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The Double Standard of ID Requirements

The Double Standard of ID Requirements
AP Photo/Adam Bettcher

We're told by the left that voter identification laws are racist. Why? Because black people have trouble getting state-issued ID cards.

Now, I live in a majority-black community and don't know anyone who lacks an ID card, but let's say they're right. If that's true, why insist on IDs for gun purchases?

The right to vote and the right to keep and bear arms are enshrined in the Constitution. One can argue that the government grants voting rights while the right to have weapons is a natural right granted by God, but they're both there. And we know that the Constitution doesn't permit rights to be taken away from anyone due to the color of their skin.

That also means prohibiting rules that do so indirectly. Poll taxes, literacy tests, and a whole host of other measures were tried to keep black people from voting back in the day and were later tossed for being racist.

Democrats routinely argue that requiring people to have an ID falls into this same category.

Common sense tells you that ensuring people are who they say they are and that they live where they say they live is a necessary and vital part of our democratic process as it prevents people from voting for folks they're not eligible to vote for. For example, as a Georgia resident, I can't waltz into a New York City precinct and vote against Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez as I don't live there.

However, Democrats claim that IDs are difficult for many black Americans to obtain because they lack transportation and the opportunity to go and get a state-issued ID card.

For the sake of argument, we won't get into the myriad things people need IDs for, up to and including getting a check cashed.

Instead, let's ask why they're not up in arms over the ID requirements to buy a firearm.

Like voting, the right to keep and bear arms is part of the Constitution. If it's racist to require an ID to vote, why isn't it equally racist to require an ID to purchase a firearm?

You can't even make the argument that people can buy guns without them because a key part of the Democratic Party's gun policy plans includes universal background checks, which would end face-to-face transfers that don't require a state-issued identification card. In many states, that's not enough. Some gun purchasers also have to jump through the hoops for an additional ID card, such as the FOID cards required in Illinois.

How are these simple, quick, and easy to obtain while a state-issued ID isn't?

More specifically, how is it that a voter ID requirement is terribly racist, but requiring the exact same ID for a gun purchase isn't racist in the least?

Good luck finding a leftist who can explain this in some way that actually makes sense and doesn't treat the Second Amendment as a second-class right.

I've been looking for such a soul for a long time and still haven't found them. It wouldn't change my mind on guns, but it would be nice to at least understand the logic here.

Instead, there's no logic at all to be found.

Pretty typical, really.

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