Fingerprinting, criminal background checks and licensing, and all it needs is Jan Brewer's signature. Oh, there'd be an armed revolt in Phoenix most likely, if that were really the case.
It's true that the lege passed a background check law. What's so dangerous here in Arizona? Healthcare, of course! And the lucky recipients of the new law, should governor Brewer sign it, are the navigators and counselors for the Affordable Care Act, aka Obamacare.
Meanwhile, Arizona Republicans continue to pass ridiculous laws concerning actually dangerous guns, like allowing gun enthusiasts to take their pets into gov't buildings as long as strict security measures aren't in place. Now, take a wild guess how strict the security is where the Republicans work.
So, there's Republicans declaring what they find dangerous, which is to say, people getting health insurance...
http://www.azcentral.com/...
House Bill 2508, which awaits Gov. Jan Brewer's signature, requires navigators and certified applications counselors to submit fingerprints for a criminal background check. And like health-insurance brokers, navigators and counselors must secure a license from the Arizona Department of Insurance.
As an added bonus layer of hypocrisy, they're taking a valiant stand for needless government bureaucracy, since these healthcare facilitating types already undergo background checks from the organizations they go to work for. So, we know Republicans can find gratuitous regulation, that does nothing but bog down the system, that even they can love. Well, it's not as if they really stand for the principles they claim to. The AZ Republic interviewed Tara McCollum Plese, of the Arizona Alliance for Community Health Centers, about it.
McCollum Plese said her organization and others who employ navigators and counselors already require they pass background checks before starting, so she believes the legislation adds another layer of bureaucracy.
"This seems to be very duplicative," McCollum Plese said. "These organizations (that employ navigators and counselors) already have very stringent privacy concerns and procedures. This just adds another layer to what we already have in place."
So, Obamacare, dangerous. Not so much? Guns. The legislature has been busy, and four new bills have nearly made it to the governor's desk.
https://news.azpm.org/...
The bills allow concealed carry permit holders to take guns into government buildings that don't have strict security measures, ban municipalities from restricting the discharge of firearms on private property and punish cities and towns that enact gun ordinances stricter than the state's own laws.
Another bill allows law enforcement to charge someone who wrests a gun from another person's hands with aggravated assault, even though it is already a felony offense to take someone's gun.
Is it a reversal of the typical Republican obsession over local control for them to attack cities and towns for passing laws more strict than the state's? Perhaps they take the notion of "state's rights" that literally. Could be just that guns trump Republican principles. If they can be said to be principles at all.
Just another day in Arizona, where healthcare seems to be more dangerous than a gun. For Republicans, in a way, I suppose it is. As usual, the legislative session can't end soon enough.