And a poll tax was just a method of collecting revenue, right?
The instructors don't have to be in on it. For many, if not most, of us on THR an extra 50-200 bucks to get a permit is irritating but not necessarily impossible to manage. For a lot of people it is impossible, or practically so. Can you imagine saving up for a year just to buy an old, worn police trade-in .38 only to be told that you need to pay as much for a permit to carry it (training class + permit fee) as you did for the gun itself?
Although there's no requirement that anyone think logically or even rationally on the Internet those are skills worth developing if only as a hobby. Give it a try.
No one was talking about poll taxes. They're probably an interesting subject but they're not even marginally relevant to this discussion. The original poster used the analogy of
literacy tests, which is at least reasonable in terms of the central point he tried to make: that instructors use their discretion to bar people of a certain race--which race is unspecified and blurry, as is appropriate to what is essentially the issue of a vast conspiracy--from getting permits even if they passed a written and a shooting test. Poll taxes do not involve either such tests or discretion.
Can I "imagine saving up for a year just to buy an old, worn police trade-in .38 only to be told that you need to pay as much for a permit to carry it (training class + permit fee) as you did for the gun itself?" Yes, of course I can. So what? If someone has forced you to buy "an old, worn police trade-in" upload that mind controlling rascal right now and I'll straighten him out for you, since you're unable to do it yourself. I hate it when people transmit controlling messages to other people's dental fillings. That horror must cease and I will put a stop to it for everyone.
Can you imagine buying an old, worn trade-in used car and then discovering that you have to put gasoline in it for the same price paid by someone who buys a brand new car? Or can you imagine marrying an awful person and having to pay the same marriage license fee as the person who married a nice person? Or buying a ticket to a movie you don't like and paying the same price as someone who saw the same movie and liked it?
Such conspiracies are all around us, alas, but only the most sensitive of us are able to detect them. Have you ever noticed that the only time you see bad reception on a television set is when there's a program you want to watch? There is evil in this world.
I haven't observed any conspiracy on the part of CWP instructors to block the permits of people from any race, religion, or national origin. In fact all the CWP instructors I know are out trying
hard for minorities to enroll in their classes and get their permits. The reason should be obvious to anyone who isn't looking for conspiracies under every bed: those are the people who usually are most in need of the ability to defend their lives and those of their families.
Every CWP instructor I've ever met is doing this work to
increase the number of honest people who have the means of self defense. Those instructors pay for their own training and certification as instructors, take courses and pass examinations to be certified, must maintain their credentials, must submit their courses for state approval, and are
required to teach them
exactly as they were approved. Of course they are human beings too and therefore are subject to the same frailties as other human beings, but what's been suggested as a virtual conspiracy could be grounds for arrest and suits if they were caught. Surely
someone who was the victim of such a conspiracy would have complained.
Search the messages in
The High Road during the past few months for the report of a Sherrif who was caught and punished for not giving the proper course in his state. Remember we are talking about CWP
courses and
instructors, not about "may issue" states or officials who abuse their trust. By the way, I don't know a CWP instructor who wouldn't report another CWP instructor for doing what has been suggested by the original poster.
For whatever it might be worth,
I do not like the idea of compulsory CWP courses as a condition of getting a permit.
I also do not like the idea of needing a permit to carry the means of self defense.
I believe that the ability to defend one's own life is a
right, that the defense of one's family is a
duty, and that there should be no need for a permit to do either. I abhor that concept. But it's absurd to think that CWP instructors as a class are somehow motivated by prejudice against any race, religion, or national origin, and that's the issue raised by the original poster--not a worn .38 trade in.