Four Clicks and Your Gun. Not!

Submitted by Bill St. Clair on Wed, 01 May 2002 14:10:00 GMT

From samizdata:

When the Mafia offers you protection, you pay up or they send some goombahs in dark suits around to pay you a visit. When the State offers you protection, you pay up or they send some goombahs in blue uniforms around to pay you a visit. -- Samizdata Illuminatus

Trivia from a co-worker:

In Scotland, a new game was invented. It was entitled Gentlemen Only Ladies Forbidden.... and thus the word GOLF entered into the English language.

russmo.com - Refund Ecstasy - cartoon commentary on the psychology of the tax refund scam. Not funny.

Robert Vroman at anti-state.com - Three Cheers for the Mafia - Mr. Vroman compares the state with the mob and decides that the mob is easier to live with. [anti-state]

It's a common tactic of anarchists, including myself, to expose the evil of the state by comparing it to organized crime. It certainly seems to fit, all the same systems are in place: the mafia extorts money from you with the return service of rubbing out any other gangs that may try to infiltrate the area; the state taxes you to provide equally dubious police and national defense. The mafia offers great programs like casinos and off track betting; the government has social security. As effective a comparison as it may be in demonizing statists, I now admit this has been an injustice -- to the mob.

Russ Howard at KeepAndBearArms.com - Registration: The NRA Paradigm - a former director of the NRA reminds us that gun registration is already a reality in Amerika. As Steven Halbrook reminded us in his Registration: The Nazi Paradigm, registration leads to confiscation and execution. Why does the NRA leadership think this is a good idea? [kaba]

wiredog at Slashdot - 'Virtual' Child Porn Act Ruled Unconstitutional - it's no longer illegal to view computer-generated child porn in which no actual child was involved. One more thought crime bites the dust. Kuro5hin discussion here. [/.]

Jim Burns an CNSNews.com - Libertarians Plan Cigarette Giveaway to Protest Higher Taxes - New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg has threatened to add another $1.50 city tax to New York state's already exorbitent $1.50 tax, hiking the price of 20 smokes to over $7. The Manhattan Libertarian Party intends to buy cigarettes over the internet from New York-based Indian reservations and give them away. Hehe. [smith2004]

Vox Day at World Net Daily - Shut 'em down - the i.r.s. that is. Yes! [kaba]

H.R. 4101, the "Electronic Commerce Crime Prevention and Protection Act", would "require firearms, ammunition, and explosives purchases to be made in person and to require records to be kept of the means by which the purchases are made." A very bad bill. Tell your congress critter to oppose it should it get out of the House Committee on the Judiciary. I sent the following message to John Sweeney:

Should it get out of the House Committee on the Judiciary, and I hope it doesn't, I urge you to vote against H.R. 4101, the "Electronic Commerce Crime Prevention and Protection Act", which would "require firearms, ammunition, and explosives purchases to be made in person and to require records to be kept of the means by which the purchases are made."

We do not need any more gun laws. Ever. It's time to get rid of the 20,000 gun laws that already exist. Every single one of them is blatantly unconstitutional. The right to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed. Period.

Start with the Brady Bill (National Instant Check System) and the "Assault Weapons" ban. Get rid of them. Then get rid of the 1968 and 1939 gun bills. Throw them out.

Jessi Winchester at Liberty for All - Bandits with Badges - a few states have already passed laws forbidding the forfeiture (theft by any other name...) of property without the conviction of its owner. We need these laws everywhere. [kaba]

"Whenever legislators endeavor to take away and destroy the property of the people, or to reduce them to slavery under arbitrary power, they put themselves into a state of war with the people, who are thereupon absolved from any further obedience." -- John Locke, 1690

...

Requiring that a property owner be convicted of a crime prior to forfeiture is not only the right thing to do . . . it is our birthright as citizens. The sooner the rest of the states join those who have already spoken up for liberty, the stronger individual liberty will be for each American and the sooner we can put a stop to "bandits with badges."

zem.squidly.org - dailytelegraph: Four clicks and your gun - commentary on a Sydney (Australia) Daily Telegraph story in which the authors claim to have ordered a Glock pistol from a U.S. internet-based mail-order business. Zem figured out that the pistol was ordered from TopGlock.com. What the authors neglected to mention was that though TopGlock ships parts to countries that do not forbid their import, they don't ship pistols to anyone but U.S. FFL holders at U.S. addresses. From their Pistols page: [zem]

According to United States law, we can not ship pistols to any international locations. Sorry.

FMJ Technologies makes the Quick Escape Mask, a "light weight, small dimension, easy-to-carry personal emergency escape mask, specially designed for biological and chemical terrorism protection." It costs $49.99. I have no idea how well or even if it works, but it looks like a good idea.

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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