Since When Do Laws Define Our Rights?

“While the law may eventually be found unjust and overturned, today it is the law. Second Amendment Organization is a staunch advocate of Gun Rights, but those rights are defined by our laws.“

What you’re reading isn’t satire, it’s an actual quote from Rob Pincus and the Second Amendment Organization about New Jersey’s magazine ban that went into effect two days ago. The quote by itself is shocking, as it displays an incredible ignorance of how individual rights are supposed to work while it advocates for embracing the warm blanket of statism. The article goes on to say that “Sneakily keeping Jews in your home and hoping you never get caught is not Civil Disobedience, it’s just being a criminal.” Oh wait no, I’m sorry, it said “magazines over 10 rounds” not Jews. But that’s the problem right there, because Rob Pincus and the Second Amendment Organization completly misunderstand what “civil disobedience” is, and seek to define it in their own terms.

By their logic, members of the French and German resistance who hid Jews in their houses during WW2 weren’t heroes, they were just “being criminals.” Christians in Soviet Russia hiding Bibles and other banned books weren’t standing up for their faith, they were just “being criminals.” Americans who hid stockpiles of weapons from the British weren’t brave freedom fighters, they were just “being criminals.”

In the eyes of the Second Amendment Organization and Rob Pincus, the only civil disobedience that matters apparently must be visible to the world. I guess they skipped quite a few days in history class to arrive at that conclusion.

Here is the real issue – whether or not a person chooses to follow New Jersey’s new law is entirely up to that person, and they shouldn’t let someone like Rob or the Second Amendment Organization make that choice for them. In the Air Force we have a saying: do what your stripes can handle. I’m sure our military readers will understand what I mean by that immediately, but for non-mil, it means that you should take whatever risk you think you can bear the consequences of. In the New Jersey situation, the consequences of being caught with a 10+ capacity magazine are quite severe potentially, and could result in becoming a convicted felon. It’s not my place as a writer, living a comfy life in Florida, to decide what is right for you to do.

In a perfect world, I would like to see zero compliance – no high capacity magazines are turned in. Not a single person. Now that would be a mass act of civil disobedience that would be awesome to see, but according to the Second Amendment Organization, wouldn’t actually count as civil disobedience. But that’s just what I would like to see, and I recognize that’s not feasible for everyone. Some people are uncomfortable with the potential risk that would entail.

I can’t say what’s right or wrong for you. What I can say is that if you choose to hold on to your magazines in the face of this blatantly unconstitutional law, that you are absolutely engaging in an act of civil disobedience. Oh, and that Rob Pincus and the Second Amendment Organization can go pound sand.