Safety Or Freedom Should We Have To Choose?

Fred Ost

Benjamin Franklin once said "Any society that would give up a little liberty to gain a little security will deserve neither and lose both."

Fear, desire for convenience, and ignorance are the leading causes of United States citizens surrendering their rights, it's not all government corruption and tyranny like some people would like to believe. Why would the government have to employ deception or trickery when people are ready to line up and hand over their rights and privacy for the very freedom and security they are already entitled to? The necessary laws to protect our society have been in place long before September Eleventh, but due to a lack of communication between various agencies and overall poor handling of resources we were the victims of a terrible terrorist attack. Years later who is continuing to pay for those mistakes? We are, the citizens of and travelers through, the United States.

Although most people are living life as they normally would have prior to the September Eleventh terrorist attacks, there is an underlying fear or concern that flows constantly yet for the most part un-noticed through the back of our
minds like the operating system that runs your computer. This same fear is being used by the government on a daily basis to help build a sales pitch that makes handing over your rights to allegedly help provide the safety you were already guaranteed by the constitution seem like the patriotic thing to do. Am I trying to state that law enforcement methods should not evolve to keep pace with technology? Absolutely not, law enforcement needs to keep pace now more than ever. I am saying that our freedoms and privacy should not bear the cost of their evolution.

Example, how many people are aware that section 215 of the Patriot Act allows the government secret access to your financial, library records, video rental records, travel info, medical info and much more? All the while not being part of the Freedom of Information Act, so you could not even know to whom or when they are doing it. Also they do not need to go through all the usual legal warrant obtaining procedures, that are guaranteed to the common criminal. So they are in effect doing away with the need for warrants if you are suspected of terrorist activity.

Convenience for freedom is a tradeoff that is growing in popularity every day, and with the ongoing National ID effort handing over your freedom and privacy is going to be sold to you infomercial style with hook after hook and "call to action" phrases in abundance. But in this ad campaign instead of those call to action phrases being "buy now", or "call today" they are going to refer to freedom, patriotism, and increasing the government's ability to keep you safe. The end result will be that the average United States citizen who is too busy with their own lives already to really read the fine print and see what is going on is going to hand over their rights once again. And then when you have accepted your shiny new National ID/Drivers License (which is going to also be more money coming out of your pocket) the government will then do the follow up sale and show you the benefits of being able to use your National ID for everything for example:

• Use It As A Drivers License


• Use It To Supply Emergency Medical Information


• Use It As A Credit Card


• Use It As A Library Card (so your reading habits can be monitored)


• Use It To Pay Tolls
  
  (after the eventual government purchase and centralization of
  
  EZPASS type services to help the government keep you safe
  
  on the road through improved management of the National Highway Network)


• Use It To Buy Gas


• Use It To Rent Videos (so those titles can be properly recorded
  
  to monitor your viewing habits for patterns of potential for wrong doing)


• Use It As A Firearms Purchasing ID (ha ha like you'll be allowed to have
  
  
  those anymore, for firearms will have been deemed unsafe by the people who
  
  
  you trusted enough to hand your rights over to in order to help protect you).

All that convenience for just giving the government just a little of your personal information, how can you pass up that deal? Act now while supplies last, get yours today! I think you get the picture by now. That concludes the fear and desire for convenience examples. I will use the ever-popular topic of gun control to sum up my examples of rights surrendered through ignorance. I wish I could say that it was totally the government taking advantage of peoples ignorance to pass the gun laws that they do, however that is not the case. This falls under the "give 'em enough rope and they'll hang themselves" realm.

The following quote from John Kerry is an excerpt from "Remarks by President Bush and Senator Kerry in the Third 2004 Presidential Debate Part II, Tempe,AZ 10/14/2004:

"I know something about prosecuting. And most of the law enforcement agencies in America wanted that assault weapons ban. They don't want to go into a drug bust and be facing an AK-47.

I was hunting in Iowa last year with the sheriff from one of the counties there and he pointed to a house in back of us and said, see that house over there? We just did a drug bust a week earlier, and the guy we arrested had an AK-47 lying on the bed right beside him.

Because of the President's decision today, law enforcement officers will walk into a place that will be more dangerous. Terrorists can now come into America and go to a gun show, and without even a background check, buy an assault weapon today. And that's what Osama bin Laden's handbook said -- because we captured it in Afghanistan and it encouraged them to do it."

