A Modest Proposal: Sensible Regulation of Books

Gary Marbut © 2010 (with thanks to Jonathan Swift)
Owner, Montana Publishing

USA – -(AmmoLand.com)- It is common knowledge that books, and many other publications, may foster bad behavior, even criminal behavior, and wrong beliefs. Some books may stimulate hostility towards a helpful government. Others may actually enable criminal activity. Some books may expose to public view information about government activity better kept confidential.

People have been injured and killed because of inflammatory or incorrect information in books or other publications. There are even books or publications about jihad and making atomic weapons. Then, there are books that inspire wrong thinking, such as books disclaiming man-caused global warming or critical of helpful public officials.

Of course, there are certainly responsible publishers, purveyors, and buyers of books along with the irresponsible players.

Therefore, a system must be devised to help ensure that books and other publications are only published, distributed and sold by those responsible persons, and only purchased by people without a criminal history, a history suggesting that they would read the wrong sort of books or might even misuse the right kind of books.

Such a system is obvious. The federal government must license publishers, distributors, and sellers of books. Every book published must be individually identifiable, must be traceable to its point of sale and to the purchaser. Every purchaser must undergo a simple and noninvasive criminal record check to make sure he or she is not prohibited because of a criminal record from possessing and thereby misusing books. It is only sensible that people who are unstable or have been adjudicated as mentally incompetent should not be allowed to own books.

Permitted individuals would still be allowed to trade books with others, or even occasionally sell books, as long as they do not get into the “business” of selling books as a vocation. To do otherwise would violate their individual constitutional rights. Those who are trafficking in high volumes of used books, however, must be licensed just as the sellers of new books, and must be required to validate their buyers.

It is also apparent that such restrictions would not accomplish their intended purpose if the restrictions did not also apply to other types of publications, such as magazines and newspapers. Absent a broad, fair-to-all approach; some ill-intended person could publish an unregulated book by simply calling it a “newspaper.” To round out this beneficial exercise, copy machines and computer printers, as well as all forms of electronic or digital publishing, must be included within the regulatory mechanism since books may easily be produced through those platforms.

90% of People Surveyed Support Universal Book Background Checks

Certainly, the careful employees of government regulatory agencies will be able to set reasonable rules for what sorts of people should be licensed, under what conditions, to publish, distribute, sell and buy books and other kinds of publications, and engage in any other types of publishing or book consuming.

Close the Book Loophole

Such a modest regulation of books with reasonable government oversight will go a long way towards reducing the adverse outcomes too often associated with the currently unregulated book marketplace, where any sort of person may obtain any sort of book. After all, these books may be misused with disastrous consequences for our children, our families, our communities, and our Nation.

Simple Justification:

Note: For those readers who object that publishing and buying of books is protected activity under the First Amendment (although books are not actually mentioned there), be advised that the exact same scheme proposed above for books is currently applied to all firearms which are supposed to be protected under the Second Amendment (and ARE mentioned THERE). If the Second Amendment (“shall not be infringed”) may be undercut so severely, so may the First Amendment (“Congress shall make no law”).

The post A Modest Proposal: Sensible Regulation of Books appeared first on AmmoLand.com.