ALABAMA: Ten Commandments In Schools Measure Makes Ballot, Author Says It Might Stop Mass Shooters

The Associated Press reports:

Two proposed constitutional amendments, passed by lawmakers during this year’s legislative session, will appear as referendums on the general-election ballot. Alabama Secretary of State John Merrill threw his support behind them at a ceremonial bill-signing at the Alabama State Capitol on Friday.

Republican Sen. Gerald Dial backed the amendment to authorize the display of the Ten Commandments on state property such as courts and schools. He, Merrill and other supporters of the amendment said Friday that teaching the Ten Commandments is important.

“Do the people of Alabama want to acknowledge God, the God of the Old and New Testament, the Christian God? Do we want to acknowledge the God that our nation was founded upon?” asked Dean Young, chairman of the Ten Commandments Amendment political action committee. Young said he’s been fighting for the amendment for 17 years.

Alabama Politics reports:

Sen. Gerald Dial told lawmakers that displaying the Ten Commandments might dissuade some school shooters from carrying out an attack. “I believe that if you had the Ten Commandments posted in a prominent place in school, it has the possibility to prohibit some student from taking action to kill other students,” Dial said.

There will, of course, be immediate lawsuits should the Ten Commandments initiative be approved. (Hello, Roy Moore.) The second constitutional amendment on the ballot would declare Alabama to be an anti-abortion state. That one would be mere grandstanding because federal law on the issue supersedes state law.