This is a country in which fairly basic human rights are being treated in a rather cavalier fashion, without much outcry from anyone. People are being removed from voting rolls upon mere suspicion, and even that is giving too much credit to the perpetrators. Congress just passed a law allowing the government to imprison without trial anyone deemed a terrorist sympathizer. We are all treated as suspects whenever we board a plane. Our prisons are full of people guilty only of perpetrating crimes upon themselves (e.g., drug use or possession). The list goes on.
But in one respect, we are a shining beacon of a crazy sort of freedom, and here I hark back not only to the modern, but to the original definition of crazy: “full of cracks or flaws, unsound”, for in this country you can do what you like, so long as you do it armed. The Bill of Rights is becoming a dead letter, except the second portion thereof, into which the Supreme Court has breathed life that the far from crazy framers could never have anticipated.
Latest case in point in today’s Times, where we learn that the usual suspect, the NRA and its fellow criminals, have a problem with the fact that some states (far be it from the federal government to ever suggest such a thing) want to require gun manufacturers to manufacturer guns and shells that will enable law enforcement to immediately determine the particular gun from which a shell that say, ended up in some non-gun owners body, might have emerged. Well, naturally, the crime lobby is upset at the possibility that they might actually be held responsible for their crimes, so they, along with the gun manufacturers, are crying foul.
New York is considering such a ban. Now, New York is one of those states that actually still has a fair proportion of sane people in it, so one must wonder about the reaction Remington expected to get when it issued this threat:
The issue has become so heated that in New York, where the State Assembly is expected to debate a microstamping bill as early as Wednesday, one gun maker, the Remington Arms Company, has threatened to pull its business out of the state if the bill becomes law.
“Such a mandate could force Remington to reconsider its commitment to the New York market altogether,” said Teddy Novin, a company spokesman.
Yes, it appears Remington would like us to believe that it sells guns in New York not to make money, but because of its commitment to the New York market.
Now the logical response to this would be: “Make my day!”.
Of course, this blessed event would never take place, as this is, alas, the emptiest of threats. But it does give us a bit of insight into the minds of these gun folks, who have been so pampered and coddled lately that they think such a threat might work.
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