Word Games

If it hasn’t been said that complexity is the tool of the corrupt politician, I’ll say it here for the record.  This post is a rewrite of a comment I made here.  I thought it deserved its own post.

“…the ATF sent out it’s ATF State Laws and Published Ordinances. Ride Fast notes some numbers:

California, 67 pages, about 120,600 words of regulation.
Massachusetts, 18.5 pages, about 32,400 words.
Nevada, 6.5 pages, about 11,700 words.
Vermont, 1.05 pages, about 1890 words.”

(To those who have so far never cared about the issue enough to look into it; Vermont has historically had a right-to-arms policy close the original intent of the Second Amendment. For example, one may legally carry a concealed pistol without getting government permission.  It is also worth noting that their violent crime rate is lower than those of surrounding states.)

Here are some contrasting numbers:

The Second Amendment to the Constitution of the United States: One sentence, 27 words.

The Congressional Oath of Office: One paragraph, 73 words.

I assume you’ve all looked it up and saved it, being concerned citizens and all, but to save you the trouble of going to your desktop and clicking on it, here it is again:

“I do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign or domestic; that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same; that I take this obligation freely, without any mental reservation or purpose of evasion; and that I will well and faithfully discharge the duties of the office on which I am about to enter. So help me God.”

Human rights, honesty and reason are relatively simple.  Obfuscation is complex.

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3 thoughts on “Word Games

  1. The Alphecca blog is probably a better forum for this comment, but Vermont’s lower violent crime rate is probably more due to the absence of large urban areas (within the state or nearby) than to favorable gun laws. The primary criminal demographic is lower than more urbanized states.

  2. Followup comment. As I understand it, Florida also has pretty favorable guns laws, but the violent crime rate is pretty high there. Florida has a number of large cities, and a much more diverse population than Vermont.

  3. First; our rights do not ebb and flow with the crime rates.

    Second; there are a number of variables that affect crime rates, all of which can be accounted for, and the ability of victims to defend themselves is only one of them.

    Human rights are of course a separate matter altogether, and the Constitution is another.

    The fact is that if the availability of guns to law abiding citizens causes higher crime, then logically, the states with fewer restrictions would TEND to be the ones with the higher crime rates. In fact, we find that the opposite is true. The corrupt politicians in the high-crime, highly gun restricted cities and states, turn around and blame us in the less restrictive cities & states even though our crime rates are vastly lower than theirs! Washington DC blaming Virginia or Vermont is a perfect example of this foolishness.

    In any case, not only does freedom tend to result in more prosperity AND safety but;

    Our rights do not ebb and flow with the crime rates.

    Too many people are thoroughly confused about this last point, else they are engaged in obfuscation, which was the point of the post in the first place.

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