Gun Control Nazis

I wrote two blog entries earlier, but deleted them, because things just didn't add up. Glad I waited. JMPP didn't.

'Cause, there was this Fox News story about Michael Moore's bodyguard being arrested for trying to carry an unlicensed gun onto a plane.

That is not exactly what happened. Here appears to be the accurate story.

Some observations, now that I have thought about this.

1. Michael Moore thinks that we should not have guns. At least, not handguns. But he employs a guy who has a handgun. Does this mean that only people who are rich enough to have some caddy, who is also armed, should have access to the means of protecting themselves? This is actually a side issue, though, at least in my opinion.

2. The real deal is that...The security guard did NOTHING wrong, not a firetrucking thing. The gun is licensed and fully registered, and he is correctly documented for concealed carry. He just didn't happen to have a license in New York. But he was trying to leave New York, and anyway airports are now federal territory. The gun was locked, unloaded, and in his checked baggage, not carry on. Further, on presenting himself at the check-in counter, he immediately informed the agent (in accordance with the law) that he had the gun.

BOTTOM LINE: There is an excellent chance that some cop, after after asking some questions and finding out that the poor guard worked for Michael Moore SOMETIMES, decided to be a jerk and arrest him. Apparently this Dickhead Tracy (or someone) also immediately called Fox News, who equally immediately wrote a misleading and nearly libelous story.

This is what happens when you have laws that intrude on personal liberties, including those guaranteed by the 2nd Amendment. (And this wasn't even a private weapon. The guy is a professional security guard). Cops, with nothing to do and a sense of personal importance, get to pursue their own little political agendas (in this case, conservative: "Arrest him! Call Fox News!"). It's tempting to think that the real bad guy here is the cop, but in fact it is the law. End the increasingly sticky web of laws and rules that are designed to "help" us, but are really just mechanisms of discretionary and arbitrary social control. You may think you want gun control, and racial epithet control, and bugger all control, but police discretion will always be used to punish the least powerful in society. Life-arrangers always say, "Gosh, that is not what I meant to have happen," but that is what always happens. If you don't want to go to Chicago, don't get on that train.

Michael Moore should be embarrassed. Not because he employs a man with a gun; I'm sure there are actual threats against Moore, and he has every right to protect himself. No, Moore should be ashamed that a man with a legitimate need for a gun got jerked around by people enforcing regulations Moore avidly supports. It's not an accident, it's not an abuse, it is the thing itself.