I’ve been noticing an increase in the “Thought Police” of late. You may not have even noticed this. These people have been weaving their way into our legislative agendas for years. I’m not just talking about the ACLU either. The Supreme Court even has a hand in this idiocy.
The latest push has been in the area of Hate Crime Legislation. On the surface, these laws may sound like a good idea. If you are Jewish, for instance, and some a Anti-Semite decides to beat the crap out of you with a Louisville Slugger (it’s playoff season, I’m thinking baseball – Go Angels!), I would see how increasing the possible penalty to that individual would make you feel better (okay, maybe not feel better, but you know what I mean).
The current laws permit FEDERAL prosecution under the hate statutes for crimes committed against a person based on their race, color, religion or national origin (18 U.S.C. § 245). The current legislation is trying to add gender, sexual orientation, gender identity and disability to the list. Oh! They also want to remove a prerequisite that the victim be engaging in a federally protected activity. So, let us say that some individual is attacked while stealing your car. You go after him and rearrange his facial structure (you know you shouldn’t, but you can’t shoot him either). He is from some race, color, sexual orientation or whatever that is different than your own. He claims that the beating he took from you was based on this difference. You can get charged with a hate crime.
This may sound pretty absurd except that the Federal Government (in all their heavenly wisdom) requires the United States Sentencing Commission to increase the penalties for hate crimes. WTF!?! Hate crimes? A guy comes to my house with the intent to rob me and do unthinkable things to my wife. He is the same race, religion and sexual orientation that I am. Even his political affiliation is the same as me (although he probably isn’t an NRA member). He gets charged with breaking and entering and assault a deadly weapon. After he recovers from his GSW and subsequent facial lacerations (the wife had heals on), he gets sentenced to 10 years in state prison.
Now, he does this to my house because I’m a (pick one): Muslim, Catholic, Jew; White, Black, Asian… whatever, he gets to spend his 15 years in Federal custody and I still go on about my day. Do I really care why he decided to commit this crime? Wouldn’t I rather he just not committed it? It reminds me of charging someone with a weapons violation after they’ve committed 13 homicides during a home invasion.
The simple fact of the matter is that we have enough laws. It would be nice if the laws we’ve had for going on 200 years (probably longer) were enforced. Making it illegal to carry a concealed handgun will NOT deter someone from committing a crime with said handgun. Do you think the misdemeanor handgun charge will make the soon to be murderer sit back and say, “Wow, I better not get caught with this handgun.”? Please.
Let us get back to my first point here. These Hate Crime Statutes are trying to enforce our reasoning behind some crime. They are claiming that some enmity between two people or groups can be legislated. How absolutely frigging stupid is that? You can not stop people from thinking or feeling some way. You can only curtail their actions, or punish them when they do something unlawful.
Even our Supreme Court has its head firmly implanted. According to Chief Justice Rehnquist, “This conduct is thought to inflict greater individual and societal harm… bias-motivated crimes are more likely to provoke retaliatory crimes, inflict distinct emotional harms on their victims, and incite community unrest.” This is the same backward thinking that gave us Affirmative Action. Both of these laws are Unconstitutional because they afford preferential treatment to certain individuals over others. Doesn’t anyone bother to sit back and look at the simple reasoning behind or laws and just say, “Enough!”?? I’m sorry to say, I don’t think so. I’m going to the range and exercise my Second Amendment Rights. Have a great November and keep those comments coming.
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