If you are doing nothing wrong.....

[76shuvlinoff]

Morning,

I am looking for responses to "if you are doing nothing wrong who cares if the "government" knows what you own.

I am so sick of seeing that comment.

- Mark

 

[Dave P]

My typical response is : "I have nothing to hide, but everything (esp privacy) to protect."

 

[Spats McGee]

If I'm doing nothing wrong, why does the government need to know what I own?

 

[berettaprofessor]

Because the government (any government) is incredibly greedy and will eventually tax everything you own in search of revenue. Things that you own purchased with money they already taxed.

I bought a 10 year old kid's size 4 wheeler from a private party, paid with cash, and had no idea the local government considered it taxable property until I got a tax notice from the county about valuation for it. Have no idea how the county knows about it either...don't think the seller knew more than my name and maybe phone number if he had caller id.

Mind you, they'd already collected 10 years of property tax from the previous owner and sales tax when it was sold the first time. No wonder there's no savings in this country.

 

[LNK]

Ask them if you can have all the account numbers of their bank accounts just to see. Also if they are ok with you looking around in their closets and basement, wallet etc. I mean if they aren't doing anything wrong. When they refuse, ask them why they think the .gov should do it....

 

[Mr Woody]

"if you are doing nothing wrong who cares if the "government" knows what you own."

If I am doing nothing wrong or illegal then it's wrong for the government to keep track of it. Period. It's not their business and will only lead to harm.

 

[Shanghai McCoy]

Because the government (any government) is incredibly greedy and will eventually tax everything you own in search of revenue. Things that you own purchased with money they already taxed.

I bought a 10 year old kid's size 4 wheeler from a private party, paid with cash, and had no idea the local government considered it taxable property until I got a tax notice from the county about valuation for it. Have no idea how the county knows about it either...don't think the seller knew more than my name and maybe phone number if he had caller id.

Mind you, they'd already collected 10 years of property tax from the previous owner and sales tax when it was sold the first time. No wonder there's no savings in this country.

Yep, "Free State" my a#$...:banghead:

Odd that the same ilk who want the government to keep out of their personal lives has no problem sending that same government to meddle into other people's lives and property.

 

[hso]

Point out that the Bill of Rights recognized this issue and the 4th, 5th and 14th Amendments specifically were written to guarantee that the government doesn't engage in the very excesses they're so blase' about.

Ask them if they would liked to be randomly stopped while driving and their vehicle searched. How about while they were just walking down the street or at the mall? What about having their texts and emails searched? What's the problem with that "if they've done nothing wrong"?

It is one thing to have your little sister go through your texts and emails and the rat you out to your parents and have to deal with their disapproval or "rules", but Mom and Dad don't make rules that put you in jail or levy heavy fines and Mom and Dad might just "forget about it", but the Fed never forgets. What about the fact that the Fed can decide what is illegal and act on it? What about the fact they can decide what was now isn't legal and act on it? This isn't paranoia considering this is exactly what has happened from time to time. States have decided your property isn't just your property any longer and because of that they can look into what you're doing with it and who you may or may not sell or give will it to. Whether that's granddad's pistol or grandmother's piano.

 

[huntsman]

My definition of wrong and .Gov's definition wrong may vary greatly and theirs changes with the party in power.

I don't believe it used to be that way or at least not to the extent it has become. IMHO this is very dangerous for one who wishes to embrace freedom, for those who need to be told what to do a heavy handed .gov my offer some form of comfort I guess.

 

[GAF]

The powers that be have decided that everyone is doing something wrong. You just haven't been caught yet.

 

[Jim Watson]

I fear GAF has it.
There are so many laws on the books, not to mention case law where the judge told you what the law really meant, and regulations written by faceless bureaucrats, that just about everybody has done something wrong.
Give them a chance and they will find it.

 

[deadin]

The powers that be have decided that everyone is doing something wrong. You just haven't been caught yet.

It's not just the "powers that be" that have this attitude. I see the same from a lot of people on gun boards that want to equate breaking the speed limit (which I'm sure we all have at one time or other) with carrying concealed in off-limits places or without a permit.
Personally, I don't give a rip as long as the offender is willing to pay the price if caught and not whimper and cry about "oppressive" laws.

 

[MagnunJoe]

Look at Hawaii's new gun owner data base. If tomorrow u do something that the govt. deems wrong or if u go see a shrink for whatever reason the govt. can take away your guns an that's it. U R only as good as the govt. says u r.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

 

[svtruth]

Just Turn It Around

If the government is doing nothing wrong, why is it so hard to find out?

 

[aka108]

IL bet the govt knows more about you than you know about yourself. I am totally against the idea of registering all your fireams with govt agency. But 10 to 1 says the fact that you own fireams is known. You purchase a firearm, buy ammo, get on a gun forum, by gun stuff on the net, subscribe to a gun or hunting magazine. All this stuff is in data bases and any doofy programmer can consolidate this info and bingo. You're caught.

