Thursday, September 08, 2005
Second Amendment Pragmatism
Here's a disappointing story from New Orleans; police are confiscating weapons from everyone except hired security guards. I too think it's wrong to let those who can afford to hire armed help have the protection of the firearms while denying it to those who can't afford to hire the armed guards, but do the same thing by themselves. Smacks of elitism.
On the other hand, the one time that I might forego being armed, is when asked politely by an armed police officer to put my gun down. I'd do it. The alternative seems a no-win situation.
And I can see the situation here, with the city nearing deserted, and lots of armed government agents walking around, that the police might reasonably ask the amateurs to trust them and disarm. Because the police just might not be able to trust the armed citizens when it's the other way around. And this is especially so while they put the disarmed citizens on trucks and get them the heck out of Dodge, which, although pretty late, is still the right thing to do.
As powerful and absolute as the First Amendement's free speech right is there are times when the government can tell you to shut up, like when you're hiding in the dark from a patrolling enemy in force or when you're compulsively spouting state secrets at a press conference or...that's all I can think of. They're rare, but they exist. The situation might be just so in New Orleans.
On the other hand, the one time that I might forego being armed, is when asked politely by an armed police officer to put my gun down. I'd do it. The alternative seems a no-win situation.
And I can see the situation here, with the city nearing deserted, and lots of armed government agents walking around, that the police might reasonably ask the amateurs to trust them and disarm. Because the police just might not be able to trust the armed citizens when it's the other way around. And this is especially so while they put the disarmed citizens on trucks and get them the heck out of Dodge, which, although pretty late, is still the right thing to do.
As powerful and absolute as the First Amendement's free speech right is there are times when the government can tell you to shut up, like when you're hiding in the dark from a patrolling enemy in force or when you're compulsively spouting state secrets at a press conference or...that's all I can think of. They're rare, but they exist. The situation might be just so in New Orleans.
# posted by Roger Fraley @ 7:06 PM 
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