- It’s long. It’s thorough. It’s a just-published Cato policy analysis by Dave Kopel on the costs and consequences of “gun control.”
- And in shorter, rougher language, El Neil excoriates those who would even ban useable information about firearms. (Found via Rational Review News)
- Canadian judge fines man $1 for growing pot. Oh, the times they are a changin’. (H/T MJR)
- OMG. This article about the addictive Internet is fascinating — until the author gets down to proposing “solutions.” Then it’s just creepy, and not because of what the developers are doing.
- Speaking of creepy, Chucky is far from the only menacing toy these days. Think on this before you give in to that little kid’s pleas for a connected toy. (And again, it’s not the alarms over hacking, but the very function that’s the icky business.)
- They say they warned 12-year-old Tamir Rice — and warned him again and again and again! I’d love to know how they managed all those warnings in the two seconds they allowed him to go on living. Gotta give the cops credit for careful coordination of their stories, though.
- I’m a little late with this one, but Jim Bovard blasts the Census Bureau, whose lies weren’t that carefully managed.
- Toddler escapes home while mom naps. Pit bull goes along as his protector.
Good for Bovard telling the Census Bureau to take their expanded survey and stuff it. The amount of information they now demand has gone way past a simple census. I too have told the Census Bureau to take a hike. They even sent a worker and a supervisor to my door to attempt to cow me into filling it out. I told them in no uncertain terms to leave because there was no way in hell I was going to fill it out. Never heard from them again. Idiots.
I don’t recognize any legitimate authority for the regular “census” myself, but it continues to grow anyway. This is a partial list of all the “surveys” they now administer.
American Community Survey
American Housing Survey
Consumer Expenditure Survey
Census of Governments
Current Population Survey
Economic Census
National Hospital Discharge Survey
National Health Interview Survey
National Hospital Ambulatory Medical Care Survey
National Crime Victimization Survey
National Ambulatory Medical Care Survey (NAMCS)
National Nursing Home Survey
Survey of Income and Program Participation
Survey of Construction
Survey of Market Absorption
Survey of Program Dynamics
National Longitudinal Survey
National Survey of Fishing, Hunting, & Wildlife-Associated Recreation 2001
American Housing Survey
Residential Finance Survey
National Epidemiologic Survey of Alcohol Related Conditions
Annual Retail Trade Survey
Annual Wholesale Trade Survey
Annual and Quarterly Services Surveys
Just say no, every chance you get.
Copel’s Cato Institute piece is certainly thorough, but he spent most of his time on only one side of the picture, the failure of proposed policy to reduce crime. Gun control policy is acceptable only if it both reduces crime AND does not inhibit defensive use. I found two take-aways:
“The risk of dying in a mass murder is roughly the same as being killed by lightning.”
“Firearms in the hands of law-abiding citizens enhance public safety. Firearms in the wrong hands endanger everyone. Responsible firearms policies focus on thwarting dangerous people and do not attempt to infringe the constitutional rights of good persons. Background checks on firearms sales can be improved by including more records on persons who have been adjudicated to be so severely mentally ill that they are a genuine threat.”
But I’d change “constitutional rights” to “right to defense of life and property.” The Constitution has nothing to do with it. The Second Amendment is only a bright line delineating a pre-existing right.
And people who are so serverely mentally ill that they are a genuine threat don’t belong on the street. In a rational world, they’d be quickly eliminated from the gene pool.
[Responsible firearms policies focus on thwarting dangerous people and do not attempt to infringe the constitutional rights of good persons.]
Good luck on that one Bill. The ruling class actually likes it when a theater or party gets shot up by some nut. The target for disarmament is ALWAYS the decent human being.