Alabama

Of Arms and the Law brings us the story of Jake Tapper, an ABC news reporter charged with "handling" firearms issues.  But with the news media claiming so hard to be unbiased, it's interesting that they hired him without disclosing his past work history... including as a staffer for Handgun Control, Inc.

School officials suspended two Oak Mountain Middle School students for one day for having toy guns on a school bus. A bus driver called the Shelby County Sheriff's Department when she saw the two boys on the bus ahead of her with what she thought was a real gun. School officials say the toy guns were taken to school as part of a literature project on "Treasure Island."

The Alabama Driver's License [Alabama DL] contains a photo (digitally stored in state records), holograms and other anti-counterfeiting features, and a bar code on the back containing license information. The Ala. Dept. of Public Safety (the state agency responsible for issuing driver's licenses) tried to implement a rule requiring driver's to give their fingerprints back in 1997, but public outcry at the time scotched that plan. However, at this time they did add the bar code to the back--a feature that Alabama DL's had previously lacked.

Of course, the government gave assurances at the time that the only people scanning your license would be the police, and they could check your info anyway--this would just be a time saver. No merchant would ever scan your license. Well, it's six years later, and guess what!

Welcome to life in reality. Once the information is there, it will be used.

Butch and Sherry Herren said they moved to Ashville about two years ago to get ready for a quiet retirement that is still a few years away. But the hunting and shooting that they say goes on near their home has given them second thoughts.

Peace and quiet is all well and good, but you don't move in and start telling the people who were there before you how to live their lives.

Ashville is a city of about 2,400 people. In places, the city limits extend into fields and wooded areas where many people expect to be able to hunt dove, deer and other game on their own property

Phillip Anthony, a former Ashville mayor and a retired game warden, said people's rights to hunt and shoot on their property should be protected.

"People move out there and buy five, 10, 15 or 20 acres and think they control the 300 or 400 around them," Anthony said. "They do not. And they need to be convinced that they do not."

This is the fundamental problem with large, central government. Different rules apply to different places, and a single large government simply can't deal with that.