Re: The war on terror isn\'t limited to abroad
Well, Chengiz, we would certainly have to disagree on this point. Just because someone has the stuff to make drugs or explosives is certainly no reason to send that person to jail. I'm sure that there are those that would disagree with me though or else the laws wouldn't be stacked the way they are.
As for your above example, you would almost certainly be carting me off to jail because I most likely have all of those things around here and in probably near those above mention quantities, and I am certainly no drug dealer! For the government to say that I am one, just because I have the potential to be one is ludicrous and a miscarriage of justice.
I have the potential to build a high explosive out of fertilizer and hand soap that could blow up most anything, and I, as well as most of the people here have the materials to do so. So far as having the knowledge to do so goes, that could be argued to death in a court room because you can never in a million years prove what you do or do not know, but you can sure be railroaded by a slick prosecuting attorney.
Don't get me wrong, I am all for arresting criminals that cause great harm to society through their immoral acts, but I also believe in a justice system where you actually *wait* for the criminal to commit the crime instead of only considering doing it, or even planning to do it. We are headed for a very slippery slope when you start throwing people in jail for what they *might* do or what they are likely to do.
By the same logic as given above, since I own a gun, it could easily be argued that I intend to use it to murder someone, and so the government had better be a good big brother/father and take that nasty and dangerous tool of mass destruction away from me. I, as only a lowly citizen, could never be trusted with a weapon that could easily be used to kill hundreds or even thousands of people.
As an example, if I do have possession of high explosives, it doesn't necessarily mean that I intend to go and blow up a federal building, I could just as easily intend to go blow up some tree stumps on the farm. Nobody can read my mind nor my intent nor anyone else's.
Chengiz, I don't blame you for doing your job that you are paid to do, but I do blame our idiotic law makers that take away more and more of our freedoms each and every year and treats it's citizens as little children that can't be allowed to own or posses anything that is even remotely dangerous, because of what they just *might* do with it.
If things keep up like they are now, it won't be another generation or two till this country is run like a police state and our every move and purchase is monitored and weighed by those people that are searching for those who just *might* commit a crime with the items that they posses. I'm sure that there are many out there that will disagree with this viewpoint, but this is a very scary and sad future to me, and a very likely one if things continue as they are presently...