Goodbye, Blue Monday

Thanks once again to The Other McCain for the Rule Five linkage!

Would New Gun Laws Spark Widespread Civil Disobedience?  It seems increasingly likely.  Excerpt:

In his State of the Union address, President Obama doubled down on his gun-control proposals, again demanding that Congress ban so-called “assault weapons” and “high capacity magazines.” This is not a surprise. What has been a surprise are the increasingly open calls for defiance from gun owners, state legislatures, and local law enforcement. If the president’s proposals become law, he may move the country into turbulent waters we haven’t seen in many years.

Gun control has long been a controversial issue in American politics. However, there are three aspects to this issue that make this more volatile than other hot topics such as taxes, foreign policy, or abortion:

1) The strongest advocates of each side hold fundamentally irreconcilable positions.

On one hand, committed gun-control advocates say: “No one should be allowed to own certain weapons.” On the other hand, equally committed gun-rights advocates say: “No way in hell are we giving up these weapons.”

2) Ordinary Americans have declared their willingness to disobey the law.

New York state has already passed laws similar to Obama’s proposals. Gun owners there are now organizing a campaign of open civil disobedience, daring state officials to “come and take” their rifles. State officials already acknowledge that they will be unable to enforce the new law.

3) Local law enforcement officials and state governments have also vowed civil disobedience.

So far none of the proposals floated before any legislative bodies have mentioned confiscation, except for a very few put forth by crackpot pols (of which there are more than  few) that won’t go anywhere.  But as long as stewards of public policy insist on blaming tools for the problems of their users, their proposed policies will get more and more extreme.

Could the result be a civil uprising?  Ten years ago, or even five, I would have dismissed the notion as conspiracy theory, black-helicopter nonsense.  Now?  I’m not so sure.  The turning point is when a significant number of local law-enforcement officials announce openly that they will refuse to enforce the laws, if passed.  A proposed confiscation will almost certainly result in widespread civil disobedience and possibly even outright rebellion.

Bad laws cheapen society’s respect for all laws.  Laws that threaten to pit local law-enforcement officials against the Imperial Federal government aren’t just bad; they’re horrible.  If Congress, or the various state legislatures pursue this course, they aren’t just bad, they’re contemptible.

But then, we knew that already.