Why is the Possession of Anything a Crime?

Published on January 4, 2013 by admin   ·   No Comments

 

Eric Blair/Activist Post

Why is the possession of anything a crime in a free society?  It is the antithesis of freedom to stop people from merely having something.

Simply possessing something causes no harm to anyone. It is a victimless crime. Therefore, a crime should only be if the item in possession is misused in a way that harms others.

As the gun control debate rages on, Congress has introduced the most restrictive gun law ever, banning the sale and possession of most semi-automatic weapons.

So what are we to make of the approaching “war on guns”?  If history is an indicator, the prohibition of guns will likely cause more violence, not less.  In other words, it will have the exact opposite effect as its stated purpose of reducing gun violence.

Drug possession remains illegal on the notion that the State has a moral obligation to protect people from themselves. Again, this is a victimless crime and a clear violation of individual freedom.

Additionally, some argue that society is better off with drugs prohibited. Yet that argument is getting tougher and tougher to make given the collateral damage to society caused by the drug war itself.

And, pragmatically, prohibition laws have never reduced the supply of the banned items. It didn’t reduce alcohol in the 1930s, it hasn’t reduced drugs, and it hasn’t reduced prostitution.

If there is demand for something in society, there will always be a supply no matter what the cost may be. All prohibition does is to criminalize the peaceful behavior of possession.

So can politicians be stupid enough to believe that by criminalizing guns they’ll actually remove them from society?  Perhaps they are, but maybe there’s another motivation at work here.

Read More HERE