Say it Ain't So, T.I.

One of my favorite rappers is in jail. (Seriously). I own all of T.I.'s albumns, even I'm Serious in which he gave the line ....

Pull up in a blue coupe that's damn near clear
And Polo gear that won't drop 'til next year
Be like this here, Cartier frames and Pierre Jouet wristwear
T.I.P. your majesty's right c'here
Notice when I came the dames disappeared, ya lames listen here
To play me, ba-by, hey he,
gone need a track from God featuring Jesus or Jay-Z

Now he's in trouble because his bodyguard ALLEGEDLY tried to buy three machine guns for him. Just because T.I. was convicted of a drug offense in 1998, he's not allowed to have or own guns. Well, its not his, its the body guard's. But aside from this, it raises two important questions:

First, you can buy a machine gun?
Second, what happened to T.I.'s Constitutional rights?

As far as buying a machine gun goes, I don't know why a machine gun's any worse than an assault rifle. I'm pretty sure you can buy an automatic assault rifle (to um, spray cans), so why not a machine gun? Why not a cannon? T.I. should build a moat around his house, have a couple of cannons, some muskets, those Swiss guards that protect the Pope. I'm pretty sure there's more than one guy in Concord who has an arsenal of weaponry. Why can't T.I.'s bodyguard?

The second issue is a little more important. Why is it that a felony causes you to lose your rights? No guns, no voting, I'm pretty sure those are both in the Constitution. We don't disenfranchise the people who vote for Ralph Nader or Pat Buchanan, even though they are clearly idiots. Why are we disenfranchising people who commit crimes? Its not like they can vote while they're serving their sentences. When they get out, they should be allowed to vote.

And why can't they have guns? The Second Ammendment doesn't count? Charlton Heston isn't freaked out about this? I can get in my car, drive drunk through Harris and still buy a gun when I get out of jail.

All I know is, there are two million people in jail right now, the majority are black and I'm pretty sure that has something to do with the disenfranchisement issue. The fact that we have more African American males in jail then in college should be a source of constant shame for us. But its not. Put them in jail, don't let them vote, don't let them have Constitutional rights. If the same proportion of white people were in jail, I think things might be different.