Rabbit People Among Us
by L. Neil Smith
lneil@netzero.com

Attribute to The Libertarian Enterprise

As a somewhat opinionated individual, I get a lot of e-mail (and phone calls and snail mail) from readers trying to take me to task for one reason or another, usually for identifying the inevitable consequences they don't want to hear about, of ideas and actions they themselves advocate.

One such correspondent—I'll call him "Rabbit", after a portion of his screenname (ironically, the late Jeff Cooper called people like him "Rabbit People")—in a message headed "Am I Understanding You Right?" had this to say about the longstanding lead editorial on my personal site, the Webley Page (and recently reprinted right here, in The Libertarian Enterprise), entitled "Why Did It Have To Be. . . Guns?"

"I read your article "Why Did It Have to be. . . Guns" and have a question on how you stand. The second paragraph talks about if a politician is not comfortable with anyone owning a gun without ID, he's no friend. Do you mean even those with a felony record and no background check?

"I am a gun owner and have a carry permit, but I am glad there is a background search. I knew a lady who left her abusive husband, who threatened to kill her. A gun dealer sold him a shotgun and that same day, he drove to her work, by the police officer, on the corner and shot her four times at her job site. If the dealer would have done a background check, they would have seen past arrests and a restraining order on him.

"How can anyone think it is ok for someone like that to have a gun? Please, tell me your views on this. Am I miss reading what you wrote?"

"Thanks for your time,

Rabbit

I replied:

Rabbit, thanks. You've given me my next column for The Libertarian Enterprise.

No, you are not reading me wrong, at all. In the first—and most important—place, everybody has a basic human right to own and carry the means of self-defense, including those who may or may not have violated some written statute generated by the used car salesmen and child molestors in plaid polyester pants and white belts whom we call politicians.

In the second place, please observe that the Second Amendment does not end, ". . .except for a background check or some other statist delay in the full exercise of your rights." That, of course, would be a flagrant enfringement of those rights, and therefore completely illegal.

Rabbit, I don't care how many gory anecdotes you can relate to me about the unethical misuse of weapons. That's not my problem, and it has utterly no effect whatever on my rights. If every one of the 300,000,000 people in this country opposed my owning and carrying a weapon, it would still be my inherent and inalienable right to do so.

That restraining order you mentioned is an excellent example of depriving individuals of their rights without due process. Anybody can get some rum-soaked old pizzle of a judge to sign a restraining order, and under the federal Lautenberg law, that cancels—without recourse—the fundamental rights of the person the order has been written against.

And I would add that, as one of those who has crawled abjectly on your hands and knees to humbly beg the state to allow you to exercise your natural human and Constitutional rights—by obtaining a carry permit—you're a big part of the problem, not the solution. You can either be a free man, Rabbit, or a collared dog. You've chosen the latter.

Now you know.

L. Neil Smith

Four-time Prometheus Award-winner L. Neil Smith has been called one of the world's foremost authorities on the ethics of self-defense. He is the author of 25 books, including The American Zone, Forge of the Elders, Pallas, The Probability Broach, Hope (with Aaron Zelman), and his collected articles and speeches, Lever Action, all of which may be purchased through his website "The Webley Page" at lneilsmith.org.

Ceres, an exciting sequel to Neil's 1993 Ngu family novel Pallas was recently completed and is presently looking for a literary home.

A decensored, e-published version of Neil's 1984 novel, TOM PAINE MARU is available at: http://payloadz.com/go/sip?id=137991. Neil is presently working on Ares, the middle volume of the epic Ngu Family Cycle, and on Roswell, Texas, with Rex F. "Baloo" May.

The stunning 185-page full-color graphic-novelized version of The Probability Broach, which features the art of Scott Bieser and was published by BigHead Press www.bigheadpress.com has recently won a Special Prometheus Award. It may be had through the publisher, at www.Amazon.com, or at BillOfRightsPress.com.

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