#rsrh Mayor Michael McGinn attempts to keep weapons from Occupy Seattle.

By the way: do you marvel at that sentence? Because I marvel at that sentence.

Fairly clearly due to expected activities in Seattle from the Occupiers/Black Bloc lunatics, this fine May Day.

Yes.  Let’s ban everything.  And… how did it work?  About as well as you’d expect:

Warnings issued by the City of Seattle and Mayor Mike McGinn proved at least partially accurate today, as a number of the city’s May Day demonstrations took on violent and destructive elements. Various reports indicate protesters dressed in black used large sticks and pipes to break windows and wreak havoc, while others disrupted traffic, sprayed graffiti and fired paintball guns.

Turns out that people who literally do not respect the rule of law* have absolutely no interest in respecting a temporary ban on weapons.  When you think about it, this kind of makes sense: law-abiding citizens will follow laws that aren’t personally beneficial to them, while criminals won’t feel the obligation.  So, put it another way: if  you make sure that – use ‘guns’ as a shorthand – are outlawed, then only those who are – well, ‘outlaws’ covers both criminals and those who reject the very nature of law – will end up having guns.

Hey, that’s kind of catchy.  Needs to be tightened up a bit, though.

(H/T: @chuck_dizzle)

Moe Lane

PS: The answer’s actually simple: if you think that the group applying to march is going to ignore a no-weapons rule and deliberately engage in property damage, do not let them march.  Because the precise language is “freedom to peacefully assemble,” and the Founders put it that way for a reason.

*Yes, I know what Alan Moore said about anarchists and the law in the original V for Vendetta comic.  Alan Moore says a lot of things, some of which are very clever, some of which are very British – and some of which are very stupid.  It’s part of his charm.