Why is the solution always less freedom for the good guys?
By Theresa Camoriano
There is a problem with people manufacturing illegal drugs. What is the solution? Require law-abiding citizens to get a doctor’s prescription in order to buy Sudafed to treat their stuffy noses.
Our children are not getting a good education in the public schools. What is the solution? Increase the mandatory school age to 18, forcing young people to stay in school, where they are not learning and where they are disrupting the education of others.
Politicians have become too powerful and corrupt. What is the solution? Give them more power by enabling them to restrict the freedom of speech of their critics and competitors through campaign finance laws.
Someone uses a gun to commit murder. What is the solution? Restrict the freedom of law-abiding citizens to buy guns.
A minority of the population does not have health insurance. What is the solution? Force everyone into a government-controlled health insurance program.
Have you noticed a pattern here? First, identify a problem. Then, come up with a “solution” that further restricts the freedom of law-abiding citizens.
Of course, this solution usually does little or nothing to solve the problem that had been identified, and it usually creates additional problems, but that’s okay because at least the people promoting the reductions of our freedom have good intentions. And, after all, aren’t good intentions the most important thing?
But what happens when all these restrictions and regulations severely curtail our ability to pursue our own happiness?
Why do we start from the premise that the law-abiding citizens need to have their freedoms reduced? Why not demand that the government seek out the bad guys and curtail their freedoms instead?
It is like the situation in which a man is searching for his car keys under a streetlight. A person passing by asks whether that is where he lost his keys. He answers “No, but the light is better here.” In the same way, it is much easier to put further restrictions on the law-abiding citizens than to seek out the bad guys. It doesn’t do much, if any, good and usually does harm, but at least you can say you tried.
And so we lose our precious freedoms, one “good intention” after another.
What can we do to get our freedoms back? We must demand that our freedoms be restored one step at a time. We need to remind our elected officials that their job is to serve us, not to control us, and then make them pay at the ballot box if they forget.
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