns were a suitable alternative to a pistol."

This guy is going to lose if he wins the nomination. He's going to lose bigly, mainly because of this idea. 

I am totally in favor of the Second Amendment. I support the idea of owning any semi-automatic weapon you can name. I am even against the newly proposed aged requirement for long rifles, but arming the homeless is not a good idea.

Ellison asked: "Well, are you worried about the police being armed with military weapons? I am. The world we live in is a scary world, where the police who used to dress in short-sleeved shirts and carry a revolver now have long rifles with scopes and bulletproof vests and armored vehicles.

"And quite frankly that scares me much more than a homeless person trying to defend themselves with a shotgun."

So Ellison calls long rifles 'military weapons' as if that means the police are planning a coup. 

All weapons, at one time in the past, were military weapons. As weapons became modernized, the police had to follow suit, rather than using revolvers and being outgunned by the bad guys. And what's wrong with bulletproof vests? Cops want to go home to their families too.

Ellison's premise and fears are just plain stupid, and this is why we have a Second Amendment. This is also why we have elections, but sometimes the stupid candidate wins (see, for example, Nancy Pelosi, Bernie Sanders and Joe Biden).

But arming the homeless, people who cannot be properly vetted, is just plain crazy.



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