The US government has just blocked a Texas-based company from distributing details online of how to make a plastic gun using a 3-D printer. The ban, by the State Department citing international arms control law, comes just days after the first such gun was successfully fired. Defense Distributed, the company that made the prototype, stated on Twitter that its project had "gone dark" at the instigation of the government.
The company is run by Cody Wilson, a 25-year-old University of Texas law student who has said the idea for freely distributing details about how to produce the guns online was inspired by 19th century anarchist writing. Wilson argues everyone should have access to guns. Wilson unsuccessfully applied for a federal firearms license from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms and has said he wants to create the gun legally. On Sunday, New York senator Charles Schumer said that legislation should be created to prevent people from making 3D printed guns.
So who owns an Individual’s ideas? If we create a new invention whether a 3D printed gun or a transporter to move equipment around the world shouldn’t we free to market and sell (or give away) our invention to those who need it? Or rather, are our ideas properties of the State? Are we prisoners in our own country? Is everything we create, everything we do, everything we write or express Government property? Are we forbidden from trading with anyone outside of the United States without approval of the Government? Are we forbidden to travel as free people to whatever place we desire to go without approval? Can we no longer exchange ideas without approval of Government?
According to a Government spokesperson, the answer to these questions is, "Yes - you are Property of the State. You may have mistakenly been led to believe, through misreading of classical liberal authors, that there is someone called an Individual who has Rights which precede the State. Someone who is free to make their own decisions about how they live their Life and how they interface with other individuals. Someone who is free to use their property as they desire to achieve their own ends. Someone whose dreams inspire them to create something never before achieved and as a result creates a better world for everyone. You may also have been misled into believing that this mythical Individual has Freedom - that is the ability to reject abusive and immoral actions of the State. We are sorry you have been deceived. There is only one absolute Power and that is Government. Only Government can provide the Individual the support and guidance needed for them to fulfill their role in Society. The Individual can only find true Liberty in service to Society as prescribed by the laws and edicts of Government. Individualism is a threat to a better world, a threat to a future without hunger, pain, grief and strife. The Individual will only find true happiness when they release all ideas of any achievement or happiness outside the greater goals of Society and the State are impossible."
Although this is not a direct quote, it is the summary of over 100 years of Progressive and Socialistic political philosophy. One hundred years of planned, methodical destruction of free markets, Individual Rights and Limited Government in order to create the massively oppressive State we have today. A State which tracks every financial transaction, every email and phone call, mandates every aspect of our Lives to include where we are allowed to travel, how much of our income we may keep and with whom and what we may trade. This is totalitarianism and it cannot be allowed to stand.
If you believe this is an over-statement, the following is a quote from Cicero in 54 B.C. regarding the injustices of the Roman government. The People of Rome were not able to change their Government and they paid the price.
"We are taxed in our bread and our wine, in our incomes and our investments, on our land and on our property not only for base creatures who do not deserve the name of men, but for foreign nations, complaisant nations who will bow to us and accept our largesse and promise us to assist in the keeping of the peace - these mendicant nations who will destroy us when we show a moment of weakness or our treasury is bare, and surely it is becoming bare! We are taxed to maintain legions on their soil, in the name of law and order and the Pax Romana, a document which will fall into dust when it pleases our allies and our vassals. We keep them in precarious balance only with our gold. Is the heartblood of our nation worth these? Were they bound to us with ties of love, they would not ask our gold. They take our very flesh, and they hate and despise us. And who shall say we are worthy of more? ... When a government becomes powerful it is destructive, extravagant and violent; it is an usurer which takes bread from innocent mouths and deprives honorable men of their substance, for votes with which to perpetuate itself."
-- Cicero
Will we follow the Romans or find a way to free ourselves from our Government oppressors?
It is time for the 2nd American Revolution.