Many people have hopefully seen Tom Woods’ commentary from last week about the next totalitarian mandate sliding down the slippery slope of the FedGov’s ever-more burdensome regulatory state. If not, read the whole thing here. You can ignore Tom’s usual sales pitch at the very end. But pay close attention to the parts of the debate on trying to get yet another foolish and dangerous mandate canceled.

Massie of course failed. So in the 2026 model year, all new cars (and presumably SUVs, pick-ups, and similar vehicles will have kill switches installed. These will be programmed to monitor a driver’s performance and behavior and shut down the vehicle if the software determines (based on auto manufacturer and government decisions) that the driver is unsafe. For more detail, see Eric Peters’ series of articles, and go back two years to the Daily Caller article by Bob Barr.

This isn’t something installed to keep a drunk driver from starting and driving off in a car. This isn’t a warning “assistance” system to make us more alert behind the wheel, or warn us of a hazard.

This is a system that can – with little warning – disable the vehicle until something (and no one knows for sure what) allows the car to be driven again. Apparently by anyone. But it is reasonable to suggest that it will take some “law enforcement officer” or maybe even some medical evaluator to restore the vehicle.

This is something that those who claim to be our masters will use to control us more.

(And yes, I know that the Democrats say it is not a kill switch and condemn Republicans like Massie for using a “false” term. But it seems to me to be a reasonable label for this nasty system. And yes, I know that it is sinful to say anything positive about Barr – much less refer to his writings. I’m not really sorry.)

In this commentary, I won’t go into detail on all the nasty things about this incredibly foolish mandate. Suffice to say it gives the government more control – probably right down to that cop brushing doughnut crumbs off his lap as he sends a Bluetooth command to your car to shut down “because he saw something that indicated the driver was impaired.” And because we all know what the “blue screen of death” can do – and know the limitations of software algorithms and machines in general. It violates at least a half-dozen God-given rights. Supposedly constitutionally-protected. It endangers people constantly, even if it works according to plan.

And Congress just again “ratified” its stupidity from two years ago to ram it down our throats. Why? Because whatever their rhetoric, this is something that those who claim to be our masters want and will use to control us. To extend their power over us.

Now, it makes me suggest that there is more than one way to use “kill switches” to make life better for all of us. Or at least most of us.

Think about these:

Can we come up with a way to control wayward politicians with kill switches? It doesn’t have to be the Jim Bell solution of assassination politics – as the Texan-descended space colony did with explosive collars connected to referendum voting booths. (Too many negative votes on the politician’s actions and “boom!”) It could be merely a way to paralyze their vocal cords. (Admittedly, to most of them that could be a fate worse than death.) Or simply prevent the doors of their chamber from opening to let them in. (Or out?)

Or how about a kill switch that refuses to print out any Senate or House bill that violates the Constitution? Perhaps we could even train an AI to do this?

Could we find or invent a kill switch for judges who refuse to honestly and fairly apply the law? Or bureaucrats that violate the laws they are supposedly following?

You get the point. None of these things are likely to work. Far better to take back the power to run our own lives, mind our own business, from those who have stolen it from us.

Fortunately, lovers of liberty and people who desire to have freedom do have kill switches readily available. If we have the courage and moral strength to use them. And the kill switches we have are not just firearms and other physical weapons. And not just use Eric Frank Russell’s “Freedom = I won’t” (from his book And Then There Were None). Although that is a very good idea. We can, and increasingly are, just ignoring the parasites, the thugs, the minions of those who want to lord it over us.

But for now, the best way to deal with the real and present danger of software- and government-controlled kill switches in automobiles is (a) tell others about what is happening, (b) tell the idjits in Congress to get smart and get rid of them, (c) refuse to buy the pieces of junk with the switches, (d) learn how to disable the systems (hackers, for example), and (e) make it clear to industry and government that we do have truly lethal kills switches available and will use them.