 

[MedWheeler]

Post 9 for the win.

The government has a history of redefinition of commonly-recognized terms.

What isn't "wrong" today may well be tomorrow.

 

[MedWheeler]

svtruth writes:

Just Turn It Around
If the government is doing nothing wrong, why is it so hard to find out?

Deflection from the question at hand is rarely a sound, debate-winning strategy.

 

[danez71]

Ask them if they would liked to be randomly stopped while driving and their vehicle searched. How about while they were just walking down the street or at the mall? What about having their texts and emails searched? What's the problem with that "if they've done nothing wrong"?

I'll often say something like that too.

My experience with a comment like that is their reply will be something along the lines of 'Oh c'mon, Were not talk about random searches or the 4th A'


Of which I'll reply with something like,

'Oh, so you just want to pick and choose which Amendments we should have.

We're talking about the Govt monitoring/recording one of your protected Constitutional Rights; And you're OK with that because you're not doing anything wrong.

So lets just use that logic and apply it to other Rights.

Are you OK with having the Govt doing the same with your phone calls? How about what goes on in your bedroom? You're not doing anything wrong...correct?


Ohhh you say, 'People should not be allowed to have more than 50 rounds of ammo'.

Do you want to register your religion and have them monitor how many times you go to church? Go too often, and you could be a fanatic. Not go enough and you're with out morals and values.'

 

[Zaydok Allen]

Compliance with the law should not open a person up to a violation of their privacy.

 

[AlexanderA]

The context is that gun-banners want to take your guns -- all of your guns. Having complete information on what you own is just an intermediate step.

 

[buck460XVR]

Look at Hawaii's new gun owner data base. If tomorrow u do something that the govt. deems wrong or if u go see a shrink for whatever reason the govt. can take away your guns an that's it. U R only as good as the govt. says u r.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

Hawaii is touted as one the most, if not the most, Liberal state in the Union. It also is one of the most diverse, racially and culturally. Most folks that have a residence there have previously lived somewhere else, or have another residence in another country. Many come from cultures that were not gun friendly to start with and they brought those thoughts and ideals with them. Most of them were only able to move to Hawaii because they were wealthy and lived an affluent lifestyle unlike the majority of others in their country of origin. Guns, for the most part, were not a part of that lifestyle There is in fact, strong support for Hawaiian sovereignty, as many of the ideals there do not align with those on the mainland. They claim they did not have the ideals of mainland Americans, but had them forced upon them along with U.S. Military occupation back in the 1890s. Thus, the idea that they would rape the 2nd Amendment and the ideals of our founding fathers is easy to understand.

 

[Jackal]

My response is usually "Ok, if your privacy isnt important to you, why does your house have curtains and what are you hiding behind them?"

 

[Deaf Smith]

If you are doing nothing wrong.....

Then the government has no reason to spy on you. No reason to interfere with you. No reason to know a thing about what you are doing.

If you are doing nothing wrong..... THEY CAN SOD OFF.

And if privacy is not important... where are all of Hillary's emails?

Deaf

 

[dust_101]

If 'you' are doing nothing wrong then you have no problem making all your internet searches, emails, social media posts, photos, etc available for public scrutiny, right?

Basically I just say, leave me alone and I/they will leave you alone, we all follow the golden rule and things will be fine.

 

[Carl N. Brown]

"If you are doing nothing wrong who cares if the "government" knows what you own?" is a close tie with "What have you got to hide?" as peeve off-ing question.

Segues into if I don't blindly trust or obey the government, maybe I should be under government scrutiny. I remember the 1924-1975 Virginia Racial Integrity Act, read about the Tuskegee Syphilis Experiment, learned about the Nisei internment camps in the film Hell to Eternity: the Guy Gabaldon Story, lived through a dry county 1953-1968 local option prohibition. And mom and dad took me to the drive-in in the 1950s to see 1984 so I grew up not trusting big gov't especially demands of blind submission.

"Reasonable regulation" to prohibitionist mentalities alway ends up as close to prohibition as possible and their promise of great benefits at minor inconvenience is the camel's nose under the tent's edge.

In 1967 New York City passed a long gun (rifle and shotgun) registration law at a nominal fee of $3.

Long gun owners were promised that any increase in costs of administring the law would come out of general public safety funds and the fee would never go over the $3. By year 2000, the registration fee was $55, paid by the registered owner.

When NYC decided to implement its own Assault Weapon Ban in 1991, owners of registered semi-auto military rifles on the ban list were told to show proof the guns had been (a) moved or legally sold and were outside NYC, (b) surrendered to the NYPD, or (c) deactivated.

Currently, the Rifle/Shotgun fees include $89.75 for fingerprinting alone. But there is no longer a charge for registering rifle or shotguns not even $3. You do have to have a permit and the permit fee is $140 + $89.75 FBI fingerprint fee or total of $229.75.

http://www.nyc.gov/html/nypd/html/firearms_licensing/rifle_licensing_information.shtml