Liberty For All

by R. Lee Wrights 

Here’s a news story you’ll rarely read in your local newspaper:

YOUR HOMETOWN (Today) - A masked man armed with a rifle entered a local school today, but left quickly when one of the teachers produced a revolver and ordered him to leave.

No one was injured and no shots were fired in the incident. The gunman is still at large.

Most newspapers, radio and TV stations still operate on the hard-and-fast journalistic rule, “if it bleeds, it leads.” You really can’t blame the news media for this. Most people like stories about conflict and action. That’s why the sports pages are so well read, and we have cable channels dedicated to every competitive activity and sport conceivable — even golf.

But there are hundreds, thousands, perhaps millions of incidents where a firearm was used by a private citizen to prevent a crime or defend against a crime which are never reported to the police and never covered by the news. In a white paper “Tough Targets: When Criminals Face Armed Resistance from Citizens,” the Cato Institute looked at thousands of news reports over an eight year period. Their study found that the overwhelming number of self-defense cases involve situations where the gun is never fired.

These are some of the law-abiding gun owners who were able to save a life, or prevent a rape, burglary or other crime, and no shots were fired:

-  An 80-year-old pharmacist on duty in Missoula, Montana who confronted a masked man demanding painkillers. The pharmacist pulled out a pistol and told the criminal to leave. The masked man screamed and left the store.

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by David Kopel 

A common trope of many Second Amendment advocates is to urge more vigorous enforcement of existing federal gun control laws, as the alternative to enacting additional laws. Rhetorically, that’s very effective. But as a policy matter, it is not always a good idea. Consider legislation recently considered by the Senate:

The Manchin-Toomey amendment was supported by the Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms (CCRKBA), although the group later dropped its support for reasons unrelated to the issues raised in this post. Section 102(3) of Manchin-Toomey was the finding that “Congress believes the Department of Justice should prosecute violations of background check requirements to the maximum extent of the law.”

The alternative to Manchin-Toomey was the Grassley-Cruz substitute, which was supported by the National Rifle Association. Grassley-Cruz had a much more detailed program, with supporting funding, to increase federal prosecutions for violations of 18 U.S. Code 922 (the section which defines most of the prohibited acts by persons who are not licensed firearms dealers) and section 924 (the penalties section, with penalties for the various offenses by licensed dealers and by other persons, as well as definitions of some additional crimes). The beefed-up enforcement is in pages 15-26 of Grassley-Cruz.

Both Manchin-Toomey and Grassley-Cruz included a variety of other changes in federal gun laws, and some of them were very constructive. But as for the prosecution provisions, I think they were dubious.

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by J.J. Summerell

The tax reform plan announced by state Sen. Phil Berger is just another charade designed to make citizens think Republicans are actually reducing taxes. Calling it the Tax Fairness Act and claiming it’s the largest tax cut in state history is misleading at best.

In fact, it isn’t fair and it isn’t a tax cut. Senator Berger and the other Republican leaders at their press conference last week probably used the word “fair” hundreds of times.

No tax is fair. Taxes are inherently unfair. Every tax hurts someone. The only difference between taxes proposed by Republicans and Democrats is which special interest group is going to benefit and which is going to pay.

Granted, Senator Berger’s plan moves North Carolina from a system of taxation that taxes production to a taxation system that taxes consumption. This is a step in the right direction, but only a small, miniscule step rather than the major reform that is needed. The individual and corporate income taxes should be repealed immediately. One hundred percent repealed, not simply marginally reduced.

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by CCRKBA staff 

Thursday’s revelation that the Washington State court system has been hacked and the records of hundreds of thousands of citizens may have been accessed clearly demonstrates why gun owners are adamantly opposed to background check records keeping, and want the state’s pistol registry destroyed, the Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms said.

Reuters reported Thursday afternoon that up to 160,000 Social Security numbers and a million driver’s license numbers “may have been accessed.”

“This is the kind of vulnerability and privacy invasion that law-abiding, responsible firearms owners fear,” said CCRKBA Chairman Alan Gottlieb. “If hackers can break into the state court system, they can just as easily break into records kept on gun owners at the Department of Licensing, where the handgun registry is currently maintained. This could be a gold mine for gun thieves.

