Quote of the day—L. Neil Smith

America was born in a struggle about private weapons. Let them pass—or ratify—any legislation they please.

Americans have obeyed their last gun law.

L. Neil Smith
January 27, 2015
Americans Have Obeyed Their Last Gun Law
[It’s a lot like the laws against marijuana, prohibition of alcohol, and oral sex. Nearly everyone knows they are stupid laws and eventually the laws will go away. In the mean time there are occasions where token compliance is made for appearance sake and to avoid hassles. And of course we have to put up with the whining of self appointed busybodies.

But, yeah, most of the gun laws are so ridiculous most people I know just go about their business and ignore the stupid.—Joe]

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13 thoughts on “Quote of the day—L. Neil Smith

  1. Speaking of ignoring stupid gun laws, do you know if anyone has been charged with selling a firearm without going through a background check in Washington state?

      • Doesn’t apply to me once I work my ‘out’.

        I make use of “RCW 9.41.113 […] (4) This section does not apply to: […] (g) The temporary transfer of a firearm […] (iii) if the temporary transfer occurs and the transferee’s possession of the firearm is exclusively at a lawful organized competition involving the use of a firearm, or while participating in or practicing for a performance by an organized group that uses firearms as a part of the performance; ”

        As the organizer and participant of a group that uses firearms as part of a performance (ahem… that’s why I register as ‘media’ for Boomershoot and take video of our performances for social media), anyone on my shooting team is exempt from the requirements of the law while we are holding a practice. And we interpret a practice session to also include auditions, i.e. people who think Boomershoot sounds cool and might be interested in joining our team so we need to check them out for safe weapon handling practices and also inspect their equipment or they inspect ours. Equipment malfunctions during Boomershoot do happen, so we have to be prepared for the show to go on, nevertheless.

        What constitutes a “organized group that uses firearms in the course of a performance” or “a practice” are not defined in the law. We, on the other hand, have an email trail establishing our understanding of those terms.

        I don’t know who the lawyers are that craft the language of laws and initiatives for anti-gun groups… but I’m thinking I could do better. Did those clowns get their JD out of a Cracker Jack box?

  2. There has been one such prosecution in Oregon, which has an identical law. That prosecution appears to have been politically motivated. At the same time, there was a very notorious case of an anti-rights Pastor who transferred an AR15 illegally, but was forgiven by the State when he said the transfer was for the purpose of melting the gun down into garden implements.

    Oh, BTW, that Pastor improperly appropriated thousands of church dollars to acquire the gun via buying up all the raffle tickets for it.

    • “That prosecution appears to have been politically motivated.”

      Of course it was politically motivated; the law itself was politically motivated, and so, therefore, is anything that flows from it.

      No one believes these laws reduce crime. Rather, they support such laws as a harassment measure against their political opposition. If one goes to jail over such a law, without having violated anyone’s rights in the process, he is therefore a political prisoner in every sense of the term.

      The only criminals in such a case are the ones who supported the anti rights legislation or conspired in the “prosecution” (see 18 USC 241 and 18 USC 242).

  3. People don’t like to hear it, especially from gun owners who are law abiding, but there’s truth in two things.

    1. If we wanted to ignore certain gun laws we could do so at anytime. Likely with no real repercussions. I mean, I went through the rather onerous process to get a “may issue” CCDW here in Delaware. But the truth is, If I had chosen to do so, I could have concealed a pistol pretty much daily for the past decade or so without a permit. I didn’t do so, but I could’ve very, very easily. People don’t like to think about how true this is, all over the country, for most gun owners.

    2. Lots of gun owners break the law all the time and don’t even realize it.

    • Ayn Rand pointed out that the purpose of many laws, gun laws included, is to make sure that #2 is always true.

      “There’s no way to rule innocent men. The only power any government has is to crack down on criminals. Well, when there aren’t enough criminals, one makes them. One declares so many things to be a crime that it becomes impossible for men to live without breaking laws. Who wants a nation of law-abiding citizens? What’s there in that for anyone? But just pass the kinds of laws that can neither be observed nor enforced nor objectively interpreted – and you create a nation of lawbreakers – and then you cash in on guilt. Now that’s the system, Mr. Rearden, that’s the game, and once you understand it, you’ll be much easier to deal with.” — Floyd Ferris (in “Atlas Shrugged” by Ayn Rand)

  4. “And of course we have to put up with the whining of self appointed busybodies.”

    I submit that you are wrong in that statement. We put up with them if we choose to do so. It is a choice. You can put up with a busybody, or you can put him in his place. A or B.

    Anecdote; I and another were hosting a cider-pressing party a few weeks ago. I brought two 19th Century cider mills that I had lovingly rebuilt to high standards. Present was a man who was bigger, probably stronger, definitely more aggressive than I, and he was openly armed. He had stepped in to “really get it done”, in his mind. But he was mishandling my machines. I had attempted to correct him several times, to no avail. After my last attempt, he made some comment like “Naw it’s fine! Keep going.”

    My response was NOT calculated, pre-meditated, planned, or thought of at all. It just came out of me. I told him that I’d built these machines, that they were antiques (all of which he knew already) and that he would listen to instruction or get off of them, and by the way there’s no call for being an asshole about it.

    You would not believe what happened after that unless you’d seen it. The man recoiled, went down into a crouch as though he’d been hit in the back with a 2 x 4. He literally shrank by two feet, he slunk away like an injured dog and I never saw him again. Nor do I expect I will ever see him again. I did not feel good about it, nor bad. Only relieved that he’d gone. Nor was I aware, or rather, nor did I take into account, nor attempt to manipulate, what anyone else thought about it either before or after. The incident “flew under the radar” for the rest of the party, and people and their children carried on contentedly as though nothing had happened.

    I could relate to you several accounts of a similar nature. The point is that, I believe, the ignorant and the misbehaving, for lack of a better term, are our underlings, and there is some un-spoken covenant which makes us their masters without us wanting to be anyone’s masters.

    The adult (the true adult) in the room being the master of the children is the same concept. He is there for their benefit, to correct them when necessary. In failing in his duties he is betraying the children.

    So it is that we have failed the leftist busybodies, by failing to correct them. They suffer, and we suffer, as a result. The longer the problem goes un-checked, the more grave the situation gets, or as the old saying goes; “A job left undone grows larger.”

    • Great idea!

      I work better with an example or two. Could you please demonstrate how to do this with Diane Feinstein, Chuck Schumer, Michael Bloomberg, and Nancy Pelosi?

      I can take it from there.

    • What, a natural born slave? I know plenty of those. They’re a hilarious bunch, doing the same things over and over to no avail but believing wholeheartedly in doing it anyway.

      But yeah, I get what you mean. I very much believe that a scary large portion of people are easily amenable to orders. Doesn’t even matter if you’re clearly not an authority, just say it like you mean it and they do it. Hence, a natural born slave.
      ‘Cept I don’t care to house and feed ’em.

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