Attribute to L. Neil Smith's The Libertarian Enterprise

In TLE 887, Paul Bonneau wrote an article entitled “Anarchy—A Religion?”. He mentioned something that Neil has written about, defensive voting. I have never considered defensive voting, until this year.

After the GOP deleted Ron Paul from the 2008 presidential convention, not allowing his delegates to vote, and not allowing him to speak, I sent a letter to the Board of Elections in my county of residence, asking to be deregistered to vote. I have happily not voted since then.

I moved to Vermont nearly a year and a half ago. When I applied for a Vermont driver’s license, I did NOT check the box to register to vote. Of course, applying for a license to do something with which any normal 16-year-old has no problem is a defensive act, removing one (unjustifiable) excuse for a thug with a gun and the power of the state to kidnap (arrest) and cage me like an animal (imprison).

Vermont is famous for having very few restrictions on firearms. You may not legally carry a firearm into a school building, you may not legally carry one on school grounds with the intention of harming someone, and you may not legally carry into a business that is posted to forbid it. The only place I’ve seen with such a sign is the local hospital.

Other than that, you may purchase and carry a firearm, openly or concealed, without asking anybody’s permission, except for the federal background check, should you choose to purchase from a Federal Firearms License holder (FFL). This used to be called “Vermont Carry”, until many other states jumped on the bandwagon, and it was renamed to “Constitutional Carry”.

Anti-gun rhetoric has been Vermont’s third rail for politicians. But something changed this year. Bernie Sanders made lots of anti-gun noises during his presidential campaign. And Vermont democrats are making lots of anti-gun noises in the coming races for governor and US representatives.

I decided that I need to practice defensive voting. I registered online today, and I plan to vote republican across the ticket in November. Not that I like the republicans. I despise all politicians and the very concept of government. But the democrat gun grabbers must not be allowed near the levers of power. So I will do my tiny part.