no third solution

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Category Archives: Gun Control

George Donnelly is Provoking the State’s Agents Again

January 11th, 2010

Let me qualify what I’m about to say: everything the Warwick Township cops did to George Donnely was wrong. Everything.

Below the fold is simply my opinion as to what he did wrong in his latest encounter, and why I feel that way. I’m a fan of George & what he does for the liberty movement, and I mean no disrespect. I just think he handled the situation less-than-satisfactorily.

I securely and legally carried a pistol openly. I failed to answer the questions of a person who didn’t even identify himself as a cop. I told a cop that open carry was legal and that he did not have the authority by his own rules to detain me simply for open carrying. I asked a cop to identify himself. I refused to identify myself in a situation where even the cop’s own laws don’t require it. These are my offenses. For this I was harassed, assaulted, kidnapped and imprisoned – just for starters.

That’s the world we live in folks.

But Donnelly screwed up big time.

After the situation had resolved itself, he returned and escalated by asking for the cop’s business card. I’m all for holding people accountable, George, and I’m not a fan of lying down, either. But you need to learn how to pick your battles a little more wisely. It should be obvious to someone with your experiences (previous open-carry detention, etc.) and to anyone (like you) who follows the current events and all, and who has a fierce libertarian bent, that 99 cops out of 100 don’t give a damn about what “their” laws oblige or proscribe; whether the laws are supposed to afford you certain rights or privileges, whether the law is supposed to prohibit law enforcement from certain behaviors.

As right as Donnelly was under these circumstances, arguing with a cop who’s already demonstrated (whether by word or deed) his ignorance and/or incompetence is a losing battle, returning to argue with him after one of your buddies has cooled him off and you’re free to be on your way is about as stupid as a football bat.

I get it: they started it.

But sometimes (i.e., most of the time) we just need to walk away. Most importantly, do not go out of your way to escalate these situations. IMO, returning to ask for his business card was careless escalation. And it’s the principle that George is trying to defend by taking this jackboot to task. Predictably though, George ended up in a holding cell and it’s unlikely that the cop will ever face any consequences for his thuggery.

More care needs be exercised towards avoiding these sorts of incident altogether. I mean, the whole point of agorism is like the shadow economy & stuff, and avoiding the state as much as possible — if for no other reason that pure pragmatism.

We can not fight them on their turf. We can not combat injustice with the very same laws which enable and encourage injustice.

Michigan Considers Partial Repeal of Victim Disarmament Law

October 23rd, 2009

The State of Michigan is mulling over a bill that would remove the statewide ban on concealed-carry on college campuses, which sounds like a “Win!” but the bill is rendered practically impotent: it would basically permit you to concealed-carry on the sidewalk, and to keep a firearm in your car. But you can’t have it in dormitories or classrooms or stadiums, etc. Cue the alarmists, anyways:

There are already too many crazy people. Why would anybody need a gun in this city? —Laura Harlow, U-M employee

I don’t know, Laura. Why don’t you ask the residents and students living in Blacksburg, VA.  (Hint: There was only one person who needed to be disarmed on that infamous day.)

There’s a huge number of people who drink in college. It’s absurd to mix alcohol with the right to have a gun. —Unnamed student

I’m willing to wager that the number of individuals who have used a legally permitted concealed weapon in the commission of a crime is exceeded at least 100-fold by the number of individuals who have committed crimes with unlicensed/illegal concealed weapons, but since the bill still prohibits firearms from dormitories and many campus buildings, this is kind of a red herring.

The Brady Center likes to highlight about 130 problem events involving CCWs over the last decade and a half. However, a cursory examination of these events shows that some of them are legitimate accidents (e.g., 56, 97), and many of them involve the failure of the State to properly enforce the CCW statutes and regulations already on the books (e.g., 43, 47, 49, 89, 94). For example, No. 89 highlights about 5,000 violent crimes committed in Texas between 1996 and 2001.

Texas • January 1, 1996 – August 31, 2001. The Violence Policy Center has published four reports on CCW licensees in Texas. They found that Texas CCW licensees were arrested for 5,314 crimes between January 1, 1996 and August 31, 2001, and since Texas’ CCW licensing law went into effect, licensees have been arrested for an average of 2 crimes per day.

This sounds alarming, until you learn that during that same period of time in Texas there were over 700,000 violent crimes committed; so violent crimes involving CCW permit holders numbered less than 1% of all violent crimes.

The overwhelming majority of our campus members, including students, faculty and staff as well as parents of our students, demand a safe and secure campus and would not endorse the idea of having firearms on campus —Ken Magee, University of Michigan Police Chief

This again? Every victim of gun violence represents failure of the State in its most hallowed charge: keeping its citizens safe. Until the gun control advocates recognize that there are times in our lives when the police cannot protect us, I’ll have to keep reminding them that occasionally the need arises for an ordinary citizen to take matters into her own hands.

Of Guns, Canadian Healthcare, Taxes, and the Big Three Bailout

March 18th, 2009

It seems Obama wants to ban every gun under the sun except for Airsoft rifles and Super-Soaker waterguns. Time to reiterate: The State can rarely protect you from other individuals, and it cannot conceivably protect you from itself.

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In the past decade, the Big Three were only able to stay afloat because of easy credit. It’s been said elsewhere that they were essentially using motor vehicle sales as a loss-leader, while their real profit center was financing. When the credit crunch hit, the profit center evaporated. Now, they’re asking for your money in the form of bailouts and subsidized loans, in order to profit from loaning that money back to you. Talk about throwing good money after bad

Here’s an idea: let them go kaput. There are millions of vehicles in unsold inventories that could be auctioned off for pennies on the dollar. Some people say “nobody wants to buy a car from a bankrupt company.” The fact of the matter is that “nobody wants to buy a $30,000 car from a bankrupt company.” Give them the opportunity to pick up that same car at auction, for $10k, and there would be a line out the door. Then, make the components, parts, etc., of these vehicles public domain, and there will be no shortage of people willing to repair or otherwise service them at reasonable prices.

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Remember how certain people pay no taxes, and other people pay only a teensy-weensy bit of taxes, and a small handful of people pay nearly all the taxes? Or that States give tax-preferential treatment to companies choosing to relocate within their borders? Or that municipalities sometimes levy onerous taxes on “big box” retailers? Or on out-of-town guests? Discussing the AIG bailout-bonuses scandal, Chuck Rangel says that the tax code is not “a political weapon.”

Lulz.

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Oh hai: Canadians getting ripped off on the price of generic meds! I can haz socialized healthcare?

no third solution

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