On January 19, South Carolina state representative Mike Pitts (R-Laurens) introduced a “Responsible Journalism Registry” in hopes of showing people the unconstitutionality of pursuing registration and other gun controls for the Second Amendment.
According to the Index-Journal, Pitt said, “Basically, it is the (concealed weapons permit) law with journalists and pens instead of guns.”
After South Carolina Press Association Executive Director Bill Rogers reacted to Pitts’s bill by promising to “fight it tooth and nail,” Pitts admitted he is not really concerned with passing the bill. Rather, he wants journalists who easily support gun control to think about the ramifications of such actions. Pitt said, “There’s a perception, and it’s well presented by the media, that the Second Amendment is more of a privilege than a right. [But] if the First Amendment is so absolute, why isn’t the Second Amendment.”
Pitts indicated that the outrage his bill sparked among journalists and onlookers succeeded in making his point. He said, “It has generated conversation — and serious conversation — about the issue. It has already been successful in what I was trying to do and that’s generate debate among the general populous.”
Breitbart News has previously reported that the amendments contained in the Bill of Rights are of a cloth. To regulate any one of them is to open the door to regulating all of them. To deny that one of them is absolute is to deny that any of them are absolute.
The Post and Courier reports that Pitts is a lifetime member of the NRA and an avid hunter. Project Vote Smart showed he received a ranking of 100 percent from the NRA in 2012.
Follow AWR Hawkins on Twitter: @AWRHawkins. Reach him directly at awrhawkins@breitbart.com.
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