CO_PaulDonahue

“If you’re going to restrict constitutional rights, it probably shouldn’t be by someone who isn’t elected.” – Castle Rock, Colorado Mayor Paul Donahue in Growing Town Asks Where Guns Fit In [at nytimes.com]

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36 COMMENTS

    • And maybe roughed up a little too.

      Nothing major, just maybe kick some dirt in the eyes while you’re laying face down on the ground in hand cuffs.

    • I’m thinking deported with extreme prejudice. As in stuff them in a cannon and fire them out to sea.

  2. You know, being elected doesn’t give you any special super-powers to judge people. How about just staying away from my Constitutional rights all together? Thanks a bunch. As my email .sig says, “The United States Constitution © 1791. All Rights Reserved.”

        • I never liked that line. It’s factually inaccurate as the Constitution wasn’t copyrighted. To the contrary, we should all hope for some copying and imitation of our Constitution around the world so that the strengths of America are emulated and freedom and the rights of people are protected.

  3. I’ve OC’d in Albuquerque almost seven years; down by the university, in coffee shops, restaurants,, any place that isn’t prohibited by law. Not one bad experience with the police, with the citizenry. Nada.

    I have seen more people OC’ing as time has gone on. Not a flood by any means, but more people are exercising their Second Amendments rights. Now all we need is to pass constitutional carry. Then it will be a 100% desert paradise.

    We have been so blessed that the Liberals leaving the hell that they created on the west coast have by-passed NM and gone other places, and haven’t ruined NM like they are doing in CO.

  4. Tell the damned liberal Yankees to get out. They screwed up their own home states and now they want to screw everyone elses states up too so they feel at home..

    • Yankees didn’t screw up Yankee states, it’s urban progressives and catering to special interest groups (i.e. Women’s rights, gay rights, immigrants).

      Go to New Hampshire or Maine or Foster, RI. Stay away from cities, and it’s fine.

    • This.

      So, the mayor says:

      “I’m supposed to represent the majority,” he said in response. “We look at the outcome of the election, I think I did that.”

      If it’s a right, it doesn’t matter if the majority is behind the restrictions or not. If it’s a right, it’s beyond the authority of the government, period.

  6. Read the article. THIS is why you never give up the fight in places like CT, NY or CA. Because those people, or their children, will someday MOVE to gun friendly states and influence politics there as well.

    That is why I’m proud of the fact that here in ILLINOIS, a bastion of Democrat Machine politics, we are moving in the RIGHT direction. FOID card applications have soared and more and more people in the this state are realizing and recognizing the benefits of gun ownership.

    Never give up the fight… anywhere.

    • It is true, they turn their home state into a economically mushy place where the government tries to tell you how much soda you can drink… and then don’t like it and go somewhere else where they elect the same type of people.

    • Hey LJM it ain’t really better. Huge restrictions in Cook County. A LOT of those FOID applications are still voting dumbocrat. CC was ordered by the courts. Don’t need a FOID a mile away in Indiana. If you want an evil black rifle good luck. I agree about change. I wish I could move to Indiana.

  7. If you’re going to restrict constitutional rights, maybe you should think again. Especially when it comes to the 2A, for we are armed. 🙂

  8. Let’s think about this for a sec, Paul. Why would somebody put a restriction on a right? Hmmm, very interesting…

    Here’s the way I see it, Paul. Guy puts a fancy restriction on a right ’cause he wants you to feel all warm and toasty inside. Am I right?

    And, ‘course you do. Why shouldn’t ya? Ya figure you put that little restricted right under your pillow at night, the Restriction Fairy might come by and leave a quarter, am I right, Paul?

    The point is, how do you know the Restriction Fairy isn’t a crazy glue sniffer? “Building model airplanes” says the little Fairy; well, we’re not buying it. He sneaks into your house once, that’s all it takes. The next thing you know, there’s money missing off the dresser, and your daughter’s knocked up. I seen it a hundred times.

    See, they know all they gave ya was some restricted piece of shit. And, that’s all the restriction on a right really is, isn’t it?

    But hey, if you want me to take a dump on a right and mark it restriction, I will. I got spare time. But for now, for your right’s sake, and for your daughter’s sake, ya might wanna stop thinking your rights are subject restrictions.

  9. Aww c’mon, guys, cut the guy some slack. He’s the one fighting, and winning, the good fight here. He’s the one abolishing the infringement itself and removing future infringing authority from the unelected City Manager. It’s mistaken and unnecessarily harsh to read into the quote that he’s arrogating to himself and other elected officials some special privilege to infringe on constitutional rights.

    It’s really more a matter of him recognizing that these issues are paramount, that reasonable men will differ, and that it’s completely inappropriate to leave them in the hands of unelected officials.

  11. From the article;

    “Ziggy Guentensberger, 38, a self-employed consultant, said the open-carry rules were uncomfortably loose. “If it was a holstered handgun, I would say that’s not big of an issue for me,” he said, “but it’s not. You can carry a shotgun in your hand, you can carry a handgun in your hand — it’s not defined.”

    This can’t be true. Wouldn’t holding the weapon in your hands qualify as “brandishing?” Is this guy hearing “open carry” and thinking that means you can slink around at low ready like Bruce Willis?

  12. The article explains that the guy in the picture, Paul the Mayor, successfully led the initiative to repeal a local law that allowed the unelected city manager to prohibit carrying firearms on certain town-owned properties. The Mayor’s quote refers to the inappropriateness of the local law giving the town manager this authority. The Mayor was not implying that it’s OK for elected officials to do it instead.

    This guy led a successful fight to expand the ability to exercise rights protected by the 2nd Amendment in a Town that was just about 50/50 on the issue.

  13. As a reminder, I work retail firearms. I have dealt with quite a few Californians the last couple of years. Some staying in CA others moving here. It’s good that both groups are looking to buy firearms. But, I’m trying to find a way that won’t get me fired, to sound out the political stance of the ones moving here. And someway to suggest the appropriate stance for this state……Suggestions?

  14. If you think that the growth of the gun market is a problem, then you should be blaming Obama.

    He’s done more to grow enhance private gun ownership than any President in history.

  15. When will these Liberals understand that the very thinking they display in matters such as these are what turned the place they fled from into the hellhole it became?

    Maybe if these people left things be, they wouldn’t turn their new home into another version of what they left. I want to move my family from the Chicago area some day, I certainly won’t bring Chicago political thinking (which no one in my family has ever agreed with) with me if/when I do. I hope there’s somewhere left that the Liberals haven’t destroyed by then.

    Good on the mayor to fight it but the more east and west coast scum that moves there, the more they’ll elect big government scumbags of both parties that will trash the county and town one law at a time.

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