Breaking the law

And by breaking, I don’t mean violating some law or another.

There are well intended laws that break the legal system. Off hand, I cannot think of any that aren’t some form of prohibition. This occurs when government backed do-gooders attempt to tell the American people that they can’t have some item that the People think is perfectly acceptable to possess.

Alcohol prohibition is the classic example of this. Teetotalers sought to impose their version of morality onto the public at large. The problem was that the public at large drinks. The temperance movement got what they wanted, but they inadvertently promoted the rise of organized crime. There was a lot of money to be made in the illegal booze trade and the Mob happily stepped in to do just that. Alcohol prohibition ultimately failed because it brought the rule of law into contempt.

Gun prohibition is no different. The anti-gun left has gotten their way in many places. New York City is a prime example of their “success” at forcing their view of morality down the People’s throats. The problem is that Americans, as they did with alcohol prohibition, see no moral underpinning for gun laws. This leads otherwise law abiding citizens to violate the law. The end result is a population that reviles its own laws and denigrates the rule of law.

The latest example (No surprise!) comes out of New York City. The FBI has uncovered a conspiracy where NYPD officers were accepting bribes in exchange for gun permits. NYC generally prohibits gun ownership and licenses the right to keep and bear arms as though it were a privilege. The result, though, is not widespread compliance with the law, but rather widespread violation of the law. This leads inexorably to the type of corruption found in the NYPD.

Like the teetotalers before them, gun grabbers only succeed in diminishing the rule of law and the creation of black markets. Worse yet, they push otherwise law abiding citizens into the waiting arms of the criminal element. Far from making us safer, anti-gun laws endanger us all.