The Firing Line Forums - View Single Post - Americans view on government interference

**44 AMP** · October 18, 2008, 01:23 AM

What you are used to is normal, and in most opinions, what is right (even if it isn't). The overwhelming majority of the people don't care about much of anything that doesn't personally affect or intrude on their lives. But if it is something that does, they care alot. As long as it is somebody else's ox that is getting gored, they could (generally) care less.

Most people who enjoy firearms as recreation should understand this all too well, but even in the firearms community the attitude exists. Calling them "Fudds" (after Elmer Fudd) is almost charming (although I think a different name should have been used), but these are the "sportsmen" who don't care about gun control laws, as long as the guns they use in their particular sport are not the ones being restricted or banned. Rather short sighted, I think.

The state of encroachment by the government in our lives is a result of deliberate action by individuals in govt and the law of unintended consequences. Some regulations are a result of a genuine elitist worldview, that we are not capable of properly caring for ourselves, and therefore govt makes laws to force us to live in the manner they approve of (seatbelt laws and helmet laws are a prime example) Some are the result of govt seeking income (building permits and other licenses) and some just seem to defy reason altogether (I know you can think of some).

Bit by bit, over decades and even centuries it has happened. You cannot do some of the things your grandfather did on his own land without govt approval, and paying for that privilege. Some things you cannot do at all, legally.

We are trained from birth to comply, and the rules we grow up with are the natural order of things for us. It is only when they add new ones that we see ourselves as being oppressed. All the things we cannot do that our forefathers did, all of these things have been taken away from us, for our own good, or so we are told. All these things have been done tro us, with the best of intentions, so they say, and they have been done with our tacit agreement, or at least enough of it so they can do it. Sometimes, only one vote is the difference between continuing to live the way we used to and them doing it to us again. One vote. One judge or one Congressman tips the balance, and we are stuck with someone else's view of a "proper" life.

If there is a down side to our system of government, that's got to be it.

October 18, 2008, 01:23 AM	#19
44 AMP Staff Join Date: March 11, 2006 Location: Upper US Posts: 28,833	Tyranny is what you are not used to... What you are used to is normal, and in most opinions, what is right (even if it isn't). The overwhelming majority of the people don't care about much of anything that doesn't personally affect or intrude on their lives. But if it is something that does, they care alot. As long as it is somebody else's ox that is getting gored, they could (generally) care less. Most people who enjoy firearms as recreation should understand this all too well, but even in the firearms community the attitude exists. Calling them "Fudds" (after Elmer Fudd) is almost charming (although I think a different name should have been used), but these are the "sportsmen" who don't care about gun control laws, as long as the guns they use in their particular sport are not the ones being restricted or banned. Rather short sighted, I think. The state of encroachment by the government in our lives is a result of deliberate action by individuals in govt and the law of unintended consequences. Some regulations are a result of a genuine elitist worldview, that we are not capable of properly caring for ourselves, and therefore govt makes laws to force us to live in the manner they approve of (seatbelt laws and helmet laws are a prime example) Some are the result of govt seeking income (building permits and other licenses) and some just seem to defy reason altogether (I know you can think of some). Bit by bit, over decades and even centuries it has happened. You cannot do some of the things your grandfather did on his own land without govt approval, and paying for that privilege. Some things you cannot do at all, legally. We are trained from birth to comply, and the rules we grow up with are the natural order of things for us. It is only when they add new ones that we see ourselves as being oppressed. All the things we cannot do that our forefathers did, all of these things have been taken away from us, for our own good, or so we are told. All these things have been done tro us, with the best of intentions, so they say, and they have been done with our tacit agreement, or at least enough of it so they can do it. Sometimes, only one vote is the difference between continuing to live the way we used to and them doing it to us again. One vote. One judge or one Congressman tips the balance, and we are stuck with someone else's view of a "proper" life. If there is a down side to our system of government, that's got to be it. __________________ All else being equal (and it almost never is) bigger bullets tend to work better.