Friday, September 24, 2010
Harper, gun registry demonstrates political expediency at the expense of reasoned consistancy
I don't really get Harper's stand on the gun registry. He believes people should have the right to bear arms unfettered by the state's bureaucracy, While he will quickly jail anyone choosing the wrong substance to reach an altered state of bliss. Why is that? Why would he not see a peaceful person's right to choose their own diet as sacrosanct, if no one else is affected by that person's behavior. What anyone smokes in privacy can not be of anyone's concern in a society which claims to be free. The guns in the hands of private peaceful people end up causing much more collateral damage than all the "soft" drugs. Many more children and adults are killed or seriously injured by the improper/unauthorized use of guns. In fact the combination of legal alcohol and the possession of guns, registered or unregistered, is the major cause of fatal shootings.
If Mr Harper wasn't about playing politics in lieu of good government, he would judge the merits of both proposals, the end of crime causing prohibition and the freedom to own guns peacefully, as being personal liberty issues consistent with each other. But he is not. He plays to emotional moralistic feelings which are not issue driven but work via political polarization thereby discouraging the middle rational majority to come out and vote making them stay home in droves. He fails to realize that good government lies in a compromise, a balance, between left and right extremism and would have an imbalance favoring conservatism.
There was another fatal shooting in my community last night, probably with an unregistered weapon due some illicit drug money or other human dysfunction gone astray. Not that this might have been prevented by the registry, but perhaps having the registry will help determine if the the suspect has other firearms in his possession lawfully which the cops would be safer knowing about, even if this handgun was not registered. It makes more sense for public safety to at least know about guns which might be in the hands of a criminal suspect than it does to worry about whether a person has smoked/used one kind of substance or another.. Especially if they are peaceful people who are not bothering anyone else. A gun although it should be free for a responsible person to own does have a high potential to be misused in a fatal way and should be licensed like vehicles. Pot is a plant which never has hurt anyone so there should be no controls on it. If people like to use it to make themselves feel good, that is of no business to the government or anyone else. The government has failed to prove that it even impairs anyone in an objective scientific experiment. There is no valid reason to criminalize people who use this plant or any other substance under the precepts of Justice and Injustice
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