fbpx

Tag: united states

Carrying firearms in public and without a licence authorised in Texas

Opponents of the law, in Texas and across the country, argue that relaxing gun rules will lead to more violence.

The Republican governor of Texas on Wednesday signed into law a bill allowing people to carry firearms in public without a permit, the latest in a series of measures expanding gun rights in conservative states across the US.

This law, passed in May by a Republican-dominated Senate and House of Representatives in this southern state, allows anyone aged 21 or over who is not prohibited from owning a firearm to carry one in public without a permit. It is due to come into force on 1 September. The text considers that the Constitutions of the United States and Texas authorise citizens to carry firearms and that, consequently, there should be fewer obstacles in this area.

Governor Greg Abbott plans to preside over an enactment ceremony on Thursday, according to the Texas Tribune. He had indicated that he would sign the law into law if it passed both houses. "This is something that about twenty other states have passed, and it's time for Texas to pass it too", he said in April on local radio station WBAP.

22 supermarket deaths in 2019

But opponents, particularly Democrats in Texas and across the country, argued that relaxing gun rules would generate more violence. They cited as examples the shooting in the Texas capital Austin that left one person dead and thirteen injured last week, as well as the shooting in an El Paso supermarket in 2019 that left 22 people dead and 23 injured.

Veronica Escobar, a Texas member of the US House of Representatives, said on Wednesday that Greg Abbott had "chosen to betray the victims of gun violence" by enacting the law.

"Despite strong support for legislation to prevent gun violence, Republicans, led by a cowardly governor, are more interested in getting the attention of the gun lobby than they are in preventing gun violence and honoring the victims and survivors in El Paso and across Texas," she tweeted.

On Monday, Representative Vikki Goodwin called on the Governor to veto the law following the shooting in Austin. "We must intervene to break this vicious circle", she said.

Text by Lematin.ch AFP

Donald Trump has 75 days left of his presidency: what if they were the worst?

Although defeated by Joe Biden, the future leader of the United States, the incumbent retains immense power as President and head of the armed forces... and he has nothing to lose.

UNITED STATES - As Donald Trump prepares to enter the final days of his presidency - which could well be his worst - Americans are worried about what is in store for a president who proposed shooting migrants and using nuclear weapons against hurricanes.

As excessive, reckless and thoughtless as he has been so far, his critics point out that it was election time, which is no longer the case. Beaten by Joe Biden in the 2020 presidential election, he no longer needs to moderate himself.

"He'll do everything he can to stir up trouble", says Michael Cohen, the president's former personal lawyer, who was tried and sentenced to three years in prison for, among other things, buying the silence of women who had relations with Donald Trump just before the 2016 election.

According to him, the President "will go on TV, radio and the press to complain that these elections were stolen from him by fraud and foreign interference. He will never admit that he owes his defeat to his incompetence and arrogance".

Trump to leave the White House on 20 January

The winner, Joe Biden, is due to take office at noon on 20 January 2021, but Donald Trump retains his presidential prerogatives for another 75 days, including his role as head of the US armed forces and nuclear weapons.

He said he had no intention of facilitating the transition of power because of the FBI investigation into Russian assistance he allegedly received during the 2016 campaign, which the president calls "espionage."

"Are we talking about the transition I had when you spied on my campaign and when you tried to bring down the President of the United States?" he railed again last week at a rally in Pennsylvania.

The White House declined all requests for comment on this matter.

Speaking on condition of anonymity, a former senior official believes that the concerns expressed by Michael Cohen and others are exaggerated. "I don't think he'll do anything out of the ordinary", he said of the President.

But a long-standing adviser, who also prefers to remain anonymous, fully expects Donald Trump to demand the resignation of Anthony Fauci, the infectious disease specialist on the coronavirus pandemic task force. He could also fire Christopher Wray, the director of the FBI, and Gina Haspel, the director of the CIA, who have repeatedly contradicted him. "Either he's going to fire Wray, Fauci and Haspel and make a fuss, or he's going to hold his nose to make himself look good. It'll be interesting to see. And it's 50-50," he adds.

What if Trump spent all his time playing golf?

Ruth Ben-Ghiat, a historian and specialist in authoritarian regimes at New York University, is sure that the outgoing president "will take revenge on those who have shown him a lack of loyalty". Daniel Goldman, a former federal prosecutor who acted as the Democrats' lawyer in the impeachment proceedings against Donald Trump, predicts 11 busy weeks for the President and his team.

According to him, we can expect "all sorts of executive orders to invalidate other Obama-era regulations, the adoption of new regulations on the sly, attempts to intimidate and neutralise various government agencies, and him using the levers of power to advance the pawns that will serve his financial interests after the presidency. Not to mention a record number of presidential pardons" for his accomplices.

Of course, regulations that have been improperly drafted and adopted can always be invalidated by legal action. Even those that are properly drafted in the final months of the administration could be quickly repealed by the new Congress, and all its executive orders immediately rescinded by Joe Biden as soon as he takes office.

Other people familiar with Donald Trump question the interest he will show in his duties if he loses the election. Anthony Scaramucci, an old friend of the president who briefly served as a White House adviser, sums up the leader's most likely end-of-term agenda in three words: "Play golf". Which is what he was doing when his defeat was announced to the world.

This article, published on Le HuffPost US, was translated by Valeriya Macogon for Fast ForWord.

Facebook Instagram Envelope Twitter
Copyright © 2024 Bar Crobar | By STXWEB