The Latest Plague

I believe Jillette first spoke this truism after the 9/11 attack, fearing (correctly) that the government's response would be a series of actions that infringe upon our liberties. Sure enough, we got the Patriot Act, the TSA, NSA snooping, endless incarcerations and lost due process, abasement of our wealth via massive, useless government spending, and countless erosions of privacy and Constitutional protections.

More recently, we had the COVID-19 pandemic, wherein the government assumed the right to close businesses, prohibit free association, require quarantining, impose mandates upon private citizens that violate the very premise of self-ownership, track our movements, and otherwise make it clear that our liberties exist only at its pleasure.

Both sets of infringements were born of ignorance-based fear. Humans instinctively fear the unknown. It's an evolutionary survival mechanism, one that's been leveraged by the power-hungry across the entirety of human civilization.

Unknown usually doesn't last forever, and as it transitions to known, we naturally grow tired and/or suspicious of those infringements. The infringers need fresh crises to maintain their footing, and if one doesn't present naturally, some wisp of concern will get magnified into a full-blown emergency.

Behold, the "ghost gun."

For the uninitiated, a "ghost gun" is one made by a private citizen, and therefore lacks a serial number that can be used to trace it to a manufacturer and therefrom to a licensed seller and an initial purchaser. Used to be, these were called privately made firearms. They are generally legal, as long as the maker doesn't sell them. They were also not common, given that making a gun of more than single-shot utility (see: zip gun) requires machining equipment, machining skill, and firearms knowledge.

Technology and the information age have changed things in this, as in most other things. In particular, 3D printing has made it a lot easier and cheaper to make a gun at home.

I believe it was John Stossel who first suggested (to me, at least) that technology is what keeps us ahead of those who seek to take our rights. So it's going with gun rights and the Feds. I've written a fair bit across the years (here, here, here, here, and here, to start) about the increasing irrelevance of gun control laws in an era of consumer-accessible 3D-printing equipment.

Not that futility has ever stopped a government control freak from trying, unfortunately.

The Democrats are just now waking up to the upcoming mid-term electoral wipeout I've been predicting ever since Biden won, and they're having a collectiv(ist) conniption.

Not to the point of changing policy or their leftist track, of course.

Instead, they're ramping up various hysteria campaigns, to scare-motivate their base, instill existential dread in swing voters, and deflect from all they've done to prompt the wipeout. Nancy Pelosi has helpfully informed us that:

I fear for our democracy if the Republicans were ever to get the gavel. We can’t let that happen. Democracy is on the ballot in November.

Along comes the rhetorical subterfuge that is the phrase "ghost gun," and a concomitant marketing campaign. Buried in that phrase are countless implications, including supernatural fear and the presumption that something the government does not control is necessarily evil and therefore must be controlled.

Pay attention to the hype - the Dems and anti-2A people know that a Supreme Court win for gun rights is likely this summer - and they know that gun rights have been marching steadily forward at the state level, with more than 3/4 of the nation's population living in the 42 states that have enacted shall-issue or Constitutional Carry legislation.

Undeterred by the popular will, and needing a scapegoat for the crime increase that their policies have engendered, they're going to make a LOT of noise about ghost guns, along with some Executive Orders banning the unbannable, to spook those who aren't cognizant of reality into supporting the further infringement of their rights wherever possible, and as one of several desperation moves to save at least one of their Congressional majorities.

The spike in big-city crime is being blamed, by the usual suspects, on guns, and not on changes in enforcement, or bail, or prosecution, or policing expenditures. Even sources you'd hope were on the side of individual rights, such as the New York Post, are flogging gun hysteria. In the Post's case, I suspect its editors are happy with the city's draconian gun laws, and are laying the groundwork for righteous indignation should the Court rule pro-gun-rights this summer in NYSRPA v Bruen.

Thus, the scare-good-people Post front cover. Thus, Biden's big-splash plan to administratively tackle the ghost gun bogeyman. Thus, the public perception effort to vilify all those Americans whose legitimate distrust of government has prompted them to make homemade firearms - firearms that will never be used criminally. And, thus, the elevation of a relatively minor phenomenon (ghost guns used in crime) as a deflection from the failed policies that are the true crime driver.

Meanwhile, too many individuals who commit crimes, with ghost guns or otherwise, continue to get the “it’s not you, it’s society” treatment.

We don't need more restrictions on good people. We don't need futile laws and rules. Criminals won't be deterred by them, that's for sure, and the technology cat is out of the bag, never to be stuffed back in. And we certainly don't need the Executive Branch skirting the Constitution by writing new laws.

Thomas Massie @RepThomasMassie

The Constitution does not authorize the federal government to prevent you from making your own firearm. This a fact that has been recognized for 200+ years. Also, Article 1, Section 1 (literally the first operative sentence in the Constitution) says Congress makes law, not POTUS!

If "ghost gun" sounds scary... well, it's meant to. Before you fall prey to their latest fear campaign, and hop on board their rights-infringing bandwagon, take a breath, remember how freely government lies to us, and also remember that a right infringed is very difficult to restore.

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