On the faint fending off of "Criminals and Psychopaths"

The NRA insists that "gun-free zones" are simply attractors for murderous zanies and cut-throats, and loudly trumpet each time a mass shooting occurs in a place that has forbidden carrying of firearms, like a school or a movie theater. "If only," they cry, "the nanny state liberals in charge hadn't rendered all those poor victims defenseless against the slaughter. The only way to stop a bad person with a gun is a good person with a good, anywhere, any time."

Their (largely) GOP politicians and pundits echo the the charge

And yet, there are a lot of places — bastions of GOP (and even NRA) activity — that very explicitly ban firearms possession, with nary a peep of protest from the conservative defenders of gun freedom:

http://thinkprogress.org/justice/2015/08/25/3694369/conservative-gun-free-zones/

For example, the George W Bush Presidential Library (sign posted below). Or GOP political events (including town halls, campaign stops, presidential debates). Or, heck, Donald Trump's golf courses.

Are they so reckless about the security and safety at these locations that they are dead set on preventing people there from defending themselves against thugs and assassins? Oh, the humanity!

(The argument that some of these venues control the policy over events held there — the excuse used at the last gun-less NRA convention — hardly holds water. First off, there are plenty of exceptions. Secondly, and most importantly, when it comes to personal security, to protecting friends and loved ones, to standing up for the Most Important Constitutional Amendment Ever, that these folk aren't demanding the venues they choose allow carrying to the extent of the law, or else choosing to hold their events somewhere else, is unconscionable. Or indicative of something else.)

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