Quote of the Day: “That which we call sin in others is experiment for us.” – Ralph Waldo Emerson
To prohibitionists of all kinds, the ends justify the means, even if those means include murder.
I realized this while watching the Ken Burns 3-part documentary Prohibition, which debuted last week. During Alcohol Prohibition, the Federal State deliberately poisoned alcohol supplies to discourage drinking. As many as 10,000 died.
The callousness of Prohibitionists continues to this day…
- Drug Prohibitionists cheer on Mexico’s Drug War, whose death toll has likely passed 40,000 over five years.
- Drug Prohibitionists also don’t care about the suffering of sick people; breaking a campaign promise, President Obama is cracking down on medical marijuana dispensaries even in states where they’re legal.
- Gun Prohibitionists in the BATF and Justice Department conducted last year’s Operation Fast and Furious, a “sting” operation in which the feds facilitated the traffic of guns to drugs lords in Mexico, which in turn were used in the killing of a border patrol agent and perhaps 200 Mexicans.
In short, prohibitionists are responsible for more evil than they hope to prevent!
That’s because…
- Alcohol isn’t evil
- Drugs aren’t evil
- Guns aren’t evil
Whether they are dangerous, or lead to evil consequences, depend on how you use them.
Drug prohibition and gun prohibition are the same issue.
Now, you might think drugs are bad. You might believe them to be so harmful that you’d never use them. But you probably expect the politicians to keep their hands off your firearms.
On the other hand, you may think guns are evil. You might believe they’re so dangerous that you’d never own one. But you think you have every right to choose what substances you take into to your own body.
Both positions are correct. Guns and drugs are both dangerous to people who don’t use them prudently. But prohibition laws mean that no one is allowed to use them prudently. And the one form of prohibition ends up being used as a justification for the other…
We think it’s time to put the special pleading aside. Drug prohibition and gun control aren’t two separate issues – they are the same issue, and should be governed by the same principle. The only thing that should be prohibited is government prohibition in all its forms.
We don’t need to renew the Assault Weapons Ban, nor to ship money to Mexico so they can fight the war on drugs.
What we need is less state coercion, not more.
Downsize DC! That’s the winning formula here.
The politicians should end drug prohibition. That will defund the Mexican cartels (and the Taliban in Afghanistan too), then they won’t be able to buy the guns. It would also reduce violent crime here at home and remove much of the supposed justification for gun prohibition.
We encourage you to make your own argument, in your own words. However, if you need some words to get you started, use some of the lines from this Dispatch (above). And…
If you have friends who agree that Prohibition should be Prohibited, tell them about Downsize DC! Encourage them to follow us…
- On Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/downsizedc
- And Twitter: http://twitter.com/#!/DDCDispatch
James Wilson
Policy Research Director
DownsizeDC.org, Inc.