When Stand for Gun Rights Makes Strange Bedfellows

They say that politics makes strange bedfellows, but that hasn’t seemed to be the case lately. The lines are drawn, and few people are crossing them without facing some degree of repercussions. Some of those are deserved, while some are less so.

Still, there are times when people from very different ideological points of view find themselves on common ground.

That seems to be the case in North Carolina, where three groups with very different ideological leans have joined together to oppose the prohibition of gun rights for non-violent felons.

Three advocacy groups of different political flavors have publicly expressed support for an ongoing challenge to a North Carolina gun law.

The American Civil Liberties Union of North Carolina, the Cato Institute and Grass Roots North Carolina, which all have varying ideological beliefs, argued that it is unconstitutional to forbid people with felony convictions from possessing firearms.

The groups said the felony classification is too broad, and a blanket ban is overcriminalization.

State law says felons can’t “purchase, own, possess, or have in the person’s custody, care, or control any firearm or any weapon of mass death and destruction.” The law includes mufflers and silencers, but excludes antique guns.

Matthew Cavedon is the director of the Cato Institute’s Project on Criminal Justice. He said that while the institute and the ACLU “don’t always see things eye to eye, including on Second Amendment issues, … we both agree that if the government is going to take away somebody’s liberty, it needs to have strong reasons for doing so.”

The ACLU of North Carolina and the Cato Institute filed a joint amicus brief on March 27. Grass Roots NC filed its brief three days later.

Representatives from the three organizations said many people loop all felonies into a far-too-broad violent category.

That’s true.

Grass Roots North Carolina and the Cato Institute joining together over gun rights isn’t really surprising. GRNC is pretty conservative, and Cato is libertarian. Both groups have traditionally stood in support of the Second Amendment.

The ACLU, though, usually doesn’t. For a long time, that was ostensibly because they simply defended all the other rights in the Bill of Rights. After all, there were other groups defending gun rights. Then, not that long ago, they started actively opposing gun rights in many cases. This bothered a lot of people, myself included, because all of our rights matter. I want them all, and I want the government to leave all of them alone.

But there have been times the ACLU has made a pro-gun move, though largely in cases where it could be attributed to some other perceived right being what they’re actually defending.

And I’m sure this time, it’s sort of the same thing. They’re soft on crime as a general thing, so defending gun rights for felons is kind of in that particular wheelhouse, though this time they’re completely in the right for doing so.

As said at the bottom of that block quote, many people think all felons are created equal, and that’s not remotely true. There are dangerous predators who are felons, sure, but there are soccer moms who screwed up years earlier who are felons, too. You’d be amazed at some of the people in your social circle who might be felons.

Plus, let’s not forget that the average American commits three felonies per day without knowing it. That could be any of us in that camp.

I’m glad to see such a diverse group make this stand, because this is important for millions of Americans who are law-abiding but have made mistakes in the past.

Editor’s Note: President Trump and Republicans across the country are doing everything they can to protect our Second Amendment rights and right to self-defense.

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