manufactured criminals

There is a very famous quote of Ayn Rand’s concerning laws, those who abide them, and those who break them… Today in my reading of Atlas Shrugged, I finally found the full quote, in its entirety:

Dr. Ferris smiled. “Don’t you suppose we knew it?” he said, his tone suggesting that he was letting his patent-leather hair down to impress a fellow criminal by a display of superior cunning. “We’ve waited a long time to get something on you. You honest men are such a problem and such a headache. But we knew you’d slip sooner or later – and this is just what we wanted.”

“You seem to be pleased about it.”

“Don’t I have good reason to be?”

“But, after all, I did break one of your laws.”

“Well, what do you think they’re for?”

Dr. Ferris did not notice the sudden look on Rearden’s face, the look of a man hit by the first vision of that which he had sought to see. Dr. Ferris was past the stage of seeing; he was intent upon delivering the last blows to an animal caught in a trap.

“Did you really think that we want those laws to be observed?” said Dr. Ferris. “We want them broken. You’d better get it straight that it’s not a bunch of boy scouts you’re up against – then you’ll know that this is not the age for beautiful gestures. We’re after power and we mean it. You fellows were pikers, but we know the real trick, and you’d better get wise to it. There’s no way to rule innocent men. The only power any government has is the power to crack down on criminals. Well, when there aren’t enough criminals, one makes them. One declares so many things to be a crime that it becomes impossible for men to live without breaking laws. Who wants a nation of law-abiding citizens? What’s there in that for anyone? But just pass the kind of laws that can neither be observed nor enforced nor objectively interpreted – and you create a nation of law-breakers – and then you cash in on guilt. Now that’s the system, Mr. Rearden, that’s the game, and once you understand it, you’ll be much easier to deal with.”

I find myself wondering, as I have many times before, if this is why anti-rights advocates so thoroughly reject the idea that concealed carry permit holders are more law-abiding than average… I wonder if the notion of law-abiding, conscientious, responsible, armed citizens is so concerning to some individuals that they would do everything possible to make criminals out of those citizens, in order for the government to better control them, and those individuals to “feel” safer. I wonder how the idea of people being able to live their lives without every aspect of those lives being controlled by someone else can be such a horror to certain individuals.
But, as one of our favorite anti-rights bigots came right out and said, some people simply do not trust armed, law-abiding citizens, so those citizens must simply walk into the proverbial gas chambers and give up their rights in order to satisfy those who do not trust them. Well, I hate to break it to the would-be totalitarians of our world, but my rights are not predicated on your trust – they exist whether you want them to or not, and I will exercise them, whether you want me to or not.
Ain’t freedom grand?