The Revenge of the Thin Blue Line 14: Do you carry a gun? Carry a badge!

Tennessee Republicans in the General Assembly have proposed not one but, two bills to grant the 700,000 "enhanced gun permit holders" law enforcement powers.  In a perverse inversion of a classic scene in The Untouchables, where Sean Connery asks the nebbish FBI accountant if he carries a badge, then shoves a shotgun at him as he admonishes him to carry a gun, the Tennessee Republicans have decided carrying a gun means you can carry a badge.  Obviously, this is insane which means the entire Tennessee Republican Party will support it vociferously and in lock step.

This is consistent with the the unspoken beliefs proffered by the NRA and Republican Party that every man is constitutionally empowered to act as *his* own Judge, jury and executioner when holding a gun.  And should not nay cannot be questioned, tried, or held in anyway liable for the bodies he leaves behind.  *- offer not available to black people

The rapid spread of CCL and Stand Your Ground has emboldened gun nuts to see an "offense" reach for their Firearm and pass sentence of death.  Shoot first, claim self-defense, and walk free.  What Tennessee is proposing is just a legal cover for a long standing 

Now, you might counter that many gun owners are good shots and Police Officers are terrible shots.  And you're not wrong.  Many Officers are terrible at shooting but, Police Work is one long non-stop Gunfight at the OK Corral.  It requires a keen analytic mind, some compassion, ability to empathize with victims, have a working knowledge of the legal codes of local, state and federal government, and be able to enforce the law with dispassion and equanimity.  Now, you might counter that Police are terrible at all those things, too.  And... yeah, sure that's true.  But, only because all humans in the aggregate are kinda bad at those things, as well.

Granting, further law enforcement power to citizens is just another step to empowering paramilitary groups to dispense "justice" when the GOP does away with free and fair elections and institutes their Fascist Evangelical Ethno-State.  With each passing day and in multiple Republican controlled states we see how easily and readily the GOP is to creating an Authoritarian Government with a patina of democracy,

When the men with guns who have always claimed to be against the system start wearing uniforms and marching with torches and pictures of a leader, the end is nigh.  When the pro-leader paramilitary and the official police and military intermingle, the end has come. - On Tyranny, Timothy Snyder.