01-18-2018, 03:05 PM
(01-18-2018, 02:43 PM)Bob Butler 1954 Wrote: Well, bump stocks are not used by the military. The fully automatic weapons used by the military don't need bump stocks. Thus, a sovereign state can ban such by a Supreme Court precident which many wish doesn't exist. (If they admitted the precedent exists, the fully automatic weapons the military use are protected under the 2nd Amendment.)
Some extreme libertarians promote freedom to the extent that a citizen's ability to do something cannot be restricted by the government. The government assumes the majority under representative government can impose their will on any minority. Thus, regulation. At best, regulation promotes the general welfare at the cost of limiting freedom to take any action, to own any object. At best, regulation prevents common abuses, practices commonly practiced by criminals and the elite.
In general, I approve of regulation as it exists, but regulation can and has been over done or abused. Representative legislatures were the best the founding fathers could do given technology at the time. Direct vote democracy using the Internet is now possible, and perhaps necessary, if only as a veto at first. Yes, arguably, the People are not ready fully. Still, it seems better to try advocating direct democracy than bind with extreme libertarians.
If you factor in the effects of wide-open corruption due to wide-open political funding, we might be better served by professional civil servants than any cluster of politicians. Here in Virginia, the biggest campaign contributors to state government pols are the two large public utilities. Surprise! In 2015 they managed to get the General Assembly to wrench control of rate setting from the State Corporation Commission, and vest in in the legislature. Immediately, the pols voted to freeze electric rates and keep them frozen, even though the basis for those rates has gone down ever since. The estimated loss to rate payers: ~$500 Million.
Direct vote should be better than that, but don't give up on the larcenous to find a way to profit on that as well.
Intelligence is not knowledge and knowledge is not wisdom, but they all play well together.