Laws are unnecessary, ineffective

(My Clovis News Journal column for December 4, 2015)

If I had to come up with a short description of what differentiates libertarians from the rest of society, I might say while most worry about “what if”, libertarians focus on “what is”.

Those who believe in government, laws, and the state worry about “what if”. What if there were no stop signs? What if there were no law forbidding murder? What if someone cheats you out of money? What if people don’t make the right decision?

But consider what is.

Do stop signs actually stop cars? No. It's a choice made by each individual driver. I choose to stop at stop signs, not because there is a law ordering me to do so, but because I don't want to be in a wreck. You can choose what to do when you drive up to a stop sign, and there is no physical force there to take your choice away. If you approach a stop sign nothing can prevent you from driving on through, although it might be a bad habit to develop.

Would you commit murder if it weren't illegal? How many murders do you believe are prevented by laws forbidding it? Do you believe a mugger thinks about the law before shooting an uncooperative victim? Do you believe those who find themselves committing a crime of passion will stop when remembering the law?

If so, what other fantasies do you believe are real?

Laws don't do anything useful. They don't stop bad people or prevent tragedies. They only give enforcers the tools to molest people and trample liberty. They give an excuse to punish, instead of pursuing justice. Punishment doesn't even resemble justice, but is a childish substitute.

All this is an acceptance of what is, rather than imagining what if.

There are only two kinds of laws: the unnecessary and the harmful. Laws forbidding intentional harm to others are unnecessary, all others are harmful.

I understand better than you can imagine the wish to make bad things not happen. Believing government or laws can accomplish this is magical thinking; the belief in a real connection between a symbol, such as a law, and whatever the law addresses. This is the belief that rituals and chants can alter reality in defiance of the laws of nature. You might say this belief isn't hurting anyone, but is "doing nothing", but law and government are worse than doing nothing. They are harming you and your loved ones by hacking away at your liberty.

.

Anti-liberty bigots and their anti-gun "laws"

No.

That's it: my answer to the anti-liberty bigots who believe they can make up laws against guns.

Making up those "laws"- or enforcing them- is a crime, according to the Second Amendment. In case you don't understand what an amendment is, an amendment over-rides the original document. That means even if the Constitution had once said government was allowed to make up rules concerning guns, the Second Amendment made that act a crime the instant it was adopted.

It doesn't matter how "sensible" or necessary you claim such "laws" to be.

Every politician who writes an anti-gun law is a criminal. A REAL criminal, not a fake criminal like people who don't pay taxes, sell raw milk, or smoke pot.

Any president who makes up executive orders concerning guns- other than directing all government employees to stop enforcing the countefeit anti-gun "laws" that infest America- is a criminal.

Every cop who enforces ANY anti-gun "law" is a criminal.

Every prosecutor who pursues someone on gun-related charges is a criminal.

Every judge who presides over a trial or sentencing of someone kidnapped (an act euphemistically called an "arrest") for breaking one of these illegal anti-gun "laws" is a criminal.

Government has zero right to outlaw gun possession in the buildings it built with stolen money- called "taxes". Doing so is criminal.

If it isn't wrong for a cop to carry a gun somewhere, in some manner, it isn't wrong for you to do the same. Enforcing "laws" to the contrary is criminal. Period.

But, all of that's actually small potatoes compared to the real issue.

The right to own and to carry weapons, everywhere you go, in any way you see fit, without ever asking permission from anyone is a fundamental human right. It existed before the very first bully dreamed up the superstition of "authority" and started telling others how to live. It will still exist after the very last government crumbles and dies. No one can make that right go away. No one has the right to demand a permit or otherwise place limits on this right. Rights can either be respected or violated- there is no third choice. Anyone who violates any right is a bully and deserves the fate of all bullies. Don't be a bully.

Don't comply with bullies. Resist them, oppose them, and if they attack you, fight back with everything you've got.

No to the anti-liberty bigots and their anti-gun "laws". Just, no.

.

Cowardly, criminal, post offices

The local post office is going full potato.

They've always had that ubiquitous "no guns in the post office" sign on the bulletin board inside, but now have posted another one beside the entrance.

I guess they are scared of that tiny loosening of the draconian anti-gun "laws" in Texas, where those who beg and pay government for a permit to exercise an inalienable right to own and to carry, everywhere they go, in any manner they see fit, any type of weapon they choose, without ever asking permission of anyone, can maybe begin to openly carry a gun (depending on the whims of local badge bullies who might just murder you anyway and say "oops") in ways very slightly less infringed upon.

Hate to tell you, post office, but as a government facility it is a serious crime for you to pretend to have the "authority" to ban guns on your premises. That's what the Second Amendment says and what it means, and since government employees are the only ones the Bill of Rights applies to- by forbidding certain things you might want to do to the individual rights of people- you are a criminal by doing this anyway. Of course, you won't care because you'll continue to get away with it.

Until the day you don't.

And it won't be at my hands, so don't misconstrue this as a threat. But, it is history: those who rely of the protection of government always have a nasty surprise coming when the winds change. And you, as an anti-liberty bigot, are on the wrong side- the losing side- of history.

.