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              Several weeks ago, I posted a column about a GOP lawmaker in Michigan who walked into a legislative session carrying an AR-15 on his back and a Glock in his waist. He wanted to let everyone know that he was an ardent supporter of 2nd-Amendment ‘rights.’ This idiot then went home, left the guns out on the kitchen table and drove off to go somewhere else. Whereupon someone broke into his home and swiped the guns. The cops believed that the burglary occurred because the bad guy had gone to the politician’s Facebook page and seen this idiot walking through the State House toting his guns.

              I thought this dope in Michigan had committed the stupidest bit of behavior by any pro-gun politician this year, but I warned my readers that there would no doubt be even dumber examples coming right along. And yesterday what I predicted turned out to be true, thanks to a state legislator in Georgia named Matt Gurtler, who now holds the title of dumbest pro-gun politician of the year. Now remember, my award cuts both ways and I have already given out a ‘dumb’ award to a state rep in Massachusetts who is vociferously anti-gun. But let’s get back to the idiot from the Peach State.

              Gurtler has decided that the shutdown of public offices that process concealed-carry licenses makes residents of those jurisdictions more vulnerable to the COVID-19 virus than if they were to stand in line waiting for their CCW applications to be processed and approved. After all, how can you compare the threat of the ‘Chinese flu’ to the threat of not being able to protect your family and your home?

              So, this moron is proposing that the Governor use his emergency powers to override the State Constitution and allow residents to walk around with a concealed weapon whether they have been granted a CCW license or not. He puts it this way: “We need to suspend enforcement especially during the state of emergency, when so many individuals need to be able to defend themselves and their families and their loved ones and their property.”

              Now I’m going to pretend that my name is Michel Foucault because I want to engage in a brief effort to deconstruct what Gurtler says. Note that he believes not just in the idea of armed, self-defense, but he wants to extend this belief to include the ability of anyone to walk around in the street with a gun. Not just in the street, but maybe to the supermarket, maybe to the liquor store; in other words, to any location that is still providing an essential service or selling products which everyone still needs.

              The whole point of the 2008 Supreme Court decision on the 2nd Amendment is that the majority opinion clearly states that every law-abiding person living in America has Constitutional protection for keeping a loaded, unlocked handgun in their home for personal defense. In Georgia, this decision would apply to everyone who legally owns a gun, or at least a handgun.

              But for reasons that can only be explained in terms of where Gurtler’s IQ lands him on the bell curve, he believes that folks can only protect themselves, their families and their property if they can walk around with a gun. Which, by the way, happens to be an idea that Gun-nut Nation has been pushing for years.

              Georgia and other states have seen a spike in gun sales over the last few weeks. According to the manager of a Florida shop, “Our sales are up 80 percent, with a huge increase in first-time buyers who are worried about martial law, economic collapse, unemployment, shortages, delinquents roaming the streets.”

              This comment takes me back to a wonderful movie, War of the Worlds, which I saw when it was released in 1953, then Spielberg redid it in 2005. Is there the slightest chance that the guy knocking on my front door is anyone other than the kid delivering my pizza with anchovies and extra cheese?

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