Back to New York

Submitted by Bill St. Clair on Sat, 08 Dec 2001 13:00:00 GMT

I'm up way before the crack of dawn again. Can't sleep. We're headed home today. I'm not as shell-shocked as on the trip out, so I'm more likely to be rude to the nazis at the airport. Fortunately, travelling with an intensely cute five-year-old girl tends to make folks trust you better. Wish me luck.

I used the NRA-ILA State Gun Laws page to compare the laws in Wyoming and Colorado with those in New York. Time to move west. No restrictions on purchase or possession of hanguns, rifles, or shotguns. "Shall issue" concealed carry permits within 60 days in Wyoming. Colorado gives complete discretion over CCW to the "licensing authority", but their law allows carry in an automobile for "lawful purposes" (though I remember reading stories of Denver cops ignoring this state law). Compared to New York, both Wyoming and Colorado's gun laws are most refreshing.

The DPMS Lo-Pro Rifle is a .223 semi-auto for only $655. It's missing tactical features, but is great for target shooting. It shot an average 1.13 MOA in the testing done for the November 2001 issue of The American Rifleman. There is no rifle with this exact name on the DPMS web site, but there are a number of post-ban .223's for less than $1000. They also have a pump gun, exempt from the 1994 ban. For a complete product list, you need to give them $2 for a catalog. Added to my Arms Manufacturers page. The American Rifleman issues were at my Dad's house. He was an NRA life member. I may join the NRA just to get the magazine. I like it.

J. Orlin Grabbe at Laissez Faire City Times - Some Further News of Laissez Faire City - some reflections on 9/11. Mr. Grabbe believes it was done by the U.S. government as an excuse to further shred the Bill or Rights. He may be right. [grabbe]

Molly Ivins at the Chicago Tribune via Sierra Times - We Are All Suspects, If Ashcroft Has His Way - I saw this one in the Cheyenne paper as well, but with a different title. A pleasant surprise. [sierra]

Yep, if we had a constitution largely rewritten by John Ashcroft, as opposed the one we're stuck with by such picayune minds as Madison, Washington, Franklin, Hamilton, etc., we'd be a lot safer today.

Wouldn't we? How? you ask. Well, for example, uh . . . And there's . . . uh. Well at least we could have had a better visa system. So that has nothing to do with the Constitution: picky, picky.

In this fight for our cherished freedoms, those cherished freedoms should definitely be the first thing to go. Sieg heil, y'all.

Harry G. Levine at JPFO - THE SECRET OF WORLD-WIDE DRUG PROHIBITION: The Varieties And Uses Of Drug Prohibition - Drug prohibition is a global problem. People are only recently beginning to realize this, and this realization will eventually end prohibition or at least shift it from American-style criminalized prohibition to Dutch-style decriminalized prohibition. Long. I only skimmed it. [jpfo]

Charley Reese at JPFO - How To Control People - advice for tyrants. A warning for freedom lovers. [geneice]

Anser Institute for Homeland Security is an interesting place. Their coverage appears fairly balanced, though I haven't spent enough time there to properly judge it. [grabbe]

Bob Wallace at LewRockwell.com - The Scariest Horror Story of Them All - some entertaining musings about the state in the form of a conversation between the King of America and his son, Hector. [lew]

"Essentially it's a battle between good and evil," Hector said. "People see order as good and chaos as evil. Civilization attempts to be both orderly and good, while the State is always chaotic and evil. There is an eternal conflict between Civilization and the State, as Albert Jay Nock noticed in his book, Our Enemy, the State. The State can only grow at the expense of Civilization. The State, although it attempts to do good, is in reality primitive, evil and dangerous, and its actions-along with the consequences-are always unexpected, unpredictable and uncontrollable."

Charley Reese at Enterprise-Journal - Anti- terrorist measures go too far - the obvious problems in the "USA PATRIOT" act. "Well, Liberty really is indivisible." [lew]

Then there is this business of using military tribunals to try aliens suspected of terrorism. Again, this should be unacceptable. I listened to Attorney General John Ashcroft try to justify it, and it was mighty strange to hear the chief law-enforcement officer of the nation speak so derogatorily about the U.S. judicial system. If the federal courts are in such bad shape, he should try to reform them rather than go around them. A military tribunal is a kangaroo court. Period.

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Previous Posts:
Dad's Funeral Talk
Segway (aka Ginger, aka IT)
The high schools fail
Col. William W. St. Clair, RIP
Col. William St. Clair RIP
'Only God can judge that'
The art of dodging objective reality
Making up the law as they go along
If nuclear power can't stand on its own after 44 years, when will it?
A feast of lard: Last thing economy needs is a platter of congressional cholesterol

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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