By now you may have heard, it has easily made the news cycle and gone out of fashion, about the 21-year-old man that was shot and killed by police in Potomac, Maryland. The story says that he was being served a “high-risk” warrant for firearm-related offenses.
Guess what?
It turns out that, according to Newser.com, the story the police put out doesn’t match eyewitness accounts and that the victim, yes, I use the term “victim” here, was actually asleep when the police opened fire. This resulted in Duncan Lemp’s death as well as injuries to his girlfriend.
I bring this up for a couple of reasons.
Government Can’t Make Decisions for You
The headline pretty much sums up what I want to say here.
It is my belief that the role of a government is to help its people, a nation, have a presence in the world field. The government should support the citizens and try to help them. This results in some laws to be made and, because those that work in the government need to be compensated for their work, taxes to help with costs.
I don’t think all taxes are right and I don’t think no taxes are the answer.
But there have been a few instances where the government is trying to make decisions for people.
There are certain things I think that people should be doing during this coronavirus pandemic, but it is not the role of the government to tell people what they can and can’t buy. That is something that is happening in a few states right now.
On top of that, I don’t believe that the government should be doing “red flag” laws because I don’t think it is the responsibility of the government to decide who can and can’t defend themselves.
The biggest issue with “red flag” gun laws is that it is clothed in the idea of the government protecting its citizens, but it is really determining who should be able to defend themselves and who shouldn’t.
Some Laws Create Unnecessary Conflict
The case that is currently in question about Mr. Lemp is the perfect example of this belief.
In the same way, “red flag” laws pretend to help people; it actually gives the government too much power.
The second amendment was written to say that individuals have the right and responsibility to decide when the government becomes corrupt and controlling its citizens. It gives regular citizens an equalizer.
On top of that, it has helped give smaller citizens, such as women, an equalizer from the bad guys trying to do bad things to them. For people that are larger stature, which I might add is something people can’t control, like race and gender, it’s just something you’re born with, it gives them a way to diffuse the situation without putting themselves or others at risk.
To give a little backing to my argument that I said there are multiple laws that cause unnecessary criminals I’ll give 2 more obvious options:
Prohibition was terrible and didn’t work. There are a couple of amendments to prove how dumb that law was. It didn’t work and resulted in a few events that weren’t necessary because it shouldn’t have been illegal in the first place.
I also believe that marijuana falls into this category. It has resulted in the criminalization of individuals that really didn’t do anything bad.
I do believe that there should be laws of operating machinery while under the influence of any mind-altering substance. There are certain decency laws that also go with public intoxication, which covers any drug or alcohol abuse.
Some would argue that abortion fits this category, but there is another life, or at least a potential life depending on what you believe, so it falls into the same category as operating machinery under the influence. It involves multiple people.
To come full circle, when the government tried to make people honor what they believe is a moral decision, negativity results. It causes unnecessary criminalization as well as loopholes for the government to control who they want.
So, next time you want to make some rules regarding others, think about the extra people that could be affected.