Thursday, January 28, 2010

Senate Bill 40- a shabby patch for a bad 'law'

Senate Bill 40- a shabby patch for a bad 'law'

I have written before about the fact that the political "solution" for bad "laws" is not new "laws" but the repeal of the bad "laws". No one is listening to me.

Senate Bill 40 is a "new" proposed "law" that seeks to undo some damage caused by older bad "laws". What it would do is "allow" people with concealed weapon permits to carry their weapon into a restaurant that serves alcohol. How "nice" of the Law Givers to let people beg for "legal" permission to do something that is already a basic human right, not subject to limitation, licensing, or other forms of infringement. Whether this is "a good idea" or not and whether such a right might be abused, isn't even part of the equation. If you think it is, you are demonstrating that you don't understand the nature of rights at all.

So, listen up, Albuquerque. I'll let you in on a little secret: people are already carrying concealed weapons in those restaurants regardless of the "law". All around you, everywhere you go. And the vast majority of them pose zero threat to your life whatsoever, but are instead an insurance policy that you don't even have to pay for.

Bad guys won't obey "laws" that would forbid them from doing what they are going to do no matter what, so they will always carry weapons. After all, if they have no moral difficulty violating prohibitions against theft and aggression, up to and including rape and murder, a silly "law" telling them to leave their tools behind will never, ever, make any difference to them.

But the bad guys are not the only ones ignoring such "laws". A lot of good guys know it is better to face "legal" penalties than to be caught unprepared, no matter what the "law" demands. In some cases you just have to do what you think is right and be prepared to accept the consequences of your choices. Fortunately, the good guys outnumber the bad guys by a huge margin. Any LEO who can't understand that and then muster the ethical courage necessary to refuse to enforce bad "laws" is a part of the problem rather than part of the solution.

Yet, with all these "illegal" weapons around, shootouts are extremely rare in local restaurants, alcohol or not. Why is that? Aggressors are usually cowards. They prefer, and need, unarmed targets; those willing to become victims. As long as the bad guys understand, and fear, that not all the good people around them are obeying the counterfeit "law", shootouts and armed robberies are less likely. And to anyone who values peace and liberty, that is a good thing.

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