Are the Best of the Free Life Behind Us Now?

Do you sometimes get the feeling that nearly everything is illegal? Could be here is the reason why :#links.

Each time the State ratchets up its desire to control people, it makes the penalties stiffer and stiffer.  The seat belt laws are a good example.  First they just put seat belts in the cars, and there were the ubiquitous public service announcements telling you that they might save your life.  Quite a few folks bought that argument, and started to wear seat belts.  That was as far as the insurance industry could go in "nudging" you.  They had no way to monitor your use of seat belts, so couldn't really give people who used them better rates.  People accepted these public service announcements, and generally made up their own minds about whether to wear seat belts, and when. 

But there always seems to be a nanny willing to make a law.  The next phase was seat belt laws, but they promised that these would only be enforced if the officer had another reason to stop you.  More people started using seat belts more consistently, because now the law compelled you to do so.  And Americans have typically been a law abiding people.  But what a cost to freedom.  Does the State really have a right to tell you to wear seat belts, in service to insurance companies?  A liberty minded person might ask what else they think they have the right to tell you, and in service to what industries?  Can the State, like the Pope, tell its citizens to eat fish on Friday because the fishing industry needs a boost?  More importantly, are citizens not adults who can determine for themselves when to wear a seat belt?  But that was not good enough, as it turns out.

The next phase was that the police could set up road blocks and give you a ticket if you weren't wearing your seat belt.  Oh, and while you were stopped, they could ticket you for any other violations they might find.  Many people felt as if they were living in a police state.  Frankly, I think they are right.  In making laws compelling seat belt use, the State infantilized the entire population, essentially assuming that everyone was like a child who had to be nagged to eat his vegetables, and had to be kept away from the sweets until he had eaten all on his plate.

The same ideas seem to apply with regards to the serious, and strictly adult decisions regarding weapons.  In the nanny State of North Carolina, you can not practically take your weapon off your property without a permission slip from the State.  North Carolina is an open carry State, nominally.  But if you do open carry, you will be arrested, your weapon confiscated, and you charged with something.  Going about to the terror of the pubic is always a good one.  Then there are the numerous "gun free zones" meaning "criminal empowerment zones," where crossing an invisible line makes you no longer a law abiding citizen, but a criminal.  If you walk into a restaurant that happens to serve alcohol while carrying a gun for which you have a concealed handgun license, suddenly you become a criminal.  What has changed?  Were you a responsible person before, but inside this building you suddenly become a crazed killer?  Does the restaurant have mind control rays?  The State, having finger printed you, run a background check on you, and ensured that you knew the law, can't seem to trust you to know where and when you might need to carry your weapon.  You must be told each of the seemingly thousands of places where you must disarm, for reasons that make no logical sense.  Guns don't belong in classrooms.  Why?  Guns and alcohol don't mix, even if the one carrying the gun doesn't drink.  Guns in banks are a bad idea because they are afraid you might try to rob the bank?  And why don't guns and theaters mix?  Oh, its because the sell sugar laden products that might get you on a sugar high and drive you crazy, right?  But then why are grocery stores not a "criminal empowerment zone?"  Enough, already.  New York has some very strict laws, and getting a permit to carry is not an easy process.  But once you have a permit, you can carry pretty much everywhere.

Yesterday, on the radio, I heard an old song by Merle Haggard, and had to wonder the same thing:

Is the best of the free life behind us now,
Are the good times really over for good.
                        -Merle Haggard