SaintPanzer
AH fanatic
- Joined
- Aug 18, 2021
- Messages
- 719
- Reaction score
- 2,288
- Location
- Somewhere west of Laramie
- Media
- 1
- Member of
- NRA Life Member; Mannlicher Collectors Association
- Hunted
- USA, Germany, Poland
OK, I'll play silly games.
I lived in Germany (near Stuttgart) for about 10 years, so here are just a few things:
I've moved a lot in my life. I may have had to get a new driver's license, but I never had to go to the local Rathaus to inform the government I've changed my address.
I've never worried about my neighbors informing on my personal opinions to the police.
I can make fun of government personalities/people.
I don't need a special license to affirm my training to do common things. For instance, I can buy raw wood from the local saw mill. The mill in Waldenbuch would not talk to me if I didn't have the appropriate license, and several others in the area were the same.
If I want to, I can target shoot in my back yard.
Guns have been mentioned. Yes, I had guns in Germany. But first I had to take a class to "justify" my need. Then I needed to assure the government I had the "proper" safe, the requirements of which changed three times in the years I was there. Then I had to accept that the Police could stop by my house any time and demand to see both my guns and my safe(s).
Then I started reloading, which required another license just to purchase the powder, and (you guessed it) another safe. And again, Police could stop by any time to check. And sales of that powder had to be logged.
If I wanted to buy a pistol, that was a different procedure. And I could only buy ammo for the pistol that was registered in my book... and if the government was slow in getting that book back to me? Well, not ammo for you until I got that book back.
Of course, if the guy in the store was not well informed, if you had a lever rifle in .357 mag, or .44 mag, or other "pistol" caliber, well, that got interesting because that pistol wasn't in your book.
Hunting was nice, because if you had a hunting license, it was assumed you needed a rifle. And you could have up to two pistols. That's it. If you wanted more, or if you just wanted to compete (target, pistol, trap shooting) that was a different license, much harder to get, and you needed to stay current (minimum number of documented shootings per year).
Of course there were all sorts of rules on carrying. And that's just the guns.
Where I've settled, I can do as I wish. I can carry my pocketknife in the city center without worrying about if I am in a "knife free zone". Stadtmitte in Stuttgart had rules about that. Here, if people want to protest Musk by painting a swastika on a sign, or call Trump a Nazi, they are not going to jail for that. In Germany, I saw a lot of militaria displays of antiques from the late Great Hate, but they all had something to "cover" parts of old uniforms, etc. because they had the wrong symbol. Hunting? In the US, my land, my hunt. I can hunt on my neighbors land if I simply ask him and he says OK. Public land? No problem. And when I harvest, I can keep the harvest, I don't have to pay for the right to keep the meat. And I'm not asking the Jagdpechter for permission to join his group of merry men.
Is the US perfect? No. But here is the difference: Other places in the world, the Government may promise you things like "free speech" or "free press" or some such. Here, they cannot promise me that, because the assumption is I have that, and we as a people have expressly forbidden the Government from making laws about that. The difference is whether you believe the Government grants rights, or if you limit the Government.
My biggest grip are all the people in the US who want to change things to give the government more authorities. That way lies madness. The Government big enough to give you anything you want can simply take away anything you need. Don't take my word for it. Just ask people who used to get free things from USAID.
