Tuesday, July 19, 2016

Anti-gun laws take our protection

(My Clovis News Journal column for June 17, 2016)

As long as people exist, there will be bad people harming others. I realize this is upsetting news- it saddens me, too.

The belief that "laws" will stop bad people is one of the most dangerous delusions ever to take root. Whether in a free society or a police state, bad people will do bad things.

One benefit of a free society will be the lack of "laws" helping attackers carry out their evil plans. Such as the anti-gun "laws" which gave the Orlando night club murderer the armed advantage and time to kill.

To be perfectly frank, that's all anti-gun "laws" do. They filter out the guns which might be used to defend you, while being powerless against the guns which are used to murder. It boggles my mind how anyone could believe this is a good idea, or increases safety. If someone is set on murder, a rule or a sign by the door isn't going to stop him.

Those who believe in "laws", rather than in rights or in how people actually behave, keep pushing for more of the same. Ignoring natural rights never works out.

If everyone would live by the Zero Aggression Principle (ZAP)-- the idea which defines libertarians-- life would be better. The simplest way I have seen the ZAP expressed, by libertarian author L. Neil Smith, is "the fundamental human right not to be physically attacked- or threatened with attack- if you have not attacked anybody else." Self defense isn't an attack.

It would be nice if the whole world were libertarian, committed to "live and let live" and respecting the property of others. But it isn't, yet. You can even go on hating anyone you want to hate, if you feel you must, as long as you leave them to live as they see fit.

Of course, most already live by this principle, they just try to carve out bizarre exceptions for certain aggressive folk, due to the "jobs" these people hold. Exceptions are imaginary.

In a libertarian world, life would still go on much the same. There would still be struggles, difficulties, and bullies. Your problems would change, but they wouldn't go away.

So practice dealing with the problems you have, in the world as it now exists, without violating anyone and making things worse.

The best way to make the world a little more humane and sane- a little more libertarian- is to put this into practice in your own life today. A libertarian world, one person at a time.

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1 comment:

  1. "Of course, most already live by this principle, they just try to carve out bizarre exceptions for certain aggressive folk, due to the jobs these people hold. Exceptions are imaginary."

    Real reality vs forced paper and guns reality.

    If police did what they do, only without the backing of government and appearance of legitimacy, people would form police departments to protect the neighborhood from them.

    Who is regularly yanking people out of cars and harassing or beating, kidnapping, or killing them?

    ReplyDelete