The Price of Liberty

In April, the Nebraska Legislature passed a statewide constitutional carry bill and declared that regulating firearms is a statewide concern. The legislation also declared existing local firearm laws void and revoked local governments’ power to regulate guns. 

However, the cities of Omaha and Lincoln enacted local ordinances and issued executive orders to restrict firearms from city property, which the firearms owners group says includes public parks and sidewalks. So several gun-owner groups and other organizationsn are suing them as reported back before Christmas.

(We note that California’s ban on carrying weapons in public is also on hold pending a decision regarding its constitutionality, as reported by the Western Journal.)

This state-by-state method has long been a tactic of hoplophobes and hoploclasts across the board. City after city has tried to follow the long (and now banned) New York State Sullivan Law technique. Cities such as Denver, Chicago, and San Francisco have long touted it. It doesn’t work.

Tribes and smaller communities have also failed to prevent gun violence and murders by banning open or concealed carry. It doesn’t work.

So what does? One tactic seems to be allowing and encouraging the open carry of firearms by peaceful and law-abiding citizens. It seems to fill Heinlein’s Law requirements: An armed society is a peaceful and polite society.” Making guns illegal does not stop criminals from breaking the law! Knowing they stand a good chance of an untimely death seems to do a lot better.

But utopia is NOT an option. Human beings from Cain on have attacked other humans (often with little or no provocation) and initiated deadly force. Turning the other cheek does work, as long as the initiator of the force is not intentionally seeking the death or serious injury of their victim. And if the aggressor has some degree of moral compass working.

Today, fewer and fewer people DO have a functioning moral compass. They are constantly told that humans (including themselves) are just another kind of animal. And an animal that is out of control and destroying the planet. So is it a surprise that they see squashing a cockroach or killing a sparrow as different only in degree from offing that old guy or that kid who has the Adidas shoes (or whatever) that they covet? Or for that matter, blowing their own brains out or killing themselves with an overdose?

That does not of course, keep other brainwashed, Woke, naive, and just plain stupid people from trying to outlaw or ban guns in private hands and on private belts. And it most certainly does not keep greedy, over-ambition-ridden politicians from catering to that segment of voters. So we get to deal with the likes of Newsom and Trudeau and Martinez. These people are not stupid – these politicians. But they lust after power and wealth – and see this as a way to get those things.

This leaves us who love liberty and also think that guns are pretty neat and fun – AND useful – with few options. We must educate others (and ourselves), we must be vocal, go the extra mile in complying with those things that aid our liberty (and resisting those things which do not). We must use and not abuse our liberties. And sometimes that resistance will require responding to violence with violence. Not initiating it. We must avoid becoming like our enemies.

But we can do it – defend our freedoms, help others to gain liberty – and protect ourselves, our families and friends and neighbors – and live well.