“This is why,” he continued, “we insisted that the state pistol registry be abolished and that no records be retained on background checks when we agreed to discuss background check legislation earlier this year. The other side wouldn’t budge. They want gun owner privacy to be at risk.”

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by Roderick T. Beaman 

The world stopped to commemorate the passing of Margaret Thatcher, the former Prime Minister of Great Britain, on April 8. Many mourned and some celebrated. Numerous observers recollected an ostensible collaboration, arising out of a stochastic synchrony with Ronald Reagan that brought down the Soviet Union.

The Iron Lady, as she was called, was appointed Prime Minister of Great Britain in May 1979. Her Conservative Party was voted into power under similar circumstances to Ronald Reagan’s advent in The United States shortly later. Both countries were awash in an economic distress that was approaching chaos. Inflation and unemployment were skyrocketing in this country and England was little different.

The United States had just been thoroughly humiliated by communist forces in Viet-Nam and the international decline of Great Britain, who had been our ally for at least a while there, was near the end with little left of its once round-the-world empire. At the turn of the twentieth century, the saying was that the sun never set on British soil. Viet-Nam had been our longest and costliest war. (It’s an interesting aside, to wonder what phase we are at now in our demise. Britain’s is over now and ours is accelerating.)

The legend handed down has been that Reagan threw down a gauntlet of challenge that the central power of communism, The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, could not match. It’s a nice tribute to a generally fondly remembered president that is far more myth than truth.

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Richard Bassett, April 17, 1745 - August 15, 1815

Bassett was an American lawyer and political figure from the state of Delaware who, as a veteran of the Revolutionary War and delegate to the Constitutional Convention of 1787, is considered one of the Founding Fathers of the United States. A member of the Federalist Party, he served in the Delaware General Assembly, as Governor of Delaware, and as U.S. Senator from Delaware. He holds the Senate Rank of 1, as the most senior United States Senator during the First Congress of the United States.

Bassett was born at Bohemia Ferry in the Province of Maryland’s Cecil County. His mother, Judith Thompson, had married part-time tavern-owner and farmer Michael Bassett who deserted the family during Richard’s childhood. Since Judith Thompson was the great granddaughter and heiress of Augustine Herrman, the original owner of Cecil County’s massive estate of Bohemia Manor, her family raised young Richard. Eventually this heritage provided him with inherited wealth, including the Bohemia Manor plantation as well as much other property in Delaware’s New Castle County.

Bassett studied law under Judge Robert Goldsborough of Province of Maryland’s Dorchester County and, in 1770, was admitted to the Bar. He moved to Delaware and began a practice in Kent County’s court town of Dover, which, in 1777, became the newly-independent state’s capital city. By concentrating on agricultural pursuits as well as religious and charitable concerns, he quickly established himself amongst the local gentry and “developed a reputation for hospitality and philanthropy.” In 1774, at the age of 29, Richard married Ann Ennals and they had three children, Richard Ennals, Ann (known as Nancy) and Mary. After Ann Ennals’ death he married Betsy Garnett in 1796. They were active members of the Methodist Church, and gave the church much of their time and attention.

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by CCRKBA staff 

BELLEVUE, WA - Newly-released data from the Bureau of Justice Statistics (BJS) proves that more guns in private hands do not lead to more murders, and a Pew Research study showing widespread ignorance of this fact suggests that the public has been misled, the Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms said today.

“The BJS data covers 1993 to 2011 and suggests that for almost 20 years, the gun prohibition lobby has been consistently wrong about private gun ownership and its correlation to crime,” said CCRKBA Chairman Alan Gottlieb. “The Pew report suggests that the public has been essentially hoodwinked into believing otherwise.”

An Associated Press report about the Pew Research revelation suggested that “intense publicity generated by recent mass shootings” may help to skew the public perception about gun-related violent crime.

