Professor Pinhead has piece in today's NYT where he reports on a new law passed in Greenleaf, Idaho that requires strongly encourages all its citizens to keep firearms in their homes. You know, because of all the violent meth lab-related crimes in Greenleaf!
This may come as a surprise to many of you, but I think I'm in favor of this statute. Based on the Members-Only jacket paradigm, if everyone has a gun then no one will want them anymore.
Update: Hey! Maybe the Iraqis should pass legislation that requires all their households to manufacture Molotovs and own rocket-grenade launchers? Middle-East violence problem solved!
Or ... if every Iraqi were to be killed, maimed or have a member of his/her immediate family killed and/or maimed in this war, then by the Members Only principle it would no longer be cool to be war-ravaged and they'd all just stop the fighting. That would be funny if it weren't one of the plans on the table.
Posted by: eRobin | 16 January 2007 at 10:31
when did forcing people to do things become libertarian?
Posted by: eli | 16 January 2007 at 10:55
Unless I'm misreading, Professor Pinhead's law in question doesn't require everyone to own a gun--it "encourages" them to do it.
Where his piece really goes off track is the assertion that the community is essentially crime free because 80% of residents own guns.
What Pinhead doesn't tell his readers is that Greenleaf has population of 862 people and a median family income of $45,313.
So in other words, Greenleaf is probably a shithole where nobody has anything worth commiting a crime for.
Posted by: carla | 16 January 2007 at 11:08
Thanks for the clarification, Carla.
I think $45K might go pretty far in Greenleaf.
Posted by: Roxanne | 16 January 2007 at 11:24
I think $45K might go pretty far in Greenleaf.
Maybe, but I doubt it. Even in the most rural regions of the Pacific NW, the COLA would be stretched pretty tight for a family at 45k.
I've lived in this part of the country all my life. I'd be surprised if a family living off that kind of income wasn't struggling.
Posted by: carla | 16 January 2007 at 12:25
Okay..not COLA, just COL.
Posted by: carla | 16 January 2007 at 12:26
Ye Ole Professor, J.D. does make positive mention of the Kennesaw, GA, ordinance that requires all household heads to have a firearm, and then he lumps the two cities' regulations together in his final two paragraphs.
Posted by: J— | 16 January 2007 at 12:39