Stop Being Stupid

By John Taylor
[email protected]

Exclusive to The Libertarian Enterprise

         Anne Bourne, of Carmel California, writes in the April 18th, 1997 'Monterey County Herald' (as reported in 'The American Spectator', June 1997):
         "We could abolish gun violence very easily, simply by making all gun ownership a crime until such violence is reduced to zero. Everyone who owns a gun and defends general gun ownership is, I believe, a contributor to gun violence and should be held partially responsible. Once gun crime has stopped (yes, I believe it's possible to actually stop anything we really want to stop), those who have gun permits for hunting and have never committed a crime could once more own a gun, but if any crime occurs, once more all guns would be confiscated."
         You know, we really could make this work. But to do so we'd have to get rid of all guns; otherwise the gun nuts would just steal guns from those who still had them. Of course, the gun crazies would have to have some incentive to go along; otherwise they might just go berserk right on the spot and start attacking people at random. So what we would have to do is to make sure that all guns were confiscated virtually simultaneously. We could pick a day -- I suggest Peace Day, August 6th, Japan's nominee for the first world-wide holiday -- and on that day we'd confiscate all the guns.
         We'd confiscate the guns from:

-- the Army, Navy, Air Force, Marines, Coast Guard, reserves, National Guard and any other armed forces members. We'd confiscate the guns from all special forces, including JTF-6, Delta, SEALs, Rangers, every gun of every member of all the armed forces.

-- all federal officers, including the FBI, BATF, Secret Service, US Marshals, all Congressional bodyguards (I'm sure Ms. Bourne would be surprised to know that some of the most staunch supporters of gun control in the Congress of the United States are protected by bodyguards with automatic assault weapons whose only purpose is to kill as many people as possible), and all other armed federal employees, such as Park Police, Treasury, IRS, park service, postal service, federal corrections, and Department of Energy personnel.

-- all state, county, and local law enforcement, including state police, state bureau of investigation, state marshals, county sheriffs and deputies, and county, city, and other municipal police forces, as well as all state, county, and local corrections personnel.

-- all private and commercial licensed guards, sentries, investigators, special police, and security personnel.

-- and at this point we could be confident that all those radical extremist gun nuts would not be able to argue that their disarmament was a government conspiracy. Then and only then could we demand that every single gun-owning individual and private citizen turn in each and every gun they own, to be confiscated at designated collection points. Our demand would extend to all criminals as well -- turn in their guns, no questions asked. We could grant a general amnesty to all persons who have guns, regardless of which criminal reason they may have for owning them.
         After all the guns are turned in, we could proudly hold ourselves up to the rest of the world as an example of what can be done if we really want to stop our negative behaviors. We will, of course, have to post notices at our borders that the import of guns into this country will not be tolerated for any purpose, in order to prevent the gun nuts from obtaining their "firearms fix" from other sources.
         It's true, Ms. Bourne. We really can "stop anything we really want to stop" -- including our own worst stupidity.

John Taylor is the Libertarian Second Amendment Caucus Maryland Coordinator.

A JUROR'S CREED: As an American juror, I will exercise my 1000 year old duty to arrive at a verdict, not just on the basis of the facts of a particular case or instructions I am given, but through my ability to reason, my knowledge of the Bill of Rights, and my individual conscience.
-- L. Neil Smith

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