Firearms Owners Against Crime
Institute for Legal, Legislative and Educational Action
Institute for Legal, Legislative and Educational Action
USA – -(AmmoLand.com)- Some years ago, before the smoking ban in Tennessee, my wife and I went to a new restaurant. We asked for a non-smoking table. After a while, the manager took us to a table to be seated. With a not-so-sleight-of-hand motion, he reached over and grabbed an ashtray and put it behind his back.
The ensuing dialog went something like this:
“I asked for non-smoking.”
“This is non-smoking.”
“But you just picked up the ashtray! That’s not a non-smoking table.”
His response!? “It’s non-smoking because I say it is.”
So it is with gun laws. Gun laws make guns bad because someone says guns are bad.
The problem with gun laws is that they are Malum Probibitum, which is defined at Cornell Law School as “An act which is immoral because it is illegal; not necessarily illegal because it is immoral.”
Malum Prohibitum contrasts with Malum in Se, defined as “An innately immoral act, regardless of whether it is forbidden by law.”
From ancient times, certain acts have been deemed crimes and have been accepted by most societies as innately immoral. The Ten Commandments (ca 1400 BC), for example, codified the prohibition against murder, theft, adultery, and lying, among other things. Each of these acts always has perpetrators and victims. Each has always been subject to punishment at various levels, depending on the severity of the crime. These innately immoral acts (crimes) are malum in se.
We see, also since ancient times, that governments and potentates have in one manner or other sought to disarm those under their rule. The Philistines, for example, would not allow blacksmiths in Israel “…for fear they would make swords and spears for the Hebrews.” These, of course, would fall in the Malum Prohibitum category.
The list of malum in se crimes has, for the most part, remained constant historically. But, malum prohibitum crimes have ebbed and flowed throughout history, depending on the whim of the times. Many of these have dealt directly with weapons. The Nashville Slave Code, ca 1863, stated:
‘It Is Unlawful For Slaves To go off the premises of their masters without leave. To carry arms. “Sell liquors. “Sell articles not manufactured by himself.”’ Another Tennessee law forbade the slave to go about armed unless he was the huntsman of the plantation.
Not to be outdone, Democrat Tim Sullivan sponsored the 1911 Sullivan Act in New York, which “mandated police-issued licenses for handguns and made it a felony to carry an unlicensed concealed weapon.”
I wrote in AmmoLand News a few years ago, “The problem with many of the elite who are in power these days is that they, like tyrants and petty potentates of old, think power should reside only in the hands of the ruling class.”
Two means they have of consolidating that power is banning certain guns, and/or banning people from owning/carrying guns.
The banning of firearms carry or taxing it falls in the malum prohibitum category. Although many states have enacted laws that have removed the permitting requirement for carrying a handgun, other states still require permits [IE: New Jersey]. Hawaii is a may-issue state, which in reality means they will not issue permits – “Concealed carry and open carry are felonies without a permit… Although allowed by law… Private citizens are denied.”
Banning certain types of firearms also fits in the malum prohibitum category.: SilenceCo Maxim 50 Suppressed Muzzleloader.
Banning certain types of firearms also fits in the malum prohibitum category.
These Goldilocks gun laws do nothing to deter crime, and only impede peaceable citizens from exercising their rights.
So next time you hear a politician trying to pass another gun law, remember guns are neither good nor bad, but the evil lies in the hearts and minds of the evildoers. Just say no to any of these attempts to deprive you of your rights or property. Remember one of their ultimate goals is the consolidation of power.
About Liston Matthews
Liston Matthews has been involved in the gun rights movement since 1971. He was involved in the passage of the Tennessee carry law, and its improvements. He has testified before local legislative bodies. He has contacted politicians and had numerous editorial letters published. He believes that politicians must be carefully vetted at the local level because few change their positions when they move to higher office.
Liston writes his own blog Good Hill Press is an AmmoLand News contributor, and formerly wrote at Examiner.com.