Tennessee steps into the long history of vigilante justice in America

[Nevilledog]

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Dr. Mia Brett
@QueenMab87
American has a long history of lynching and vigilantism. Proposing a bill to make certain civilian gun owners law enforcement is just the latest in protecting white men taking the law into their own hands. My latest for @johnastoehr

editorialboard.com
Tennessee steps into the long history of vigilante justice in America
Lynching in the 21st century.
8:18 AM · Feb 25, 2022

https://www.editorialboard.com/tennessee-steps-into-our-long-history-of-vigilante-justice/


This past week a bill was introduced in the Tennessee legislature that would make some gun owners members of law enforcement if they have an “enhanced handgun carry permit.”

All it takes to get such a permit is a $100 fee and an eight-hour handgun safety course certificate.

So basically, if you’re an adult who hasn’t committed a felony and have $100 and an extra eight hours, you too can be designated as law enforcement for the purposes of carrying a gun!

The purpose of the law is to allow civilians to take concealed weapons into places only off-duty law enforcement currently can. The idea is so spectacularly bad that even police unions in Tennessee are opposing it.

In reality, this bill is in a way a disturbing next step in a long history of condoning vigilantism in the United States.

Lynching has come to be associated with the racist violence in the post-Reconstruction south, but earlier in American history, lynching was an accepted part of vigilance committees and pioneer justice.

*snip*

[SheltieLover]

1. This state is an international disgrace!

[NQAS]

2. True, of course

But an interesting opportunity.

Tons and tons of African Americans should sign up. Women, too. And lgbtq.

[riversedge]

3. cops can enter schools with their guns legally, now you say anyone can for $100!! damn

[Solly Mack]

4. K&R

[Hassin Bin Sober]

5. We should put together a fund to buy guns and licenses for a couple hundred/thousand black people.

See how they like it then.

Maybe a few marches.

[Mister Ed]

6. So...if Georgia'd had a law like this, then Ahmaud Arbery's murderers might have gone free.

If they'd paid their $100 fee and gotten themselves declared honorary law enforcement officers, then they could have killed Arbery with impunity. After all, Mr. Arbery would have been "resisting arrest".

I think legalizing the actions of murderers like those is exactly the intent of this bill.