You’re actually surprised?

(Via SurvivalBlog)

Karl Denninger seems surprised at the following:

Contemplate the entire “bump stock” thing folks.  These were sold as legal accessories for years.  Millions of dollars changed hands for them, people were employed and now they’re in the hands of individuals.  A formal legal ruling was issued by the BATFE that these were legal accessories; the manufacturers and buyers didn’t assume, they asked for and obtained a written declaration that these devices not only complied with the law they didn’t require any sort of labeling, serialization or other form of control (such as a background check) as legally they were nothing more than a piece of plastic.

The government is, of course, entitled to be wrong and repair that error which is what they’re claiming they’re doing now.  What it’s not entitled to do, however, is turn you into a felon if you don’t destroy or turn over a thing you were explicitly told, in writing, was legal and nothing more-nefarious or subject to regulation than a plastic box.  At absolute minimum the government is required (under the 5th Amendment) to pay you for the current fair market value of that device plus all your costs (e.g. sales tax) associated with same and to pay the manufacturers the imputed value of their facility, inventory and forward foregone earnings (and employee salaries) that would have been generated but for their error.  They could also ban the things on a forward basis (limiting any 5th Amendment claim of “taking” to the manufacturers) and leave alone anyone who already owns one.

Instead they claim to be able to retroactively declare anyone who has one of these a felon and then shoot them if they refuse to either turn them over or report to prison for 10 years after having given written confirmation that the device in question is lawful to own, possess, use and sell without any permit whatsoever.

This is a flatly and outrageously unconstitutional act; it is in fact a declaration of war by our government against the people of the United States as it stands as a claim that the US Government will not honor the bounds of the Constitution — now or ever in the future.  This “decision” will not and does not limit itself to “bump stocks” which I personally find worthless and thus don’t own any of.

If left to stand as proposed utterly no property that has been formally confirmed in writing as legal, say much less any lesser-protected form of property that someone believes is legal without a formal, written declaration, is safe from forcible confiscation under threat of death anywhere, ever, in the United States ever again.

This in fact has nothing to do with guns specifically; rather it is a clear statement that the United States Federal Government, our alleged President and the “Just-US” department can and will declare anything it likes on a retroactive basis to likes to be against the law and force you to surrender it without compensation, go to prison or die.

Folks, it isn’t like this is something new. The Federal Government has done exactly this before, and in the realm of firearms. They will do it again, if not with bump stocks, with some other firearms accessory. I can’t recall an incident, but I’m sure they’ve done it in non-firearms areas as well. Governments want to control everything and everyone, “for their own good”, not to mention the safety of the public and the stability of the government.

THIS IS WHAT ALL GOVERNMENTS EVENTUALLY DO WHEN LEFT UNCHECKED.

We The People have let our government go unchecked for far too long. In fact, we’ve probably let it go so long that, like a garden that has suffered decades of mistreatment and neglect, it’s simply better to rip it all out and start over. Of course, there is much more danger in that approach with government than with a garden, but we’ve tried for most of my lifetime to “fix” government, and every fix has made things worse over time.

We are facing a time when our choices will be so constrained that they will all be equally bad, all equally high risk. I suppose it’s possible that we are already there, but the optimist in me hopes not. But even if we aren’t there now, we had best prepare for that time. It may arrive sooner and more suddenly than we expect.