-By Warner Todd Huston
I stand 100% against any government leach or placeman telling me I cannot have a gun. It is unconstitutional and violates my God-given civil rights. But, I am just as much against the same class of people telling me I must own a gun.
A town in Maine is the newest town to put in place a rule that mandates that residents buy and own a gun. This sort of rule has been known in small towns in Idaho, Georgia and Texas, as well. But this requirement is no more in keeping with the Constitution than laws in big cities that try to outlaw ownership of guns–itself also a total violation of the U.S. Constitution.
This week the city fathers in the small town of Byron, Maine, are making news for sponsoring a new ordinance making gun ownership mandatory.
Of course, the rule is meant less to force everyone to buy a gun than it is to make sure that laws saying they can’t would be nullified. But, if held to the letter of this law, this pro-gun mandate would violate freedom of choice just as much as outright bans on guns.
American freedom and liberty is an individual’s right, not a collective right. As long as the exercise of my freedoms don’t infringe on yours, then we are all good, if you will. But, telling me I must own a gun is just as much a violation of that liberty as telling me I can’t own one.
The choice must be mine. With an emphasis on choice.
Americans have a right to be stupid and not indulge their God-given, natural rights to self-protection if they want. We call it liberty.
So, no, gun supporters, mandating gun ownership is no solution to the anti-Constitutional actions of the extremists on the far-left. Let’s not over reach on this, shall we?
____________
“The only end of writing is to enable the reader better to enjoy life, or better to endure it.”
–Samuel Johnson
Warner Todd Huston is a Chicago based freelance writer. He has been writing opinion editorials and social criticism since early 2001 and before that he wrote articles on U.S. history for several small American magazines. His political columns are featured on many websites such as Andrew Breitbart’s BigGovernment.com, BigHollywood.com, and BigJournalism.com, as well as RightWingNews.com, RightPundits.com, CanadaFreePress.com, StoptheACLU.com, AmericanDaily.com, among many, many others. Mr. Huston is also endlessly amused that one of his articles formed the basis of an article in Germany’s Der Spiegel Magazine in 2008.
For a full bio, please CLICK HERE.