Now let's take it from the top, danger is a part of the law enforcement business, if you have not committed yourself to being comfortable with that reality, then it is time for a career change. This is the very same law enforcement business in which the growing trend, is to staff these agencies almost exclusively with ex military or college students both of which very used to obeying a government body rule, living a structured lifestyle and not doing a lot of thinking outside
the box, or decision making based in life experience. There are plenty of street-smart people who would make great law enforcement personnel but because they have not been conditioned, by school or the military to conform and obey they are now fast becoming unqualified candidates. Anybody seeing a "Sylvester Stallone /John Spartan/ Demolition Man" type pattern here?

In that same quote did you notice anything about whether that AK-47 was a legally purchased and registered gun? No you didn't because this is information that the government feels you do not need, this enable them to plant yet another fear seed, and again take advantage of your ignorance. When I say "ignorance" I am not always referring to stupidity, I also mean lack of information. The Freedom Of Information Act allows us to find the answers to questions like "Was that AK-47 a legally purchased and registered gun?" If you are willing to jump through enough hoops and cut through enough red tape to get to that information. Even if you were willing to run the gamut to find those answers, you more than likely are doing it while trying to advance your career, support and enjoy time with your family and get your eight hours of sleep, so by the time you get to those answers the laws have been passed. Coincidence?

Now turn your attention to the paragraph about the gun shows. I have never been to one, nor do I currently own a firearm, but am I to be led to believe, that you can purchase an assault rifle or any other rifle with maybe the exception of a black powder flintlock, at a gun show, or anywhere else for that matter with no identification whatsoever. If this were truly the case there would be a conga line of drug dealers and terrorists around the block from every gun show in
the United States with suitcases full of cash, arming themselves to the teeth.

This leaves me with two questions, where did they get the identification if it was not false? And why were the gun show personnel, who are licensed by the government to sell these weapons, not trained to spot a potential fake id? (if the id's were fake and not another clerical error combined with a botched background check where all the involved agencies did not have their ducks in a row).

The gun law supporters say it's very easy to get a gun, this is absolutely true, if you do not obey the law. Cash talks on the street, and the street listens. However it is not as easy to get a gun if you go through the proper channels, fill out all the correct paperwork, provide proper identification (and references in some cases) and wait for your documents entitling you to purchase your firearms legally. The people that go through the trouble to purchase their firearms this way are the ones being punished with these laws, not the criminals.

There are two methods that would stop illegal gun traffic in its tracks, A:make possession of an illegally obtained firearm a capital offense covered by the death penalty (after all, gun law supporters say the only purpose certain
weapons have is to kill, so that must be their intent) and B: make possession of an illegally obtained firearm punishable by a mandatory life sentence in prison. Law enforcement and all the gun law supporters could then breathe a sigh of relief and turn their attention back to the real criminals, but we know that those laws will never get passed.

Who can honestly object to those laws that is not a criminal? You can't just accidentally buy a gun, they don't fall off the shelves in the supermarket into your shopping cart, and if a friend left it at your house, or in your car they would have no trouble going to the police station to admit their error, since they of course purchased their firearms legally. It is a win win set of laws as far as I am concerned.

Unless of course you throw in the corrupt cop scenario, where the officer plants the firearm in your possession, but that would not be happening either because we have police, policing the police to protect us from this sort of corruption right? Unfortunately that scenario alone will probably keep those laws from getting passed. Now everyone loses, the police, the citizens, the legal gun enthusiasts, the victims of violent crimes committed with illegally obtained firearms, but not the criminals. So who is truly to blame? Personally I am all for the strictest punishments for illegally obtained firearms, because I have neither the intent or desire to illegally obtain a firearm, it's just that simple. I'm not a big pro-gun person but I deeply cherish my right to have one, and like the old saying goes "If guns are outlawed, only outlaws will have guns."

So exists the axis of voluntary freedom surrender fear, desire for convenience, and ignorance. The founding fathers fought to get us our rights and freedoms as United States citizens but it is up to us, "we the people" to maintain that freedom. Help the groups that fight for your freedom every day by visiting them and doing what you can to help your future. The Electronic Frontier Foundation , The League of Conservation Voters and The American Civil Liberties Union.

About the Author

Fred Ost is a writer, web designer and aspiring indie movie maker. He is a founder of, and staff writer at the free independent artits community at
Fred Ost is a writer, web designer and aspiring indie movie maker. He is a
founder of, and staff writer at the free independent artits community at http://www.scptv.net.