Me, The Egoist

Frequently you hear phrases like “they did the right thing for the wrong reason”, or the reverse, “they did the wrong the for the right reason”. Usually this is done to blast somebody who has done something great (the first instance), or to excuse something done that was absolutely horrible (the second case). Usually this is used by apologeticists of some cause to defend that they support without any further reasoning. Nonetheless, it does happen on occasion.

Some time ago, the US state of Minnesota, 50 miles south of me as I write this, give or take, passed a law making it easier to obtain a permit for the concealed carry of firearms. However, this was attached to a Department of Natural Resources bill, which is arguably unconstitutional according to the Minnesota state constitution which requires “clean bills”. This bill has been overturned (via Alphecca).
Alphecca has made the arguement that this could fall under the category of an ‘activist’ judge.

I cannot comment on the motivations of the judge in question. As much as I support the idea of easy access to concealed carriage of weapons, I think that this ruling was appropriate. Why, you might ask? Because I firmly support the idea of clean legislation.

One of the ways that government waste occurs are through omnibus bills, which contain many unrelated or semi-related items. Since the main focus of the bill is important (say defense spending), little extras, like statue repair, will ilkely be unnoticed and ignored. There is also the term ‘Chrismas Tree’ bill, which is essentially a piece of legislation that is certain to pass so everybody hangs little extras on it as ammendments. Essentially a special purpiose bill becomes more and more general as more ‘little’ items ar tacked on for pet projects.

In this case, the wrong thing was done for the right reason. Firearms should be easy to access for law-abiding adults. This is one of the reasons that I am looking to move from Canada to the US. Self defense in Canada requires justification. After all, if you were carrying a weapon, any weapon, it can be considered evidence of you anticipating any encounter which does occur, and thus you should have been able to avoid it. Ugh. But I digress. However, this legislation was passed in violation of the Minnesota constitution, and common sense. In short, the wrong thing was done for the right reason. If all legislatures passed clean legislation I think we might all be better off.

I hearby call upon the Minnesota State Legislature to pass the exact same legislation through as a ‘clean’ bill, so that the system which worked so well will continue to do so.