Prohibition Didn’t Work, So….
Remember when the 18th Amendment was passed and ratified? Yeah, me neither, but it had a profound effect on people.
The Eighteenth Amendment (Amendment XVIII) of the United States Constitution established the prohibition of “intoxicating liquors” in the United States. The amendment was proposed by Congress on December 18, 1917, and was ratified by the requisite number of states on January 16, 1919. – Wiki
Up until Prohibition went into effect, the government could tax alcohol of all kinds. When the 18th Amendment was finally ratified in 1919, that tax was lost. However, the 16th Amendment allowed the Federal government to inflict an income tax on the general public, thus rendering the need to tax liquor unnecessary. There was a way around the Prohibition amendment, however, and that was to label alcoholic beverages as ‘For Medicinal Purposes’. And Joe Kennedy, the patriarch of the Kennedy clan, took advantage of this loophole in the law. He imported whiskey labeled “For Medicinal Purposes”, which passed muster with the Coast Guard when the sloops that delivered it to Kennedy were inspected.
At the link, there is a discussion of Joe Kennedy’s alleged bootlegging whiskey during Prohibition, when it was legal to bring in booze as long as it was labeled “For Medicinal Purposes”. He disliked Meyer Lansky for grabbing one of his shipments of “medicinal” whiskey, but his rumored involvement with the Mob was mostly gossip. https://smugglersbootleggersandscofflaws.com/joe-kennedy-smuggler-bootlegger/
In fact, Joe Kennedy made the bulk of his money from shorting stocks and doing insider trading in the stock market, when insider trading was legal. It is no longer legal to use insider info, but he made his fortune that way, not by running bootleg whiskey.
Until the Depression began, Al Capone got around the illegality of selling booze by running speakeasies in Chicago. When the stock markets crashed, and people were literally floundering, he opened a soup kitchen on State Street (9th & State) that fed anyone up to three meals a day.
“120 000 meals are served by Capone Free Soup Kitchen” the Chicago Tribune headlined on December 1931. – article.
On Thanksgiving Day, in 1930, he boasted that he had fed up to 5,000 men, women and children a hearty beef stew.
https://rarehistoricalphotos.com/al-capones-soup-kitchen-great-depression-chicago-1931/
Was he a good guy for doing that, or was it just a PR stunt on his part, to get people to pressure the Chicago cops to leave him alone? We’ll never know, but probably both. The 18th Amendment was repealed in 1933, although some states still followed the principles of Prohibition.
In regard to the foaming frenzy by the Democrats to make another stab at banning guns and gun ownership by individuals, based on the fears and hysteria generated by the media over these random acts of violence, another prohibition amendment won’t work any better than the 18th, for several reasons. Australia’s gun ban was and continues to be ineffective. There are more people in Australia who own guns now than there were when that restriction went into effect. The Australian LEOs have more important things to do than knock on people’s doors and inspect the dwelling for guns. They gave up on that. The same thing is true in New Zealand; more people own guns now than did so before the gun ban law was passed. And in England, which is supposed to be gun-free? People go hunting with – what? – hunting licenses and guns in the fall, just as they fish in streams for salmon and have a cold one at the local.
It’s up to states to decide what they want to do. The right of citizens to bear arms is in the US Constitution, and as much as I know that some of these people styling themselves Democrats would like to overturn the entire Constitution, it’s still the Law of the Land.
So when Beto says ‘we’re coming for your guns, we’re gonna take ’em!!’ and other such nonsense, remember that A) Prohibition didn’t work at all in the 1920s and was repealed; and B) the Feds really do have better things to do than chase down every confounded gun in this country.
Category: Gun Grabbing Fascists
It’s one thing to pass a law. It’s a completely different thing to enforce it.
Not too concerned with gunz confiscation, you know, since the tragic boat accident, during the tornado, while crossing the quicksand bog in the wagon.
Molon Labe
Well, not just that tragic accident. Did I send you a sympathy card?
If you jump through hoops to get a license and a CCW, it does not necessarily mean that you actually OWN a gun or weapon of any kind.
