No Reason for Crazies to Have Guns
I used to like Reason magazine. It was a watchdog for government overreach like eminent domain abuse (think forcing out homeowners to build a shopping center) and government silliness (like cities disallowing cucumber plants in the front yard). Even the comments were clever.
Then they started harping on pot, hookers and Bitcoin a few years ago. OK, you can make a case against the drug war, but hookers and Bitcoin are (I hope) rather fringe issues that aren't going to ensnare ordinary Americans going about their lawful business in a web of fines and legal proceedings.
Lately, though, they've followed other media lemmings into the Sea of Perpetual Outrage. Progressive outlets see Nazis everywhere; conservative outlets see murdered babies everywhere; Reason wants anarchy for all. Maybe this makes sense when you constantly report about police officers who shoot family dogs. (Of course, Reason didn't cover this one or this one.)
Living in Indianapolis, where quite a bit is left up to residents, has given me more appreciation for well-done local government. I don't live in a seedy neighborhood (some would disagree given the frequency of shootings), but bad neighborhoods are close enough to let me see comments from their residents on nextdoor.com. I've read about hookers plying their trade--not just soliciting, but plying their trade--right in front of neighbors' houses. I've read about non-resident property owners who neglect their properties, allowing squatters, trash and decay to take over. A nearby fire station does 5,000 runs per year, many of them in response to drug overdoses.
Several years ago in another neighborhood, the police took a cache of weapons and ammunition from a mentally ill man. Since Indiana had no law preventing dangerous, mentally ill people from having a stockpile of weapons, they were returned to him. Tragedy ensued: he murdered his mother and police officer Jake Laird and injured four other officers, one of whom took him out. Police officers are good for something besides shooting the family dog, after all.
To Indiana's credit, the government soon passed, almost unanimously, a red flag law allowing police to confiscate weapons from dangerous individuals, and providing a court hearing within two weeks for a judge to determine whether the individual is, in fact, dangerous. In over three years in Indiana, I've never heard one peep of complaint about the Jake Laird Law even from the most ardent libertarians. These are people who complained about the Sawmill Saloon being shut down after five people were shot there.
Now that Rep. Susan Brooks and other have sponsored the Jake Laird Act--to take away guns from dangerous crazies, but allowing them due process also--Reason and their readers are throwing a hissy fit. I wonder how many of them are writing from comfortable offices or safe suburbs or rural areas. They might feel differently if they were close to some crazy people.
Then they started harping on pot, hookers and Bitcoin a few years ago. OK, you can make a case against the drug war, but hookers and Bitcoin are (I hope) rather fringe issues that aren't going to ensnare ordinary Americans going about their lawful business in a web of fines and legal proceedings.
Lately, though, they've followed other media lemmings into the Sea of Perpetual Outrage. Progressive outlets see Nazis everywhere; conservative outlets see murdered babies everywhere; Reason wants anarchy for all. Maybe this makes sense when you constantly report about police officers who shoot family dogs. (Of course, Reason didn't cover this one or this one.)
Living in Indianapolis, where quite a bit is left up to residents, has given me more appreciation for well-done local government. I don't live in a seedy neighborhood (some would disagree given the frequency of shootings), but bad neighborhoods are close enough to let me see comments from their residents on nextdoor.com. I've read about hookers plying their trade--not just soliciting, but plying their trade--right in front of neighbors' houses. I've read about non-resident property owners who neglect their properties, allowing squatters, trash and decay to take over. A nearby fire station does 5,000 runs per year, many of them in response to drug overdoses.
Several years ago in another neighborhood, the police took a cache of weapons and ammunition from a mentally ill man. Since Indiana had no law preventing dangerous, mentally ill people from having a stockpile of weapons, they were returned to him. Tragedy ensued: he murdered his mother and police officer Jake Laird and injured four other officers, one of whom took him out. Police officers are good for something besides shooting the family dog, after all.
To Indiana's credit, the government soon passed, almost unanimously, a red flag law allowing police to confiscate weapons from dangerous individuals, and providing a court hearing within two weeks for a judge to determine whether the individual is, in fact, dangerous. In over three years in Indiana, I've never heard one peep of complaint about the Jake Laird Law even from the most ardent libertarians. These are people who complained about the Sawmill Saloon being shut down after five people were shot there.
Now that Rep. Susan Brooks and other have sponsored the Jake Laird Act--to take away guns from dangerous crazies, but allowing them due process also--Reason and their readers are throwing a hissy fit. I wonder how many of them are writing from comfortable offices or safe suburbs or rural areas. They might feel differently if they were close to some crazy people.
Comments