People, people people!!!

One match in the hands of an arsonist can be more deadly and cause more destruction than any handgun ever built. We are now losing the availability of strike anywhere matches because some lobbyist insisted that they were too easy to abuse, and some politician looking for ethereal votes stuffed it into a bill that no one at the time thought would cause anyone much of a problem.

There will always be two sides of the fence on this type issue. One side prefers regulation, the other accountability. Some things we deal with incorporate too much inherent risk, and need to be regulated, like fissile material. Most items that have been a part of our civilation on a personal level don't really require such regulation, except perhaps to generate tax revenues to pay for the costs of operating such items (cars are a good example). Regulation should only ever be applied as a result of inherent function, not as an implication of abuse. If we regulate based on the ability to abuse an item, well, that just doesn't make sense. Accountability is more appropriate for such an act, and it seems to make good case law sense. For instance, I can use Brand X lye to make my buffalo soap, or to open my drains, or to neutralize acid spills, if I am careful. Or I could use the lye to injure or kill someone. If I do the latter, then I should be held accountable, and the law makes that pretty clear. The problem is that not everyone who uses these things gets caught, and also that once the offensive act is perpetrated, there is no taking it back (well, usually that's the case). So well intentioned people think that if all lye were somehow not as available to the general public, then it's subsequent abuse would also diminish (nevermind the fact that lye can easily be extracted from wood ash). So guess what, lye is going to be harder to procure, just like high nitro fertilizer is, just like strike anywhere matches are, just like 4f blackpowder is. The end result; those who would abuse lye to bring harm to others or the environment will find something else to abuse in like manner.

If we keep heading down this path, eventually everything will be regulated, and you will have to have a permit and pay a fee to fill your tank with gasoline, provided your tank has less than a 20 gallon capacity (regulation limit, any more than that could be used to make a certain size bomb or some such nonsense).

While I don't like the prospect of people walking around with a source in their briefcase, just how much regulation will be enough?