It Is Over
At midnight last night, a bit of freedom renewed. The so-called "assault weapons ban" law died.
The most important lesson from this comes not from allowing the banned to be unbanned. No, it is in the fact that this law was given a limited life span at its birth. Without renewal, it died.
Think about it. What if ALL LAWS and ALL REGULATIONS had an automatic expiration? That is, legislators would have to take specific action to renew any for them to continue to have any effect.
Go one better. Suppose that all laws and all regulations on the books, since the beginning of the country, had the same life limitation applied, retroactively.
Legislators would be tied up trying to sift the wheat from the chaff for a very long time because there are so many laws and regulations, so many of which have no reason to exist. That would keep these bums off the streets!
Suppose all future laws and regulations could not be in force for more than three years unless specifically renewed, and suppose it took at least a 60% majority vote to renew them. Talk about getting the d_____d government off our backs!
However, there is another element of joy in the death of the "assault weapons ban." It was a stupid, useless law that was designed to make the cud-chewing voters think that these bums in Congress had actually done something useful. It was a political lie, and now it is gone.
I totally oppose any form of governmental gun control for any reason whatsoever. I love guns. I love how beautifully they are made, how great they feel, and what they can do. I love owning them.
Were it up to me, I would allow ALL citizens to be armed and trained, and to carry firearms should they desire. I would love knowing that granny could blow the matted top off the head of any evil-doer with a single shot.
I own firearms, and I always will. I own them because I love them. I own them for self-defense. And, I own them to take the pleasure they give me when I use them at ranges.
The biggest reason for owning guns, however, lies in the one thing that the gun control fanatics fear the most: The government can be overthrown by the armed citizenry. That is why the Founders wanted us armed, and that is why I want us armed.
We are a nation of laws, but more importantly, we are a nation of principles directing the laws. Being just a nation of laws allow laws to pass to disarm the citizens and tyrannize them. Think of how FDR literally stole the gold from Americans in the early 1930s. An unarmed citizenry is no match for an armed force. Not only do we need to be able to take out life and property threatening criminals, but we may need to take out jihadists. It is not so clear that the drift of America toward some form of socialism might not necessitate taking back the country to restore reason and the Rights of Man.
To celebrate the death of that awful law, I plan to buy what was forbidden, and a shotgun, and probably a semi-automatic pistol with as big a magazine as I can find.
The most important lesson from this comes not from allowing the banned to be unbanned. No, it is in the fact that this law was given a limited life span at its birth. Without renewal, it died.
Think about it. What if ALL LAWS and ALL REGULATIONS had an automatic expiration? That is, legislators would have to take specific action to renew any for them to continue to have any effect.
Go one better. Suppose that all laws and all regulations on the books, since the beginning of the country, had the same life limitation applied, retroactively.
Legislators would be tied up trying to sift the wheat from the chaff for a very long time because there are so many laws and regulations, so many of which have no reason to exist. That would keep these bums off the streets!
Suppose all future laws and regulations could not be in force for more than three years unless specifically renewed, and suppose it took at least a 60% majority vote to renew them. Talk about getting the d_____d government off our backs!
However, there is another element of joy in the death of the "assault weapons ban." It was a stupid, useless law that was designed to make the cud-chewing voters think that these bums in Congress had actually done something useful. It was a political lie, and now it is gone.
I totally oppose any form of governmental gun control for any reason whatsoever. I love guns. I love how beautifully they are made, how great they feel, and what they can do. I love owning them.
Were it up to me, I would allow ALL citizens to be armed and trained, and to carry firearms should they desire. I would love knowing that granny could blow the matted top off the head of any evil-doer with a single shot.
I own firearms, and I always will. I own them because I love them. I own them for self-defense. And, I own them to take the pleasure they give me when I use them at ranges.
The biggest reason for owning guns, however, lies in the one thing that the gun control fanatics fear the most: The government can be overthrown by the armed citizenry. That is why the Founders wanted us armed, and that is why I want us armed.
We are a nation of laws, but more importantly, we are a nation of principles directing the laws. Being just a nation of laws allow laws to pass to disarm the citizens and tyrannize them. Think of how FDR literally stole the gold from Americans in the early 1930s. An unarmed citizenry is no match for an armed force. Not only do we need to be able to take out life and property threatening criminals, but we may need to take out jihadists. It is not so clear that the drift of America toward some form of socialism might not necessitate taking back the country to restore reason and the Rights of Man.
To celebrate the death of that awful law, I plan to buy what was forbidden, and a shotgun, and probably a semi-automatic pistol with as big a magazine as I can find.
posted by George Mason @ 9/14/2004 07:27:00 AM
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