Rand Paul has a Libertarian viewpoint. He believes that private businesses should have control over decisions regarding who they can serve. The Civil Rights Act was partially in response to businesses disallowing black customers from receiving services at their lunch counters. He doesn’t like racism, but uses the argument that the next step would be that the government might be able to disallow customers from bringing their guns to the lunch counter.
Somehow I’m not seeing the connection. Maybe it’s this: Guns and skin color are the same thing. Each are protected under the Constitution. If I can bring one into a lunch counter, I should be able to bring the other.
Rand Paul would say that a business should be able to restrict guns at their lunch counters, therefore they should also be able to restrict skin colors. Hmmm . . . . Almost makes sense.
Except – I can make a choice as to whether I own a gun. And that choice is protected by the Second Amendment. The lunch counter owner is simply saying that your choice does not negate my choice. You can own a gun, but you can’t bring it here.
I can’t make a choice as to what my skin color is. The law seems to say that if you choose to keep me from ordering a burger at your lunch counter because of my skin color, then you are acting in a discriminatory fashion, and the Supreme Court has said that you can’t restrict my choices just because I don’t have a choice.
You can keep me from ordering that burger if I don’t wear shirt or shoes, or if I want to bring my gun into your establishment. Note that skin color is not on the list of things you can use to refuse service to me.
These are distinctions we make as a society. The distinctions you make as an individual are yours and you may exercise them as long as they do not restrict my Constitutionally protected options.
You can keep gun-toting black and white men (not one or either) out of your lunch counter, if you so choose. But if you don’t like my skin color and don’t have a better reason for refusing me service, make mine with fries!
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