Laws create excuse for meddling

Laws create excuse for meddling

(My Clovis News Journal column for August 31, 2012. Hmmm... Haven't they used this headline before?)

Even if you could make murder rare by banning or regulating guns and knives, it would still not be right to violate the fundamental right of every human to own and to carry whatever type of weapon we desire, wherever we may go, openly or concealed, without ever asking permission from anyone.

Even if ending prohibition would result in a massive increase in the use of politically-incorrect drugs and result in more deaths, it is still the right thing to do because no one has the right or the legitimate authority to tell other people what they can or can not put into their own body.

Even if targeted taxation and regulation forces people to eat healthier diets and lose weight, that kind of social engineering will always be wrong to impose, for the same reason prohibition is always wrong.

Even if repealing every unconstitutional immigration-control measure resulted in hordes of immigrants moving into the area, it would still be the right thing to do since no government should attempt to dictate to property owners whom they are allowed to admit onto their own property, or tell people whom they are allowed to do business with.

Even if utterly ending welfare caused some children to go to bed hungry, it is still wrong- downright evil- to pretend to be "generous" with other people's money or property.

Even if getting rid of speed limits, seat belt "laws", traffic signals, and drunk driving [sic] "laws" caused more people to be killed or injured on the road, it would still be more ethical than sending out an army of enforcers to patrol the roads and interfere with the right to travel unmolested.

None of these liberty-killing measures has ever been necessary, and none of them actually achieve the desired result; instead, each exacerbates the fundamental problem it was supposed to address. The worst thing each of the above does is increase dependency and create excuses for more meddling when it inevitably fails to fix the problem it was supposed to address. If these tyrannical tactics were abandoned the worst-case scenario which is presented, and that the fear-mongers seem to hope for, would never come to pass. And nothing eliminates your responsibility if, in doing what you have a right to do, you harm some innocent person.

Even if liberty scares you or raises some risks it is still always the right thing to support. It is time to put on your grown-up pants, be responsible for yourself. and stop trying to run other people's lives.