“The release of these reports blows holes in the gun prohibition agenda,” Gottlieb stated. “If violent crime had gone upward, gun grabbers would exploit the fact as proof that more guns in private hands lead to more violent crime.

“However,” he added, “if the gun rights community argued that the BJS data proves increased gun ownership leads to lower violent crime rates, the dominant liberal media would savage the notion. Of course, this is the same anti-gun press that has sensationalized crimes while remaining silent about the actual crime data.

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by Mike Ruff

Just a couple of notes on the nature of government I’ve been thinking about for a while…

First, one of the adages I’m fond of quoting is: “To the person who has only a hammer, everything starts to look like a nail.” Politicians, bureaucrats, and other government thugs and con-artists fall into this category pretty consistently. Because the one real tool government types have is the government’s claimed monopoly on initiatory force–that is, the “Government Guns”–they tend to resort to violence or threat of violence in almost every situation, no matter how inappropriate. Oh, they try to cloak the iron fist in velvet gloves, but they never do forget about that iron fist–even though they want you to pretend it’s not there.

Think about it–everything the government does, it has to pay for–just like anyone else. Now while you and I have to convince people to pay us for our goods or services of their own free will, government just says “Pony up the cash” to the rest of us, whether we will or no. And if we don’t, then the “Government Guns” come out and drag us off to prison, or just outright kill us (of course, it’s always “justified,” isn’t it). Yes, I know, you may believe that the pretense of justice beforehand, via the nasty letters and court proceedings and such actually mean something. But in fact, those things are only there to set the stage–to convince the masses that there really is some sort of justice in the system, that it is “right” for the government to do these sorts of things.

And of course, after all this, the government goons then want people to thank them for “defending freedom” and “keeping the streets safe” and “making the trains run on time” etc.

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by Sean Haugh

The federal government, in their zeal for campaign finance reform, have given Libertarians a great gift. Quite simply, they have created the framework for a decentralized way of campaigning, a system perfectly suited to our way of doing politics.

From the Libertarian perspective, it was easy to predict that so-called campaign finance reform would not succeed in banning anything. People would simply find new creative ways to raise the money to do whatever they wanted anyway. And indeed this has come to pass. In the last election, we saw this new form of politics in action. It is the 527.

This kind of organization is also the answer to many of the ugly internal squabbles over what the party should be doing. In the past, frankly we have expected the Libertarian National Committee and our state parties to do everything, which is way too much. The LNC is realizing that they simply cannot do it all and is making hard choices, leaving some essential activities such as ballot access and campus organizing to fend for themselves.

Now if the expectation that the party will do everything was reasonable, we could say that they are turning their backs on core responsibilities. But if there was ever a “do it yourself” political philosophy, it is Libertarianism. The reasonable thing to do, when you see something that needs to be done, is not to argue that somebody else ought to do it. It would be better for everyone concerned if you just went out and did it yourself. Start a 527.

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by Garry Reed 

Most of us probably know by now that obesity can lead to all sorts of nasty problems like heart disease, stroke, cancer, diabetes, and the need to replace our entire spring wardrobe.  Obesity itself, of course, is not a disease.  The Infoplease online dictionary defines “obese” simply as “very fat or overweight; corpulent.”  But U.S. Surgeon General David Satcher would like to rewrite the dictionary.  Rewrite it with the ever magical bureaucratic pen.

A recent Washington Post story about the Top Doc’s “national plan of action,” in which he attacks the fast food industry (surprised?) for causing an epidemic of obesity, includes the quote, “Obesity also should be classified officially as a disease.”

And why not?  Even the aforementioned dictionary defines disease as a disorder resulting from, along with all of the usual suspects, “unfavorable environmental factors.”

So now we know.  The disease of obesity is caused not only by genetic traits or malfunctioning body organs or by how much or what kinds of foodstuffs we voluntarily pass between our pearly whites, but also by the simple act of hanging out in a social environment that breeds bacon cheeseburgers, onion rings, chicken fried steaks, and the highly infectious McWendy King Breakfast-on-a-Stick with Secret Sauce.  It seems that we catch obesity from microscopic airborne deep fried chicken nuggets.

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