A mature gentleman in his 50's is out dining one evening. He sees a very attractive lady in her early 20's dining alone & wanders over to her table. He introduces himself & asks her pardon for the bluntness of his inquiry, but wonders if she would be willing to sleep with him if he offered her the sum of $250,000. Her eyes grew bright & she said very enthusiastically "Yes; I would". He then asks her if she's sleep with him for $25. She becomes indignant & says quite loudly, "What kind of girl do you think I am?" the gentleman looks at her calmly & says in an even tone, "Ma'am, we've already established that. Now we're merely bartering".
Given the logic of the above very old joke I just cannot get worked up over the bill in Nevada that seeks double the concealed permit fees.
The NRA says in its press release linked above that the doubling of fees would:
"...create an environment where Nevada's most financially vulnerable, such as single mothers and fathers, or seniors on a fixed income cannot afford the most basic right of self-defense." (emphasis mine)
The mistake was in allowing any fee to be charged for the exercise of a Right. Sure it can be argued that a permit system was the only way to get any concealed carry legalized in most places but you can't turn around & get indignantly self-righteous (bad puns always intentional) because they're increasing the fee. Not that I want to see the fee increased but those are the hazards of treating a Right as a privilege. Whether it's $1 or $1,000 it's just bartering because it was already established what the permitting system was. & it wasn't a Right. (Insert joke about 2 wrongs not making a Right here.)
Posted by Publicola at February 9, 2007 06:48 AM | TrackBack