“Remember, kids, gay marriages don’t kill – people kill.”<\/p>\n
Al Rantel, quoted on MarriageDebate.org, <\/a>asks:<\/p>\n Well, Al’s analogy doesn’t quite work, because San Francisco isn’t handing out marriage licenses “left and right.” For example, they aren’t handing ’em out to minors.<\/p>\n But let’s assume that the mayor of San Franscico believes that California’s laws against concealed guns violate California’s equivilent of the second amendment. To make the point, he begins issuing concealed gun licenses in a responsible-but-still-against-California-law manner (i.e., he’s not issuing CGLs to children or convicted murderers, etc).<\/p>\n In that case, it would be no different from what the mayor of San Francisco is doing right now. And I’d be cool with that. Obviously, civil disobedience – if done in a peaceful, non-violent way – is a tool available to everyone to use, including pro-gun folks, and including folks whose politics I don’t share.<\/p>\n Of course, in either case, I’d expect the mayor to take his medicine when (and if) the courts slap him down (part of civil disobedience is willing acceptance of consequences). But what he’s doing, in essence, is questioning the constitutionality of a state law. That’s a fair thing to do, regardless of if the issue is guns or equal marriage rights.<\/p>\n Really, Al’s question boils down to “is it right to flout an unjust law”? While I agree the issues aren’t simple, in the end, I side with the mayor (and also with Rosa Parks). There are times when breaking the law is justified social protest..<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" “Remember, kids, gay marriages don’t kill – people kill.” Al Rantel, quoted on MarriageDebate.org, asks: What if the mayor of San Diego, not liking California gun laws, started handing out concealed weapons licenses left and right? How is that different … Continue reading