New York State of Mind

This is what tyranny looks like. As detailed in this article from Reason, during oral arguments before the Supreme Court in the case of New York State Rifle and Pistol Association vs. City of New York, city attorney Richard Dearing admitted that the gun control laws in question had no impact on public safety.

Alito: Mr. Dearing, are the people in New York less safe now as a result of the enactment of the new city and state laws than they were before?

Dearing: No, I don't think so. We made a judgment, expressed by our police commissioner, that it was consistent with public safety to repeal the prior rule and to move forward without it.

Alito: Well, if they're not less safe, then what possible justification could there have been for the old rule, which you have abandoned?

Justice Samuel Alito (Yuri Gripas/UPI/Newscom)

I’ll answer for Mr. Dearing. These laws (like all gun control laws) were never intended to make the public safer. The “justification” was to make gun ownership in the city of New York so burdensome that most citizens would either be unable or unwilling to comply…forcing them to choose between breaking the law or abandoning their rights. This is nothing more than the City of New York doing what Ayn Rand warned against…using the law to make criminals of innocents in order to hold power over them.

“There’s no way to rule innocent men. The only power any government has is the power to crack down on criminals. Well, when there aren’t enough criminals, one makes them. One declares so many things to be a crime that it becomes impossible for men to live without breaking laws.” - Ayn Rand

Sure looks like tyranny to me. Here’s hoping the Supreme Court sees it the same way.