Indiana state Rep. Jim Lucas (R-Seymour) is pushing a license requirement for journalists to highlight what he sees as the unconstitutional requirement to get a license in order to bear arms for self-defense.
He is also considering a push to license “religious expression, speech and the right to vote.”
According to USA Today, Lucas is not getting a lot of support from his colleagues in the Republican Party. In fact, Indiana House Speaker Brian Bosma (R-Indianapolis) has voiced opposition to Lucas’s tactic.
Bosma said, “While no bill has been filed and I have not spoken to Rep. Lucas, it’s obvious this is an effort to grab a headline and make a point. However, most of us believe a free press is a vital part of our democracy, and I don’t believe Hoosiers support threatened regulation. I know I don’t.”
The American Civil Liberties Union of Indiana’s Jane Henegar said:
As a citizen of Indiana, I am disturbed that a member of the General Assembly would use taxpayers’ dollars to have the Legislative Services Agency draft this bill for political rhetorical purposes. If, on the other hand, Rep. Lucas intends to file the bill in hopes of getting it passed into law, as an American citizen, I am disturbed that an elected official who has sworn to uphold the Constitution would treat the First Amendment so cavalierly.
Lucas’s point is that a license requirement for any right contained in the Bill of Rights is too much and he is determined to draw attention to the fact that concealed carry permits are nothing less than a license to exercise the Second Amendment right to bear arms. He made this point clearly by describing his licensing push as a way of “bringing national attention to the danger and absurdity of licensing and infringing a Constitutionally protected right!”
He added, “I used the exact same wording to license 1st Amendment rights that are used to license 2nd Amendment rights, yet the media is reporting that the ‘experts’ are saying licensing the 1st would be unconstitutional.” He indicated that the outcry against licensing one right but not others just makes him want to keep pushing.
AWR Hawkins is the Second Amendment columnist for Breitbart News and host of Bullets with AWR Hawkins, a Breitbart News podcast. He is also the political analyst for Armed American Radio. Follow him on Twitter: @AWRHawkins. Reach him directly at awrhawkins@breitbart.com.