010107.html

Submitted by Bill St. Clair on Sun, 07 Jan 2001 13:00:00 GMT

Jesse Walker at Reason - Trafficking in Ideas: a review of the new movie, Traffic, which points out the failure of the war on freedom, er... some drugs, and recasts the drug problem as a public health issue. [market]

What is Traffic's message? First, that the drug war simply isn't working--that consumer demand is too big, the southern border too long, and the opportunities for corruption too great for the government to stem the trade in narcotics. Second, that it's hypocritical to outlaw some drugs while allowing people to medicate themselves freely with alcohol and tobacco. And third, to quote Soderbergh's recent interview with Roger Ebert, that we should "approach this as a health care issue, not a criminal issue."
...
It's progress for people to discuss drugs as a public-health problem: If nothing else, it's a step away from the draconian measures being advanced in the name of crime control. But as the public-health model becomes conventional wisdom and policy slowly starts to shift, it's time for the drug war's foes to start staking out fresher ground, arguing for the right of individuals to decide for themselves what they will put into their own bodies--and to decide for themselves whether it's become a problem they need to control.

At this point, I'll insert my favorite Vin Suprynowicz quote. I think all drugs should be completely deregulated.

This does not mean that "Marijuana should be available by prescription." It means that morphine sulfate should be available in five pound bags at the supermarket for a couple of bucks, like sugar... but probably in a different aisle, to avoid confusion.

Colonel Dan at Sierra Times - Why Any Gun Laws? Likewise, we need to completely deregulate metal objects. Criminalize crime, not objects. [sierra]

Call me radically deranged, extremely naive or dangerously simplistic. Call me a Second Amendment absolutist or whatever you like but I can't see why we need any gun laws--at all. Laws against violent crimes such as murder, robbery or assault are already on the books and do not require a gun be used in their commission to be considered criminal acts. The only thing any criminal needs to carry out such deviant behavior is some means of providing a power advantage over the victim and he could use almost anything for that. He can just as easily kill or rob with a knife, a baseball bat or his bare fists so what difference does it make which gizmo is used to provide that power advantage over the victim--none whatsoever to my way of thinking. It's the act itself that makes such behavior a crime, not the tool used.

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Quotes

Government doesn't work. Never did. Never will. Can't. But there are lots of good people. Love them.

-- Bill St. Clair

The Atlanta Declaration

Every man, woman, and responsible child has an unalienable individual, civil, Constitutional, and human right to obtain, own, and carry, openly or concealed, any weapon -- rifle, shotgun, handgun, machinegun, anything -- any time, any place, without asking anyone's permission.

-- L. Neil Smith

Reread that pesky first clause of the Second Amendment. It doesn't say what any of us thought it said. What it says is that infringing the right of the people to keep and bear arms is treason. What else do you call an act that endangers "the security of a free state"? And if it's treason, then it's punishable by death. I suggest due process, speedy trials, and public hangings.

-- L. Neil Smith

A Penalty Clause for the Bill of Rights

Any official, appointed or elected, at any level of government, who attempts, through legislative act or other means, to nullify, evade, or avoid the provisions of the first ten amendments to this Constitution, or of the Thirteenth Amendment, shall be summarily removed from office, and, upon conviction, deprived of all pay and benefits including pension, and sentenced to imprisonment for life.

-- L. Neil Smith

Based on 253 journal articles, 99 books, 43 government publications, and some of its own empirical work, the panel couldn't identify a single gun control regulation that reduced violent crime, suicide or accidents.

-- John Lott, commenting on the National Academy of Sciences report on gun control laws.

Who is a libertarian?

Zero Aggression Principle ("Zap")

"A libertarian is a person who believes that no one has the right, under any circumstances, to initiate force against another human being, or to advocate or delegate its initiation. Those who act consistently with this principle are libertarians, whether they realize it or not. Those who fail to act consistently with it are not libertarians, regardless of what they may claim."

-- L. Neil Smith

(Formerly called the "Non-Aggression Principle", or "NAP")

Why Did It Have to be... Guns?

Make no mistake: all politicians -- even those ostensibly on the side of guns and gun ownership -- hate the issue and anyone, like me, who insists on bringing it up. They hate it because it's an X-ray machine. It's a Vulcan mind-meld. It's the ultimate test to which any politician -- or political philosophy -- can be put.

If a politician isn't perfectly comfortable with the idea of his average constituent, any man, woman, or responsible child, walking into a hardware store and paying cash -- for any rifle, shotgun, handgun, machinegun, anything -- without producing ID or signing one scrap of paper, he isn't your friend no matter what he tells you.

If he isn't genuinely enthusiastic about his average constituent stuffing that weapon into a purse or pocket or tucking it under a coat and walking home without asking anybody's permission, he's a four-flusher, no matter what he claims.

What his attitude -- toward your ownership and use of weapons -- conveys is his real attitude about you. And if he doesn't trust you, then why in the name of John Moses Browning should you trust him?

-- L. Neil Smith

Concise

"Tell me," I was once asked, "What do you think about gun control? Give me the short answer." To which I replied, "If you try to take our firearms we will kill you."

-- Mike Vanderboegh

Also from The Atlanta Declaration:

... like going to the bathroom, breathing, eating, sleeping, or making love, it turns out that self-defense is a bodily function one cannot safely or effectively delegate to a second party.

-- L. Neil Smith

This does not mean that "Marijuana should be available by prescription." It means that morphine sulfate should be available in five pound bags at the supermarket for a couple of bucks, like sugar... but probably in a different aisle, to avoid confusion.

-- Vin Suprynowicz

If you refuse to pay unjust taxes, your property will be confiscated. If you attempt to defend your property, you will be arrested. If you resist arrest, you will be clubbed. If you defend yourself against clubbing, you will be shot dead. These procedures are known as the Rule of Law.

-- Edward Abbey

The state can only survive as long as a majority is programmed to believe that theft isn't wrong if it's called taxation or asset forfeiture or eminent domain, that assault and kidnapping isn't wrong if it's called arrest, that mass murder isn't wrong if it's called war.

-- Bill St. Clair