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People frequently do the wrong thing for the right reasons.
link Kent McManigal
It is right to care about people who hurt themselves or others through substance abuse. It is wrong to impose prohibition in an attempt to save people from themselves or others.
It is right to care about innocent victims of random violence. It is wrong to impose anti-gun rules that can only affect those who aren’t the problem.
Not only is the knee jerk reaction — passing another law or more draconian enforcement of the rules already on the books — wrong, it almost always has an effect opposite the one advertised.
Prohibition is the federal government’s narcotics price-support program, as well as the biggest excuse for violating every principle America was founded upon. A sad continuation of the 1920s-era prohibition: the police-state-style checkpoints purported to watch out for drunken drivers.
You can have America, or you can have prohibition. You can’t have both.
Anti-gun laws only harm those who have no intention of breaking laws, and would therefore not go on a murder spree to begin with.
Advocating, passing, and enforcing those anti-liberty laws only empowers the bad guys.
This is the danger of doing the wrong thing with good intentions. Assuming the intentions are truly good is only speculation based upon giving the benefit of the doubt.
You can also do the right thing for the wrong reasons. The recent push for “state’s rights” is one example.
States have no rights; only individuals do. However, anything that diminishes the federal government’s power will most likely boost individual liberty in the long run.
The re-legalization of marijuana, which is slowly gaining momentum around the world, is another example. It’s wrong to fine or arrest people for possessing or using a plant, so anything that results in fewer drug-war victims is a good thing, even if the new tax revenues are a stain on the good.
The liberalization of concealed carry, and open carry, rules is another cause for some optimism.
The Bill of Rights is the law of the land, so anyone supporting any law concerning guns, including the issuing of permits for something that “shall not be infringed,” is a criminal. But even this diluted liberty results in more dangerous conditions for the aggressors among us, and that is a net benefit.
Farwell’s Kent McManigal champions liberty. Contact him at: