Assemblyman shows us where bad laws come from

Submitted by Bill St. Clair on Mon, 28 May 2001 10:02:56 GMT

FROM MOUNTAIN MEDIA
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE DATED JULY 12, 2000
THE LIBERTARIAN, By Vin Suprynowicz
Assemblyman shows us where bad laws come from

The price of liberty is eternal vigilance, Thomas Jefferson once warned us, back before our summers featured comfortable sofas, wide-mouth 12-packs, and thrilling double-headers between the Pirates and the Marlins.

But if the saying retains validity -- and formerly free peoples have been known to wake up and wish they'd paid more attention -- we might start by assigning a personal bodyguard to Nevada Assemblyman Lynn Hettrick, the Republican state legislator from little Gardnerville.

Assemblyman Hettrick is one of those legislators who likes to keep in close touch with his constituents.

Fine.

When one of his constituents approaches Mr. Hettrick and says something has made the constituent unhappy, Mr. Hettrick takes the time to hear him out.

Even better.

Then, when the troubled constituent says (and don't they always?) "There ought to be a law," Assemblyman Hettrick gets busy and drafts the proposed new statute.

And there's the problem.

One of Mr. Hettrick's constituents, it turns out, is retired Douglas High School principal Dan Paterson, who was involved in a dispute with his daughter's basketball coach last winter.

Mr. Paterson now complains the incident, which occurred during a game, was "blown out of proportion" by the Record-Courier newspaper in Douglas County, which reported on Feb. 5 that Mr. Paterson had pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor battery charge and agreed to undergo an "anger management evaluation."

"He (Mr. Paterson) said the papers ran a mug shot that made him look like a criminal," the obliging assemblyman explains. And that's why Mr. Hettrick has now ordered up a bill draft which would "restrict use by newspapers of photographs of persons under certain circumstances" -- details to be provided at a later date.

Now let us attempt to divine how this might work. A local newspaper, hoping to run the video surveillance photograph of the bandit shooting the defenseless store clerk, would first have to track down the fugitive and get his written permission? At which point the fugitive would be free to request that his high school graduation photo be run, instead, because it features his "better profile"? Or that the photo not run at all, because "That darned thing makes me look like some kind of criminal"?

Yes, yes, Assemblyman Hettrick admits the inconvenient First Amendment guarantee of a free press may doom any such proposal from being passed, but while "free speech rights are at issue, he (Mr. Paterson) deserves his day in court."

But Mr. Hettrick: Where do you suppose Mr. Paterson was standing when he pleaded guilty to whacking the coach?

Yes, achieving notoriety in the local paper can be mortifying. Newspapers can even make mistakes -- though there's no indication the Record-Courier got the facts wrong, here. It appears undisputed that Mr. Paterson did his thumping of the coach in public. Surely members of the community would have wondered how the case ended up. So the newspaper told them.

(It may be worth pointing out that leaving the press free to cover arrests and trials was initially and rightly seen as a protection for the defendant. There are worse things than the "embarrassment" of an open, public trial. Suppose some tyrannical regime started tossing people in jail and throwing away the keys; wouldn't you want an aggressive and diligent press to start running photos of those who had been "disappeared," asking "Where are they hiding these men? Why have they not been brought to trial"?)

But the heart of the problem in this case is not even the failure to understand that newspapers must be free to report the facts -- however embarrassing -- if we are to remain a free nation, lest powerful men begin restricting the news to suit their convenience.

No, the real problem here is the assumption -- on the part of a good many legislators besides Mr. Hettrick -- that a good way to win points with a constituent is to allow a bad law to be drafted, assuming it will die a safe and quiet death in committee. Rather than saying the harsh words, "I'm sorry for your pain, but such a law would be unconstitutional, so I'm not going to submit it," imagine how much easier it is to coo: "We tried to pass your law, but I just couldn't round up the votes. Message: I still care."

And if, in the end, a few such bills end up slipping through and getting enacted?

Well, these things can happen in politics. The same way the men surrounding the aging President Hindenburg once figured, "Let's buy off the little blowhard by giving him the chancellorship. He's a complete amateur whose party doesn't have enough votes to get any of his nutty proposals through the Reichstag, so where's the danger? In a year or two he will have embarrassed himself sufficiently that we can quietly maneuver him out to pasture. A decade from now no one will even remember the name 'Adolf Hitler'..."

Vin Suprynowicz is assistant editorial page editor of the Las Vegas Review-Journal. His book, "Send in the Waco Killers: Essays on the Freedom Movement, 1993-1998," is available by dialing 1-800-244-2224.

Vin Suprynowicz, vin@lvrj.com

"The evils of tyranny are rarely seen but by him who resists it." -- John Hay, 1872

"The whole aim of practical politics is to keep the populace alarmed -- and thus clamorous to be led to safety -- by menacing it with an endless series of hobgoblins, all of them imaginary." -- H.L. Mencken

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'There Oughtta Be A Law,' Chapter 417

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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

End the War on Freedom

Assemblyman shows us where bad laws come from