How does it affect your HO Liability and property policy coverages, for example? That gets expensive. And the cost of buying a gun is not cheap, never mind the ammo, range time, and assorted other things. It gets to be an expensive proposition, probably more than anyone realizes.
So the background check and database stuff, while they haven’t been tested yet in court, creates a false assumption about people who have a license but do NOT necessarily own a weapon at all.
A gun may be expensive, but how expensive is not having a gun or not knowing how to use it when the time comes ???
A family plot in a cemetery is a lot more expensive than pretty much any firearm.
Unfortunately for us humans, the world is not a safe place for habitation and gun control only works for those that have the guns. Ask the German Jews, the Soviet Citizens that gave up their guns prior to Stalin, the Cambodian People and of late, the people of Venezuela who are fighting for scraps out of dumpsters behind places serving the chosen few that are part of any communist regime…
The Sutherland Springs Baptist Church shooting was stopped when a neighbor heard the noise, grabbed his AR-15 and shot the perp in the stomach.
There are numerous mass shootings stopped when someone pulls a gun every year…
My life was saved by a gun, twice and I’ll guarantee that I will support gun ownership in America because of that fact.
Acknowledged, but when you’re on a budget, the initial expense, plus the related expenses, have to be considered when making a purchase, that’s all.
NAS JAX in Clay County, Flor-ah-duh, will sell adult beverages all week long.* Neighboring St. John’s County is dry on Sunday. Humorous to see all the StJC license plates waiting for the 1000 beverage store opening time.
Bottom line- there are always ways to get around prohibited or restricted items.
*Local law does enforce an 1100 opening time on Sundays.
Not just guns, money and precious metals too. Many states have sales tax on US Mint coinage. Seriously, think about the mental yoga/twister you’d have to do to allow that. To what end? The book of face and other tech companies are trying to get a crypto currency together, multiply that by the banks running to the Fed to exercise Repos, the pending recession/depression/currency war…
I may be paranoid but if I was a tyrannical madman with a trillion dollar company that had data on anyone that ever signed on to the internets, what would I do?
First you control the information, then ruin the money/economic system, sew discord, take the power.
Every damn time there’s a prohibition someone gets rich.
Indeed the current debacle that we know as the drug war is a testament to the complete and utter uselessness of prohibition.
All prohibition does is create a profitable market circumstance for murderers and thieves. In the sad case of the drug war it’s also created billionaire criminals who’ve turned their nations into narco-states unable to divest themselves of the criminals who now operate rather freely inside their borders.
All it’s done for us in the United States is restrict our rights while militarizing our police and creating asset forfeiture without due process in a great many states prior to Timbs V Indiana.
No doubt the statists love them some drug war, but anyone who believes personal freedom matters should find the methods used to prosecute the drug war offensive to what is supposedly a freedom loving people.
Something I’ve found interesting is that the state of California has legalized retail sales of marijuana, but has somehow managed to screw it up. After implementing strict rules, regulations, taxes and licensing fees, the end result has been remarkably little interest in new sales outlet startups or customers seeking a legal source.
Since I don’t have a clear explanation, I’ll just offer this because it was a choice of either Gracie, or Bob Marley…
“Feed your head” indeed.
I never realized how bangable Grace was, but I’d bet that 1969 Yasgur’s farm stank never washed off.
That was a great version of “White Rabbit”!
Takes me back to high school.
Nobody is “banning guns because of random acts of violence”
They are banning guns they want citizens to be disarmed.
They plan to oppress the American people so badly that the people will shoot back.
Everything else is just smoke.
Turning your guns in to fight violence is like cutting your own nuts off because your neighbors have eight children!
But some of them could be mine, neighbor is a whore, par excellence.
It’s true with anything, whisper shortage in the wind and people will start hoarding like the end of the world. When I was a kid, Johnny Carson made a joke about a toilet paper shortage and people lost their minds! My own Dad got a box of 144 rolls of the cheapest 1 ply asswipe you have ever seen/felt – just because he had a buddy that ran a business. Ban something, say it’s low supply, it’s the same.